The Active Family

Today I took my 3 kiddos to the Roger Williams Park & Zoo in Providence RI. It’s a great little zoo, lots of different animals to see. It is compact, and smaller than other zoos I’ve been to, but it fills a day, and you don’t miss anything! 

The kids had a blast. My youngest was absolutely fascinated by the giant anteater, of all things! He pitched a fit when we tried to leave to see other animals. It was really quite cute. The older two were more intrigued by the cheetahs and snow leopard.

There was quite a bit of contruction going on, but we weren’t terribly distracted by it. The only thing we noticed was that the elephants were located in a rear lot, and you couldn’t get close to them at all, but it’s okay because the construction is going to make a much larger area for them to live. There is also going to be a new area pertaining to North America wildlife, which will be nice to see when we return.

I have to extoll the virtues of membership for a moment. I’m not a member of RWPZ, but rather a member of the Boston Museum of Science, which happens to be a member of the National Zoo and Aquarium Association. What that means is for the low membership price to the MoS, I also get reciprocity benefits to various zoos and aquariums around the country! So today I brought my MoS membership and we entered the zoo for free! Not bad considering the membership has already paid for itself once, and it is well on it’s way to doing it again. I highly recommend you look into various memberships in your area, as you can usually find one or two with this reciprocity benefit attached.

I got an excellant workout in today as well. The park was pretty crowded, as it is April School Vacation here in Ma, and it also hit 85! Since my daughter is still feeling the after effects of her recent illness, I decided to take the sit and stand stroller for her and the baby. That puppy is heavy!!! I was pushing that sucker up and down slopes all afternoon. It doesn’t have the best steering, so my arms were burning by the time we were done, and I made sure to keep my abs tightened as much as possible to work my core. I wasn’t whizzing around the joint, but I still got my heartrate up a bit! Of course, I probably blew it all at lunch, as I had a veggie burger and fries. And then of course I had to treat the kids to icecream!

Whatever, Pilates class tomorrow and I’m counting on the instructor to whip my butt!