The Peine Family: Overnight at the Zoo with Girl Scouts

Rosemary’s Girl Scout troop sold a lot of cookies this year so they were able to go on a pretty amazing end of the year trip. Her leader organized an overnight trip to the Jacksonville Zoo. All but one of the girls was able to make it. I chaperoned along with four other moms.

It was pouring rain for most of the drive and for most of the night, but the zoo staff did an excellent job keep the girls interested.

When we arrived, we had a quick pizza dinner then Sammy brought out a screech owl for the girls to see.

Then we all got our ponchos on for our nighttime behind-the-scenes zoo tour.

We all wore glow necklaces (so helpful in the rain and dark) and walked in straight lines as we made our way through the park.

They tried to get us inside when they could and showed the girls lots of animals up close. Here they are checking out a bearded dragon.

Next, they brought out a python for the girls to hold.

Yes, that’s right. A PYTHON!!! My heart started racing as soon as it came out of that room. (Even looking at these pictures I can feel my pulse quickening).

Such brave girls.

Then they let the moms hold the snake.

I have a huge fear of snakes. Little ones terrify me, but by God’s grace I managed to do this. I guess you just sometimes have to face your fears. I think you can tell from my expression just how terrified I am.

Not a small snake by any means. I was certain it would haunt my dreams that night. In reality, there was no concern for that since I don’t know that I slept at all, but I have had a dream about this snake slithering around in our backyard in the weeks since. No lie.

After that, we headed outside and saw the goats.

From there we spent a good chunk of time navigating muddy puddles and walking around the perimeter of the zoo, sometimes along the train track. We caught a glimpse of a black panther, a cheetah, and a giraffe. Then they took us to the African snake house (can anyone who has read Harry Potter go into a snake house and not think of what happens in book 1?) and told us (among other interesting facts) a story about how the green mamba had gotten out of its terrarium once. Very comforting.

We got back to where we were staying a little after 10pm, well past these girls’ bedtime. They changed into their pajamas, got their beds ready and watched some of the Jungle Book. Rosemary had a hard time sleeping too, but I knew it was only one night so we could survive that.

The next morning, Sammy got everyone up at 6:30 to get ready for the day.

The girls saw a chinchilla.

Then we headed over to feed the stingrays. A couple of the round ones were really aggressive, but the more square shaped ones were okay to feed. It felt really weird to feed a stingray! Rosemary tried but as they came near she would pull her hand out. I can’t blame her. Seeing how the rounded ones acted, it was a bit intimidating.