We spent the day at the Henry Doorly Zoo enjoying the animals, the aquarium, the insectarium, and the dinosaurs! It was such a fun day and we all had a great time. We started the day wandering through the Desert Dome with the desert animals. We followed that up with a trip through the big cat exhibit. They had five lion cubs that were adorable and one of the most beautiful tigers. As always, the kids were amused that the big cats act a whole lot like our little Newman cat. They sleep and sleep and sleep some more.
Upon arrival at the bear exhibit, we discovered one of the Sun Bears standing up on a big tree looking over the fence. He was literally eye to eye with us. We soon discovered that it was snack time and he was somewhat patiently waiting for the zookeeper. As soon as the Sun Bear saw her, he was up and ready! She was throwing him apples and other fruit and he was catching them in his mouth. What a fun thing to see.
We took a break to eat some lunch and discovered an eating area that was next to the “Prehistoric Play Park” complete with statues of prehistoric animals. The kids took turns sitting on each one and yelling for me to take their pictures. I finally managed to get them to sit on the *same* statue at the *same* time!
While walking to another exhibit after lunch, we happened upon this big guy. Our kids love peacocks and were fascinated that this one was perched on the fence. They really are beautiful birds.
Next up, we visited a special, short-term exhibit: “Dinosaurs Alive: The Lost Valley.” John loves dinosaurs, but was slightly afraid of ones that looked real and also made noise. He was brave though and we made it through the entire exhibit. Like most kids, the Tyrannosaurus Rex was a favorite.
Our last major exhibit was the aquarium and what a neat place it was. While relatively small, it was very impressive with the amount of fish, etc. One of my favorites is the jellyfish and I was fortunate to snap this beauty.
We all very much enjoyed the Henry Doorly Zoo and I am glad we stopped to see it! While I would not say that it was better than the St. Louis Zoo, it was certainly equally as good. As you can imagine, we were all tired after 7+ hours at the zoo, so we headed back to the hotel for some pool time and dinner. Are you wondering yet what the “A Surprise” part of the title of the post is yet? Well, John decided out of the blue to actually really swim! By the end of our pool time, he was swimming a good 5-6 feet at a time. Yay swim lessons! Andy and I were thrilled and I could not stop watching him. It’s always exciting when your child finally figures something out.
We wrapped up the evening with a spaghetti dinner in our hotel room and then early bed. On to Rapid City, South Dakota, tomorrow!