I’m old. No two ways about it now.

This uncomfortable truth refused all arguments as I followed my teenage son through the St. Louis Zoo today.

I did okay the first hour. I’m not that out of shape. The last two-thirds, though, my feet complained more with each step. Thankfully benches were placed fairly often along the trails, and I took full advantage of almost every single one. Even some boulders when no bench was close enough.

It’s a nice zoo with winding trails, plenty of trees, and interesting plants, and a good variety of exhibits. While Tom expected it to be bigger, I thanked God every five minutes (or was it every five seconds?) it wasn’t.

The only real disappointment was how so many animals hid away from the heat and humidity. Many of the outside exhibits appeared empty, or the animals were splayed out in the shade napping. Not that I blame them. Quite the contrary. I was a bit jealous I couldn’t join them.

Both Tom’s and my favorite was the stingray exhibit. It was a shallow pool where you can put your hand in the water, and as the stingrays swim by, you let your hand drag along their back. They were quite tame and seemed to enjoy the attention. We spent easily 20 minutes there (for which my feet were muchly grateful), more than any other exhibit.

Another good thing about the zoo was how many water fountains were placed along the trails. With temperatures in the 90s, sunny, calm, and plenty of humidity, I bet I drank over 50 oz of water.

We were there for a total of five hours and managed to walk through the entire zoo. Go me. The only exhibits we didn’t see were the butterfly and snake exhibits (the snakes were on the second floor of the reptile building, and I mentally said, “Nope!” when I saw the stairs).

My second favorite part of the day was returning to our hotel room so I could take a shower and finally get off my poor old feet.