Today we drove to Bakersfield to go to the zoo! Or, more specifically, the California Living Museum, which displays animals that are native to California and have been "rescued" -- injured or otherwise unable to live in the wild. I first heard about this little zoo a year ago from a woman who worked at the Ridgecrest library. Last month she turned up at the tortoise club meeting and asked me if we'd taken the twins there yet. Then she mailed me a coupon for $1 off the admission price. Enough already: we decided to go.
It's 109 miles from our house to the zoo and we made it in less than 2 hours. The zoo is just north of Bakersfield proper, kind of out in the middle of nowhere. It must be horribly hot in the summer, but today it was delightful -- just warm enough to skip the coats.
We had decided not to bring a stroller, figuring we could control the twins using their little backpack leashes. This turned out to be only somewhat true.
To enter the zoo, you walk through the gift shop, which sells mainly toy animals -- plastic, stuffed, etc. The babies began to exclaim and grab, but we hurried them through. I should note that they looked adorable today: red and yellow t-shirts, blue backpack leashes, green and tan sun hats. Everyone we passed noticed them. This proved useful later.
First stop was the reptile house ("reptile" loosely defined): lizards, toads, a tarantula, a bad by-du, and many many types of California snakes, most of which live right here in the Mojave desert. Last weekend when we were driving on the Garlock Road we saw two snakes; today, looking at the caged snakes, I was able to identify what we had seen. One was a king snake and I'm pretty sure the other was the deadly Mojave green rattlesnake. Lovely.
Next stop was the Desert Habitat: tortoises of course, but also an adorable and very friendly roadrunner. At the Children's Park we saw goats, bunnies, and a large male turkey. The bears in the bear exhibit were asleep, but the coyotes in the coyote exhibit were awake. At the Mammal Round I got so interested in the kit foxes and bobcats that I forgot to pay attention to the twins.
All of a sudden Rocket Boy said "where's Baby B?" We looked -- he was nowhere to be seen. We rushed out of the Round. The coyotes began to howl: for a terrible moment I thought Baby B had gotten into their exhibit and they were tearing him to pieces. But no. Here came a family we had seen earlier, and the large tattooed father was carrying Baby B! We fell on our bad boy with kisses and scoldings, thanking the family over and over for noticing him (those cute clothes!) and nabbing him.
We hurried through the next few exhibits, me holding Baby B's leash tightly, but as we left the raptor exhibit, he ran away from me. I didn't worry because he and I were headed for the zoo exit on two parallel paths. Baby A and Rocket Boy were maybe 50 feet behind him on his path.
Then Baby B's path went over a tiny bridge above a stream, and instead of crossing it, Baby B sat down on it, and then suddenly lowered himself into the water! RB and I both screamed and ran to snatch him out. He was soaked and filthy -- the water was muddy. And I hadn't brought any extra shoes and socks. I led him over to a grassy picnic area, pulling him on his leash instead of carrying him so I wouldn't get muddy, but I felt terrible because he was crying all the way. I stripped him down, wiped the mud off, and gave him a new diaper and new clothes. RB took his shoes and socks, washed them off in the restroom, and took them and him out to the car to dry off.
Baby A and I took our time walking back through the gift shop. They sold socks! So I bought some new clean ones for Baby B. Baby A also chose several toy animals which I obediently purchased (a mother whose son has just almost been lost AND drowned is not in her right mind). I would have bought several more but the woman at the counter said I could just give her whatever Baby A brought to me and she would put them back on the shelves later. So we came home with a frog, a skunk, and two tortoises, but not a squirrel, a horse, a bird, or a snake.
Eventually we pulled ourselves together and drove to old town Bakersfield where we had a delicious meal at a Basque restaurant called the Pyrenees Cafe. Baby B managed to cover himself with ravioli and meat sauce, necessitating yet another clothing change. And then we went to Trader Joe's and Radio Shack and then we drove all the way home to Ridgecrest, so very thankful that we were returning with TWO little boys, safe and sound.
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