Grand Time at Granby Zoo

While the minivan round trip was a zoo of one variety, le Zoo Granby (as the French say) was a delight! First of all, it's a manageable size, featuring animals from just two continents. We walked the Africa loop and saw most of the South America loop from the overhead train. The shady trails are punctuated by little kid points of interest—like crashed Cessnas and abandoned safari jeeps to climb on—so the boys had something fun to do when the sight of genuflecting giraffes at the waterhole or enormous elephants scratching their rumps on trees became passé. Even better, the grounds include a petting zoo, a small amusement park, a picnic area with playstructure and a big waterpark, so we could really mix up the entertainment over the two days. The boys all had a blast, though each of them named different highlights.

Charlie loved the hippos, the "jungle training zone" indoor maze and bouncy jumpers (our boys had the run of the place on their own); James loved the bat cave at feeding time, the ferris wheel, and talking about how much he wished he could ride the Anaconda rollercoaster; Carter loved the shark tank, the helicopter ride and the water slides; and Sam loved the zebras, the playground and hand-feeding the goats. They all got a kick out of popping up inside the in-pen plexiglass bubbles that offered an up close and personal view of the merkats and fishing cats. They also got a pretty good look at a massive gorilla slouched nonchalantly in the bed of a pick-up truck made to look as though it'd half-smashed through the enclosure: the boys scrambled into the cab, pressing their noses to the glass like little apes themselves. It was fun to watch them chart their progress through the park on the zoo map, to choose the places they still wanted to visit.

And we did try to create the sense of freedom where we could. Did they want to roll down the hill in their towels after lunch? Go ahead: try not to steamroll anyone's picnic. Did they want to ride the ferris wheel again? Why not? The line up is short. We tucked big snack bags into everyone's backpack and gave them free reign to manage them. Cheesies at 10:30 a.m.? It's your call. We stopped to watch the dozing flamingos because somehow they grabbed attention but passed right by the playful ring-tailed lemurs because somehow they didn't. We stopped for ice cream, we played fair games (Carter won a stuffed animal with a dart throw), we got giant lion-head souvenir cups, we let them have as much gum as they wanted. Zoo weekends seem the right time to let the world revolve around little boys, to keep the rules to a minimim. They thoroughly enjoyed it.