Was the zoo always this small?

We took a trip to the zoo yesterday. I think in the days leading up to it I was more excited than my kids were. I was anxious to see the look on their faces as we walked to each animal habitat and honestly I haven't been there since I was a child so I to couldn't wait to see the animals. The day started off early. It involved alot of bowls of cereal clean outfits and finding a match to a shoe. I began to have flashes of home alone. What if in the chaos of getting all the kids ready and loaded into the car we forgot one. So started the repeated counting of children. My baby went with my in laws for the day. As much as I love her I could not imagine taking such a small child amongst the older ones for a three hour drive one way and a six hour walk through the zoo. She wouldn't have remembered it anyways.

My sister finally arrived as we were loading seven kids in the tahoe. After dropping her baby off at the sitter we were on our way. We didn't map quest or google the directions. After all we were born and raised there so even if we missed a turn we should of been able to navigate our way. Not to mention there would be signs? Yea by signs I mean two. There was one right off the exit and one at the zoo. Needless to say we were lost in the heart of the ghetto. First sign you are lost in the ghetto is when you drive past the sickle cell society. We were not stopping for directions. If it had just been me I would have had no problem but with eleven kids I wasn't about to stop and possibly run into a problem. So we kept driving til we got somewhere that looked slightly less run down and googled and tom tom'd for directions. After our fifteen minute detour we arrived at the zoo just as the gates opened. The process of herding eleven kids a stroller and our cooler had started. We looked like a small school or possibly a day care. Which gave me the great idea of the buddy system. Yep we all had a buddy. It was just another thing for my sister and I to yell "GET YOUR BUDDY." The kids all held up pretty good only a few minor melt downs. That was our cue to serve lunch so we took over two picnic tables just outside of the aquarium and passed out the pre packed bagged lunches. Hey with fourteen people it was way cheaper and easier to pack. This to also added to the small school look of our group. It was funny to hear people through out the day tell their two kids to move over cause there was a big group coming. What was not fun to hear was my kids ask me what was on the monkey. I had no answer I just laughed and walked away. Thankfully they quickly forgot about it cause I wasn't about to have "THE TALK" in the middle of the troical rain forest exhibit. We went to every animal exhibit and took pictures and read fun facts. Before I knew it we were back at the gates. It had taken us gour hours from start to finish. To my kids this seemed like all day. To me it went fast. I thought for sure we would be there for the full six hours and even with all that time I had been worried we wouldn't see everything. Maybe the zoo wasn't smaller I was just older and the excitment of the animals was not as big as I had remembered. I am sure when my kids are older and with children of their own they to may have the same question "Was the zoo always this small?"