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July 03, 2007
Our Day at the Zoo
We spent the day Monday with Adam's parents at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. A good time was had by all. Although with traffic it took quite a while to get there, it's a really nice little zoo. Perfect for little ones with short attention spans and afternoon naps. One really nice thing is how close you can get to many of the animals. Our day started in the Big Cat House, and while we were looking at all the smaller big cats, we suddenly heard a booming roar, and in walked the lion from his outdoor area. He walked the length of the indoor enclosure, roaring the whole way while children's jaws dropped to the floor. It was pretty cool.
The other highlight of the day was the Gorilla House. I've never seen gorillas in real life before, and here you can get right up next to them, just on the other side of the glass. They have a whole clan of related gorillas there, including a mom and baby maybe a year or two old. We watched the mom tickling the baby and the baby running around playing like any other toddler.
Here's the little "tree" tunnel for kids to get up right next to the glass.
I was really awed when the enormous male silverback gorilla came out and sat down right next to where we were. It was a little scary, honestly, being that close. You look in their eyes and they don't look like animals. I swear, they look smarter than some people I've met.
After lunch (the "Healthy Kids Lunch" at the Gorilla Grill has a turkey hot dog, carrot sticks, and SOYMILK! Yay! Though the cookies were not dairy-free) we rode the carousel, which Lily loved, and saw a few more animals before heading out. Lily was asleep before we left the parking lot.
Posted by mwashburn at July 3, 2007 08:53 PMPosted to mommyhood
Comments
We are taking our 3 year old to the Pittsburgh zoo on 7/13, I haven't been there in over 30 years. I guess things have changed so much. I am so excited to go back. Aren't kids wonderful, you get to be a kid all over again and do stuff like this. I am loving it. Thanks for a great post, got me even more excited to go. The gorilla cage is going to be the scariest for me too. I always think "what if they got out", like it would matter what it was, just gorillas always did freak me out. Don't know why. I will update our trip after it happens on my blog.
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Posted by: jackie at July 3, 2007 10:27 PM