Elephant Walk 2010

The girls and I decided to brave the cool afternoon to go see the elephant walk in downtown Columbia today. The circus is coming to town, and every year they parade the elephants and other animals from the train to the local coliseum. It's a free event, and I thought it would be fun for SB. We had never been before, and I knew from talking with other moms that the time was subject to change (you know those clowns, they're never on time). So, I checked the official 'elephant walk' website all morning, and got SB down for an early nap so she'd be nice and refreshed for our trip.

After she'd been asleep for about 36.5 minutes, I checked the website, and discovered they'd moved the walk up by an entire hour. So, I started scrambling around to get everything ready (bottle for AM? snack for SB? coats for everyone?), then I woke SB at the last possible second so we could get there on time.

We made it downtown, found a spot to park (a miracle in itself!), and lined up to wait. Then we waited, and we waited, and we waited. And then we waited a little more! Officials from the arena kept coming out to let us know the train had arrived, and the elephants were due to walk any minute. Ok, maybe in another 15 minutes. Ok, maybe in another 45 minutes. And they assured us (there were many people waiting by then) there would be elephants and zebras and horses and clowns (you know, circus stuff). Finally, after waiting 2.5 hours, I saw the flashing blue lights of the police escort. Yeah!! Then, the elephants marched past (there were 11 of them - we counted). Whoo Hoo! Then, the horses walked past (there were 7 of them - we counted). Then, the . . . wait, where were the zebras? Where were the clowns? Apparently not here. Oh well. So after the big wait, we were a little disappointed. Well, let me clarify. I suppose I was a bit disappointed. SB had no idea what to expect, so she loved it! I was the one who was let down after all that waiting. Do those circus people know how difficult it is to entertain a 2 1/2 year old and an 8 month old in a stroller for 2 1/2 hours???????

In conclusion, I'm still a little worn out from our excursion today, and I'm sure next year I'll be all fired up and ready to go again, but right now, I'm just not sure it was worth the three hour trip to see 11 elephants and 7 horses for about 3 minutes. I'm hoping SB talks and talks and talks about it all this week, then I'll know it made an impression on her. I might be really bitter about the whole experience, except for the fact that we get to go to the circus later this week (I'm sure I'll have pictures to post about that!). So, I'll resolve to be thankful, and appreciate the outside time I had with my two girls this afternoon on our fun adventure.

Oh, and I'm going to post every good picture I took today!