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Stroller shopping at the zoo

If you want to know what stroller your family should buy, go to the zoo.

We forgot it was Spring Break yesterday. It was a beautiful day and there were very few spaces left in the parking lot. It's a huge zoo so it wasn't as bad as the busy days when I worked at the museum when you'd stand shoulder-to-shoulder with other visitors for a 20 min walk down the hallway from exhibit to exhibit. But it was still pretty bad. We decided our day was over in the end when the line of people snaking through the new bears exhibit stretched as far as we could see ahead...without an easy turnaround we didn't have the heart to go in.

And Cole is especially manic about the zoo. He loves to get out and walk, he wants to climb in the pen with the giraffes, he wants to see the ends of buildings then backtrack against the tide of visitors to the beginning. It's just easier to go on a dead day.

Oh, and I swear I need to invent a zoo stroller (zooler? zoller?) that allows kids to be jacked up higher to see over animal fences.

One benefit of being around so many families, however, was the chance to checkout everybody else's ride. We have a Baby Jogger City Mini & a FIT. Love them both. They fold with one hand. They're sturdy. They offer options. But $400 for a double stroller isn't in the budget currently. Unless I win the Mega Millions jackpot tomorrow night.

We've been leaning now towards the Baby Trend Sit n Stand. They're fairly inexpensive, you see them every other family with 2 kids, it's flexible and seems like easy-in-easy-out for a toddler like Cole.

Kelly finally stopped a family on our way out to ask about it. We've been stopped on the way in before about our Beco Baby Carrier so fair is fair.

If one of these companies got a smart marketing team together they'd have a stand at every zoo in the nation on a busy day and give demos. It's your target demographic. Give some of your profits to wildlife conservation, give away a stroller, and offer coupons for a discount.

You're welcome, stroller companies. If you use this idea I expect a cut.