The Otondi Family Adventures: A Wonderful Day at the Zoo!

I took today off as the daycare was closed and took the kids to the zoo. Don had to work, no time off for him yet. We had an AMAZING day. After three trips to the Bronx Zoo, I can now wholeheartedly say that it is MUCH better than Omaha's Zoo. We saw mostly things we'd never seen before and huge areas at that. I was pretty proud of myself in that on our first trip to the zoo, I kept the map and stored it home to plan future visits...good thing. There are several different entrances, so it is best to go to the entrance near what you want to see. However, I got off the parkway at the wrong exit and had to park at a far away gate. No problem though, we made it in time for the first sea lion show of the day. It was fun for the kids, but not as much a show as I hoped, really just watching the zookeepers feed them. Next we saw the monkey house and by then the kids were hungry for lunch. We took a break for lunch then made our way to the monorail. The monorail is very cool because you ride on it to see the big animals such as elephants, rhinos, and antelope so you don't have to do so much walking, since the zoo is already big enough. The kids loved it and got a kick out of the fact that the baby rhino's name is "Nicki". On the way there we saw baboons also. After the monorail I was really ready to go but since the Children's zoo was on my list of things to do when I planned the day at home, I'd already mentioned it to Mzee. He of course remembered and begged me to take him to the children's zoo, which of course, is on the opposite side of the zoo. The day was beautiful and the kids had been great to this point, so I said, sure and started walking! By the time we got to the children's zoo Milan had fallen asleep in the stroller. This was just as well as the children's zoo is VERY interactive, and more appropriate for Mzee's age than Milan. This way I only had to watch him and keep my eye on the stroller. Mzee had a blast, so I was very glad we did it. I thought we would only spend a couple of hours at the zoo and ended up being there from 10:30 - 3:30, and it was truly a great day with the kids!!