Time to take the kids to the zoo where they belong! Wait, we’re just visiting the zoo? Oh, okay, that’s cool too 🙂
It has been nearly four years since we visited the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Today, we made our return with Kendall on the outside! Each time I return, I’m amazed how much it has improved since I was a kid in Colorado. They have reduced the quantity of animals, but have really increased the quality of the enclosures. The elephant exhibit is really amazing, and this from someone who lives near the NC Zoo in Asheboro that has a spectacular elephant exhibit. One addition here is they have the elephants artwork on display that they sell to help sustain the exhibit. A favorite back in the day and now is feeding the giraffes. In the eighties, we fed them something that was like a triscuit. These days, we feed them large lettuce leaves. Nothing like seeing that huge purple tongue coming at you! Another new thing they added was giving visitors tokens to put into this large machine. You put your token in the slot for the conservation project you’d like to see funded. Hard choice to make, but we all made our choices and feel good about helping, in some small way. The kids spent a huge amount of time just watching the meerkats play!
A couple new (to me) exhibits that the kids really liked were the “crash-landed plane” that you sit in and “fly”. The other was the “Australia Walkabout”, which was actually a bunch of exhibits under one umbrella. One really fun part was that there were seeds stuck on Popsicle sticks that you could feed the colorful birds, up close and personal. Of course there were the mandatory kangaroos jumping around that were quite cute. Of course, they also have Peacocks all over the place, and I still have a 16-year hate on for peacocks since my trip to India. Brian tries to mimic the sound occasionally to mess with me! And no Australia exhibit would be complete without crocodiles!
It was certainly a hot day, and a hot day in Colorado means, you guessed it, afternoon thunderstorms! Luckily, in the age of the “smart phone” we could keep an eye on where the storm cells are to figure out when to move from building to building!
We dodged a few storms to get over to the penguin exhibit when the bottom fell out. We stayed for a while before heading to the snack bar to recharge our batteries. After some grub, the kids got a ride on the merry-go-round!
Back at the house we decorated our own cupcakes after dinner! This is the kind of day vacations are made for!
