the zoo

I wish I had remembered my camera. On Thursday we took Jack and Griffin to the zoo. The boys had the day off from school. In this county we get the Jewish holidays off due to the large percentage of teachers who take the day off, the district can't find enough subs.

We went to the West Palm Beach zoo. http://www.palmbeachzoo.org/index.html We normally go to the Miami zoo. http://www.miamimetrozoo.com/ We get free, 50% or 20% off most zoos with our annual zoo membership. I thought we had to pay 50% to get in, but they didn't charge us. That is always a nice surprise! The Miami zoo is 90 minutes away. Since I am used to everything being far away, the drive doesn't bother me in the least. I get to explore more stuff that way. The Palm Beach zoo only took me 45 minutes and that was with a detour due to highway construction. That made me like it right away. Parking is close to the entrance, another plus.

The best part is that there is tons of shade! I was so pleasantly surprised. Miami zoo has literally no shade, I wasn't expecting any here either. The path ways are a lot narrower, no bike carts here. The gardens are beautiful. The animals are smaller, no large game animals in Palm Beach. I missed the elephants, but I will visit them again in Miami. They have lots of artifacts, decor in Palm Beach. Basically a lot more intimate and personal. It is almost like comparing San Diego Zoo with Sacramento zoo. Very different yet they both have their personality and charm.

Jack is starting to notice the animals now. The flamingos and ducks especially. Oh, Thursdays visit showed us tons of spiders. Chris was such a baby about those. What did he expect? More shade means more canopies, more dampness and more bugs. This is when I wish I had my camera. We had to walk under an orb spider. It was a huge spider. The web was magnificent. Quite spectacular. I shouldn't of told Chris is was over-head. What good is having a fear if you don't get to make fun just a little?

Next trip to either zoo I pack swim suits and towels. Grif was disappointed he couldn't play in the interactive sprinkle/fountains. We had a long day planned to sit in sopping wet clothes. Too humid for anything to dry out without a clothes dryer. Now that I know it doesn't cost me anything, we can go any time we want. Well, anytime I feel like heading north. I still need to check out the Butterfly World http://www.butterflyworld.com/ and flamingo gardens. http://www.flamingogardens.org/ Griffin has seen Flamingo gardens on a field trip. I am thinking this might be a nice "date" with my husband when the kids are at Grandmas. :)