
You guys all remember how much I love zoos? Specifically, how much I love taking the girls to the Oregon Zoo? Well, the St. Louis Zoo kicks the Oregon Zoo’s ass. In so many ways!
First of all, it’s gigantic. The Oregon Zoo is 64 acres. The St. Louis Zoo is 89 acres. We only saw a fraction of it. A fraction of a fraction of it.
Caden is so much better at waiting than the girls. If the stroller pauses for a second they are straining against their restraints, ready to get out and run around. He sits patiently.
Another cool thing is that the St. Louis Zoo is free to get into. They charge for special exhibits and going on the train and the children’s zoo, but the main part of the zoo is free. Because of naps, we only got to be there for about 2 hours and April and I have already started talking about us going back when the kids are 4 or 5 and no longer napping and we can spend all day at the zoo.
Ken and I had to grab food as soon as we got there because we hadn’t had breakfast yet. And I had barely had any coffee. We met April and Andrew at their house and then followed them to the zoo. I figured it was a 30 minute drive to their house, we would pass a coffee shop on the way there. Not. A. Single. One! This is why I can’t live out of the Northwest. Living in Portland has turned me into the biggest coffee/wine/beer snob. It’s ruined me for the rest of the country. Like on our honeymoon in the Bahamas, when the only coffee I could get was instant and the only beer was Bud Lite or Busch. *shudder*. It killed the beauty of the Bahamas for me just a little bit. Where was I? Oh, so we grabbed something to eat real quick and were compelled harassed into sharing our french fries with the junior set.

And that, my friends, is a giant anteater. Without a doubt, that is the coolest thing I have ever seen. Isn’t nature so awesome? That something that funky looking exists?
And his pal, the capybara, which is the largest rodent in the world. It’s a rodent the size of my mom’s labrador. This spawned an entire conversation about how people who live in other parts of the world are so much tougher than Americans because they have inordinately huge rodents, insects, flying things. Cause seriously, if you put someone from Australia in a room with a hissing cockroach, they would probably just kill the thing or shrug it off, no big deal. You put me in a room with a hissing cockroach and I will be clawing my fingernails off trying to get as far away from it as possible.
Daddies and babies. Melts my heart.
Okay, so the really cool thing about this tank (that I don’t have a picture of) is off in the corner, right next to the freaking glass, were 4 hippos, piled on top of each other, taking a nap. It was beyond cool. But do the H’s care about the hippos? Nope. They just want to sit and stare at the fish. It took me three tries to lure them away from the fish so we could go see the rest of the zoo. Not that I really blame them. I had lofty ambitions of being marine biologist when I was little. Until I realized that there was more to the job than playing with dolphins all day.
Ken brought this up, but the coolest thing about this zoo is that visitor cannot see the cages. All you see is the habitat. It makes me believe the animals are actually happy in captivity. Don’t pop my bubble. Just take your pointy stick of reality and keep on walking.

Not even bright sunlight will make them keep their sunglasses on.
The rest of these pictures were taken in the children’s zoo which had interactive center, a petting zoo, a playground, and a splash pad.

She was so hot and tired, but she was such a trouper. And she did have fun, I just happened to catch her in an in-between moment.






There was a cow next to the donkeys and Hazel and I spent a very long time discussing the difference between the two. Basically, “hee haw” and “moo”.

See the two girls standing in the back of the picture? That was the landing zone for a slide tunnel. There were two entrances, but one was blocked off and the otter exhibit was closed. April was telling me that, apparently, the blocked off slide goes through the otter exhibit. Like under the freaking water! Can you imagine? That is going on my bucket list!

Aaaaand then they were done.
And this happened before we had barely made it out of the parking space.

I don’t know what you’re talking about. Of course, I didn’t cave and buy the girls new stuffed animals in the zoo gift shop. Not after talking about how we need to downsize and kids don’t actually need that many toys. I wouldn’t be a total hypocrite like that.
How’s that sarcasm font working for you?
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