Where we live now we have a couple of nice park like zoos within a half hour of our house. Although these make for a nice couple of hours out with the kids I by no means consider these "real zoos". The first time I visited I was shocked and terribly disappointed. I'm not sure how many times I asked my husband where the elephants were...or the penguins...or the aquarium. He laughed. I honestly thought all zoos were like the Cincinnati and Columbus zoos that I grew up around. I guess I was spoiled as a child and these zoos are some of the best, not the norm. So while spending time with Mom in Ohio, she, my sister in law, the kids, and I spent the day at "real zoo'! Here are some of the notable differences...
Real zoos have grand entrances...
Real zoos have petting zoos where you can actually touch and comb the animals...
Real zoos have really cute otters and other very cute squeezable animals I'm not including photos of because I had to edit a little.
Real zoos let you get up close and personal to above mentioned otters...
Real zoos have road maps with arrows pointing to different continents which is the one things it seems I did not photograph, but here is a picture of a beautiful waterfall in Asia...(and you thought I just went to Ohio!)
Amazing, Lily has the same annoyed look in Asia as she does in the US!
Real zoos have lots of large metal statue type animals just laying around for photo ops. They all did carry nice warning labels to let you know that they could scorch you on hot days.
Real zoos let you feel like you could jump right in...
Real zoos have food courts! Food courts I say! Air conditioned buildings where you can buy junk food for your family...it's simply amazing!
I'm not sure if the carousel adds to the "real zooness" but it was quite cool and it was free while we were there do to a broken ticket taker machine...whoo hooo
Real zoos take you right into the natural world of the furry critters...
Real zoos have elephants, but the pictures of the elephants I took were very bad, so here are some water elephants...
Or manatees, whatever you prefer. See my kids even learned things! I knew this info already as my grandma lived in Manatee Co. Florida and we used to watch these amazing creatures swim past her dock.Real zoos feed their animals so we can watch...
Real zoos have aquariums with little sharks and lots of brightly colored fish and coral reefs to amuse young and old alike!
Real zoos encourage vocabulary building with the constant use of our new favorite word,"FISH"!
Real zoos have cool touch pools where a three year old can manhandle poor unsuspecting starfish...
Real zoos have people who will use kind voices to repeatedly remind said three year old where he should touch this poor star fish.
Real zoos have penguins and the feeling of freedom that allows a 10 year old to mimic them in public view...
Real zoos have no magic allowing a mother of three to get all of her children in one picture looking the same direction...
Could be that said mother has the camera in her hands so often these three have become immune to her sing songy picture taking voice and the blinding flash...
So she must settle for cute pictures of each of them with the metal manatees individually...
Ok, so I'll take what I can get...
In a real zoo it is totally cool to give your Nana a kiss in public!
Real zoos leave you exhausted! You can't even get through a real zoo in one day! If only we had more time! It was kind of like church, they were locking the doors behind us!
The Columbus Zoo is a grand place! We only did the zoo and aquarium. There are also water park and amusement park areas. Word is they are building a huge polar bear exhibit/habitat, a safari trek, and a hotel overlooking the safari trek. With all that so close it would make for a great long weekend away. Who needs Disney? Ok, so it's not exactly the same, but I bet it's cheaper and the lines are shorter!
If you've made it this far, wow, God bless you! Thanks for sharing our ride! If you have more time to read and you want to feel much more inspired than a trip to Columbus Zoo, go visit Angie, she's got another great post up!
