Lesa and I decided to take the kids to the zoo today.

It was cloudy and relatively cool (below 100) so we decided to walk the 12 – 15 blocks to the zoo, wander around for a while, eat lunch, and then walk back. We figured the worst thing that could happen was that we could be rained on.

Turns out there were worse things than rain, waiting for us at the Denver Zoo.

I was hot a few minutes into our zoo experience, so I ordered a mango smoothie from the Zoo cafe. It was sweet and cold, and Otter really liked it. So much so that I decided to pour a little into a small cup with a lid and a straw, and let him drink it on his own.

This, as it turned out, was a mistake.

We wandered into the rain-forest habitat, and left the drinks in the stroller. Then we wandered around toward the train for a ride around the zoo. We found the hippo enclave on the way and meandered over to see these cute and fierce beasts. I pushed Otter’s strolled up to the fence and watched him lean forward and “oooh” at the hippos.

Then to my horror I saw three bees fly into the stroller and onto my baby.

I slowly lifted the sun shade and looked at Otter. A bee crawled up under his neck. I looked closer and discovered his shirt was completely covered in the mango smoothie. He had managed to dump the entire contents of his drink onto his shirt.

Apparently the bees at the Zoo LOVE mango smoothie, in fact, it appears to be bee ambrosia. It may possibly contain bee pheromones. Whatever is in this drink, it turns bees into single minded sugar hunting strike teams of baby doom. That is, if your baby happens to be wearing this smoothie.

After a few terrifying moments of indecision I managed to get the bee off of him and quickly pulled the shirt off his head. I grabbed my water bottle and dumped it onto him, then wiped down his chest and tummy with a few baby wipes. I kept having to move the stroller around while cleaning him off as bees kept showing up to investigate the mango mess. Then I went looking for somewhere to wash his shirt off so I could put it back on and we could continue with our zoo visit. Everywhere I stopped the stroller, we were covered in bees. Every single time I slowed down, bees started following us. Bee would be flying around in the opposite direction and then suddenly reverse and head our way as soon as we passed by. I ended up leaving his shirt at the carousel, because when I set it down several bees swarmed it and began to feed on mango smoothie residue.

Needless to say, we ended up leaving the zoo, my shirtless baby asleep in his sticky stroller, chased by bees all the way.