A Day at the Zoo

Well, Zack has been wanting to visit Grandma & Grandpa’s (like they own it) zoo for a long time. We haven’t had time the last few times we’ve come through, but Grandma told him we would try our best to find time to visit the Omaha Zoo on our way back north. 

 

So we spent over four hours there yesterday, and I have you know if it wasn’t for me (and my back), Grandma too, I think we would have spent more time there.  The first two hours we spent visiting the jungle/rainforest, the butterflies/insects, and the aquarium.  After we walked down and saw the giraffes and the zebras we decided to get some ice cream and water and take a little rest.  After our break, we visited the desert and the nocturnal animals. 

The Lied Jungle

The jungle/rainforest is always neat to see.  No matter how many times we’ve been there we seem to always see something different.  Unfortunately some of the animals had been moved to Expedition Madagascar which wasn’t opened yet. 

 

The Butterfly & Insect Pavilion

We were excited to see the inside of the pavilion; however, I recall how Zack kept dodging the butterflies at the pavilion we visited a couple of summers ago in Canada at Niagara Falls.  Sure enough, he was dodging them here too.  I tried, again, to explain to him that they will not hurt him, but he was still anxious to get out of there.

In the insect area they had your spiders, beetles, and lots of different mantises.  It took us a while to find this one – it is a ghost mantis – he looks like a dried up/dead leaf.

This one I had to take a picture of for Mackenzie – it is a violin mantis.

 

The Scott Aquarium

We love going into the aquarium – the first thing we get to see are the penguins. 

Of course, the kids wanted to find Nemo . . .

and Dori.

After we were through at the aquarium, we walked around and saw some okapi, gazelles, giraffes, and zebras. 

Walking around . . .

Talk about true cohabitation, in the giraffe complex there were your obvious giraffes, but then there were black footed penguins, ostriches, and ducks. 

After walking around a little we decided to take a break and have ice cream, a personal pizza, chips, and water.  Once we were rested, we headed over to the Desert Dome and saw so many different desert animals and then we made sure to make a stop down in the Kingdoms of the night and saw the nocturnal animals.  The kids got to see one of their favorite animals at this zoo – the albino alligator. 

 

We had a great day at the zoo.  Thanks for taking us Grandma Linda.