Friday, April 10, 2015

Spring break - day 6 - Maryland zoo

We left for our fun weekend trip as soon as we were able to get on our way Saturday morning, around 9 o'clock. 

I have always wanted to stop at these historical signs we see as we drive around every day. Matt was game, and this was the first one we saw on the scenic route Matt took us on. 
Next stop, the Maryland Zoo!
We had just been to the national zoo on Monday, but I've wanted to check out the Maryland zoo for awhile now, so it was a zoo-ey kind of week for us. 
And MD zoo has penguins!
3 sisters ride a lion. 
It was a beautiful day, in the 60's but sooo cold because it was sooo windy!
You enter the zoo and can either take a shuttle to the animal area, or walk about half a mile. Since we were first timers, and had been in the car for two hours, we decided to walk there and shuttle back. 
It was a beautiful walk! When the wind picked up there were leaves flying around everywhere and you'd have sworn it was October!
They have several of these tunnels you can walk through to "caves" where you can see the animals swimming and then turtles and snake displays in the caves. 
The girls loved this giant tree slide. 
Addie rode down this same way every time. Hands in lap, just super chill.
There are lots more toys and climbey things at this zoo than at the national zoo. 
They had fun with these tortoise shells. 
We love these photo props!
We will always stick our heads in these!
Addie took this one. She doesn't quite get the idea that you get the whole sign in the picture. (:
Then it was monkey see, monkey do. Same face as mom. (:
Daddy was a biting turtle.
Farm area. 
The amazing thing about this picture is that they each choose and agreed easily on which animal they wanted to be. Frankies first choice wasn't the cow, but she was fine to do it, with a lift from daddy. 
Just horsing around. 
Everyone needs a turn!
Working on it...
Not our best sister session. 
Silly ladies. 
They have a cool tundra buggy set up above the polar bears. You look out the buggy into their yard. 
Everyone had to take a turn "driving."
That steering wheel is bigger than she is!
There is a movie playing to make it look like you are really driving on a polar expedition. 
Daddy and his girls. 
We loved watching the pretty pink flamingos! Another animal the national zoo doesn't have.  
They keep the ostrich, zebra, and rhinos all in the same big yard. I don't ever remember seeing different animals kept together. 
We watched the crazy porcupines who were out with their trainers. 
We were too late to feed the giraffe, and he just stood back there in this corner for hours. We saw him, he didn't move. We left and saw the elephants and several other animals, and walked by the giraffe again and he was still back there in his little corner. Must've been comfy. 
They have 3 huge elephants and they were feeding them when we came upon them. 
The handlers were out and were answering questions about them, so we stayed there for a long time. 
Big girl!
That's weird, laney was pouting. She wasn't ready to leave the alligator swimming with the fish exhibit. 
She will let you know when she is not happy. 
We took a ride on the train. I am a maximizer, but the train ride was not worth it. 
$20 for about 10 minutes on a slow train that covers about 1/4 of a mile. Save yo money. 
We got on the train and had about 5 minutes before we left. Delaney decided she needed to keep one hand on her head and one on her tummy. And she kept them like this the whole time. 
Riding with my lovelies. 
Love this cute, pouty, fun 3-year-old. 
And her daddy. 
We had just enough time after our train ride to go see the penguin feeding. 
They were so cute! They hand feed each one and keep a log of what they've eaten and how much. This zoo is one of the top  South African penguin breeding zoos in the world. 
We stayed and watched the Penguins for a long time. And then we caught the shuttle back to the front of the zoo. We left around 3:30. It was a fun day and we're glad we got to check it out, but I think we'll stick to our free national zoo. (:

No comments: