Day at the Zoo

Saturday we spent the day at the zoo. Surprisingly it wasn't too crowded. With the nice run of weather and school being back in session we figured there would be some pent up demand.
We were happy to see that the hippo exhibit was open. Last time we were here it was closed due to cracks in the aquarium. I could see why the zoo management would want to avoid a few thousand gallons of water and a hippo greeting their guests first hand.

A quick ride on the train and some lunch and before we knew it we were looking at some penguins. It was a pretty warm day outside and walking into a fake penguin habitat at 40 degrees was quite the shock. Mom and I enjoyed the weather however Alyce did not. I held Alyce close to save some body heat and we managed to see all of the penguins and puffins hang out on shore and swim in their tanks. Penguins are pretty cool. They look so clumsy on land yet fly like fighter jets when in the water.

After the penguins I took the kids for a ride on the carousel and after that we needed to leave. We had to leave  early because nap time was fast approaching and we still needed to see GiGi; she's at the hospital. Alyce was not too happy about this because she wanted to see the giraffes and we hadn't gone past the giraffe enclosure. It didn't help that the giraffe area was on the opposite side of the zoo, up a hill, and the point farthest from our car. She whined for a bit but gave up before we got to the car. She was dragging pretty bad on the walk back and I had to carry her about half the time.

It was a good day even if the kids were a bit whiny at times. The zoo is always a blast and with free admission you can't go wrong. Being a zoo friends member is also a boon. Free parking and train rides make the trip even easier.

Trip to the Zoo

Yesterday the family took a trip to the zoo. We wanted to go last Friday but got rained out. The weather today was spectacular.

After lunch we visited the new stingray exhibit. Alyce never touched the stingrays but I think she enjoyed looking at them and watching me feed them. The exhibit was cool I'm glad that we were zoo friends so we could get in for a discount.

After the stingrays we took Alyce over to the sea lion tank for their afternoon feeding. While waiting for the zookeeper to arrive Alyce was busy watching a peacock that had free run of the place. We also took at look at the black tailed prairie dogs. They are great animals for kids. They move around quite a bit, play, and eat lots of stuff.


Following the sea lions we took Alyce to the reptile house. I was really surprised at how much she liked the snakes and lizards. There were lots of turtles too. I'm guessing that she is too young to find snakes icky.

After the reptiles we stopped off for some ice cream and Mom took Alyce for a ride on the carousel.

We had lots of fun at the zoo. Alyce behaved herself even though she didn't get her usual nap. She is getting to the point where she can miss the occasional nap and still keep it together.

Trip to the Zoo

On Saturday the weather was going to be great so we decided we would go to the zoo. Mom, Alyce, Grams, Pa Pa and myself. Everyone else probably had the same idea as the zoo was very crowded for early March.


The first thing we did was go to the Children's zoo. This was Alyce's first trip to this part of the zoo. Typically admission is $4 a person and in the past we figured she was too small to appreciate petting all of the cute animals. Now that Alyce is older and we are zoo friends thanks to a great gift from Grandma we all got into the Children's zoo for free. The first thing we experienced was to pet all of the goats. I'm not sure what type of goats they were but they were very docile and handled all of the kids pulling and grabbing without any complaining and they were not very big either. Alyce at first was a little afraid of the goats and refused to pet them.apprehensive to petting the goats. I think they were new to her and she wanted to sit back and watch them for a few minutes before approaching. After watching the other kids pet them for a few minutes Alyce decided to join in on the fun. Once she petted her first goat she was a big fan and started petting and brushing each and every one. Alyce liked to use the brush on the goats more so than petting them. She would walk over pick up a brush, brush a goat, and then put the brush back. She repeated this cycle over and over again. With the goat area being closed off and Grams and Pa Pa in attendance I even got a few minutes to relax with a goat.


After the goats we took Alyce to the indoor section of the children's zoo and she got to see a couple of fish tanks, some turtles, a meer kat family, and a tarantula. I liked the meer kats the most and Alyce liked the fish. There was also a toy truck to sit in that Alyce shared with another boy. Once he got out of the truck Alyce moved into the the driver position.

After the children's zoo we ate lunch at the cafe in the center of the zoo. Everyone else had the same idea as the food court area was packed. It didn't take too terribly long to get our food and with our zoo friends discount is was fairly reasonable.

Following lunch we walked up the big hill at the zoo to the Big Cat Country. We saw all of the big kitties and meows. Alyce eventually called some of the tigers "tigers" after a bit of coaxing. The cats weren't terribly exciting as they were doing what cats do; sit around and sleep all day. After the big cats we walked over to the African area and looked at some zebras, giraffes, a camel, and some kangaroos (yes I know there aren't any kangaroos in Africa). Alyce was the most enthralled with the giraffes and the camel.

These were the last animals we got to view. We had to get Alyce home for a nap and Mommy needed to rest. We had a great time and Alyce really seemed to get what she was looking at. She would smile, point, and her eyes would light up when looking at each new animal. I wish you could bottle up the excitement and save it for later in life.

A Trip to the Zoo

On Friday July 4th we invited my brother Tom, his wife Mary, their son Jack, and Grandma to come along with us for a nice day at the Zoo. The weather was great and Alyce and Jack were both in good spirits. Of all of the animals we viewed the Hippos, Elephants, and Penguins were the big hits. They all tend to move around a lot and their habitats are easily viewable from a stroller. Alyce is starting to get to the age where tooling around on the stroller only lasts for so long before she starts asking to get "down" and pointing at her stroller belt buckle. As long as we keep moving and she has a juice box we don't hear too many complaints. Sadly we did have to leave before the rest of our party because we had to get Alyce home for a nap. We had a Independence Day party planned for later that night and we wanted Alyce to have as much sleep as possible. She was going to be staying up past her bedtime for the second night in a row at this point.