A night at the Los Angeles Zoo

I recently signed up to be a co-leader of Tessa's 3rd grade brownie troop. This is a group of 15 very sweet little girls. The troop is in its third year and my role is to get us ready to go camping in tents. Getting to know the great outdoors is a core value of scouting so we're going to be doing that whether the girls like it or not.

We have a plan in place to gradually reach the tent camping goal. Last spring we made a two-night trip to LazyJ Ranch in Santa Monica (sadly we just learned that place is closing). Our brownies were just 2nd graders so all the moms except two came along to make sure the girls behaved and that no one would be homesick. This past weekend we stayed over one night at the LA Zoo. We had fourteen girls and just three moms. And the girls were just great. Not a one complained about her mom not being there, and they independently packed up their sleeping bags and duffles in the morning without even being told. And they schlepped their stuff without a complaint (well maybe Tessa complained a little). There was only one teeny bit of drama because one group of girls didn't leave space for another girl's sleeping bag on the floor, but we were able to resolve that very easily with our "let's include everyone speech." Below is a picture of our troop leader Cathy surveying the sleeping arrangements with satisfaction.

As mentioned, I have set myself up as the camping expert who is going to lead the troop on the outdoor voyage of discovery. So the first thing I did to establish the respect of everyone was leave my sleeping bag and pillow at home. It was all packed and ready by the door, and I simply didn't put it in the trunk. Brilliant! I did however, pack an extra blanket for Tessa so I swiped that from her when we arrived and made a makeshift pillow out of some clothes. I had brought my Aerobed and I figured with the blanket, the makeshift pillow and the Aerobed, I was still going to be getting a pretty good night's sleep. But I wasn't counting on the itty-bitty leak that had developed in the Aerobed. As I was drifting off to sleep at around 11 p.m. (yes, our delightful girls actually all quieted down and went to sleep as soon as lights were out) I did notice that the mattress was not quite as firm as when I first inflated it, but I figured I was just imagining things. I awoke at 2:30 a.m. to the realization that my mattress was half-deflated. But I calculated at the rate it was deflating I would still be somewhat aloft by morning. After that I woke up about every 45 minutes and by 5:00 a.m. I was lying flat on the cold cement floor and that was the end of any further sleep. After this, I'm not sure whether I should trusted to supervise the setting up of tents and attaching of propane tanks.

The zoo sleepover itself was somewhat lame. I chaperoned Rachel and Hannah's NJ troop when they went to a similar sleepover at the Philadelphia Zoo and it was much more educational because it was a backstage tour where we went into the nighttime quarters of the animals and the keepers demonstrated how they are cared for. At the LA Zoo we just walked around to the same exhibits you would see in the daytime, except that they were in darkness and many of the animals had been put inside. Tessa's comment was, "you can see the animals better in the daytime" and I had to agree. But the girls gave the event a 10 out of 10 because they love being together for sleepovers no matter where it is. Hopefully they will feel the same when they are in a cold tent and it is raining outside!

This next photo is of Tessa's friends, Eden and Catrina:


and here Tessa with Layla and Mallika.


This is my best animal shot -- the problem with taking photos in the dark with a LED screen is that you can't see a thing! This might have been a decent picture if the camera had been pointed just a bit lower.