We went to see Hapa last night.
Well, sort of.
Err, not really.
Let me start over.
We planned to go and see Hapa last night. Alas, it was not to be.
It all started out quite well. Kev got home early, we fed the kids, loaded them into the car and then headed for the zoo where Hapa was playing on the green at 7pm. Unfortuntely, everyone and their dog was trying to drive up I-5 and we sat and sat and sat in traffic. We finally pulled off and hit the back roads and managed to reach the zoo around 6:30. Our first clue that things were going horribly astray was when we rounded the corner and saw the parking lot. Actually, we couldn’t see the lot at all, just line after line of circling cars. At this point, Kulia decided she had enough and began screaming so Kevin pulled over and let me out. I was to take the girls and find a place to sit; he would find a place to park.
In our defense, we were rather flustered due to the screaming and mobs and we neglected to figure out how, exactly, we would find eachother. Minor details really.
So I took the stroller, girls, blankets and food into the zoo. We followed the hords and hords of families to the green and there I pretty much passed out. It was crowded. Packed. Wall to wall people. There were people sitting in trees. People sitting in the dirt under trees. People sitting up against the bathroom doors. I have never seen so many people crammed into one space in my life. It made LAX at Christmas time seem like a stroll in the park. So here I am, luggling my kids and stuff looking for any place to sit and if just ain’t happening. There wasn’t even a place to stand, let alone sit, so I turned us around and tried to get us out of this mosh pit when it hit me.
Kevin was here- somewhere.
Right about now, I started to panic. The kids were cranky and we were lost in a sea of humanity. There was no way I was going to find Kevin among the hundreds and hundreds of people and there was no way he could find me. So I positioned myself near a funnel spot and began scanning.
6:45.
6:50.
7:00.
7:10. The music starts. The crowds taper off a bit but still no sign of Kevin. Somehow, we must have missed eachother. I don’t have a phone to reach him. All I have to two small children running around in a giant crowd. Panic begins to turn to horror when I see him.
It’s Josh! Good old tall Josh wanders by with Kat a head above the crowd. We were suppose to meet up with them but I had given up hope once I saw the chaos. They had a phone and were in touch with Kevin. Turns out by the time Kev parked the car, they were sold out of tickets and had closed the gates to the zoo. He was sitting out front, wondering how in the world to contact me. Luckily, I had a ticket for him so Josh went to rescue him and we bailed on Hapa. Instead, we decided to get ice cream and see the animals.
Most of the animal exhibits were closed but that didn’t stop Leina and Kulia from running around and having a ball. Leina latched onto Josh as usual. She adores “Joshie” and spent most of the night yelling, “come on josh! Lets have an adventure!” Josh was more than happy to run from one empty enclosure to another with her. The only close call was when Leina realized that the Lorikeet exhibit was closed. Feeding the birds is her calling and when she was denied her birds, she began crying hysterically and clawing at her face. She was beyond destraught. Luckily, the tigers were up and about since it was dusk and minor emergency was diverted.
I must say we had such fun just wandering around an empty zoo with Kat and Josh. Everyone was sardined in for the concert so we could roam at our leasure. The big cats were up and awake and we got to see an elephant penis. That was truely amazing. I though it was a fifth leg until I took a closer look. Josh refused to take a picture so I have to visual for you. I though it was a Kodak moment but Josh stuck with leaves and flowers and mundane things like that.
So we never actually saw Hapa but that’s ok. We had our own little adventure to remember which is what we really wanted in the first place.