Omaha Zoo

So after our car broke down on the way to Ragbrai (please see Ragbrai post for that story!) we had to head to Omaha to retrieve Ace from the dealership. We loaded up kids and gramma rue at around 630 in the morning. We drove the 2.5 hours to Omaha with the kids behaving pretty well.

We picked up the car and transferred what seemed like quite a few bags from one vehicle to the other. When you have a cooler, snacks, entertainment bag, waterbottles, carseats, I'm pretty sure the people at the service desk were like...what is up with these people?

The zoo was fairly deserted. Omaha zoo is probably one of the midwest's best zoos. We went a few years ago with April when she came to visit. Zachary was a baby, so sure he doesn't remember.

The first thing we did was hit up the aquarium and polar exhibit. The penguins and puffins were definitely a kid pleaser! I LOVED the aquarium. Couldn't get enough of the Jellyfish and the tunnel that lead under the sharks. We saw a giant turtle that we followed around as well.

From there we headed to the butterfly pavilion and on to the Africa exhibit. We soon realized that the reason the zoo wasn't very busy was because half of it was under construction. The kids liked seeing the giraffes, but the other African animals were all put away and their habitats being worked on. The main lagoon was also drained and under construction. Sort of a let down - but did make getting the zoo done in one day easy!

I told the kids they could have one ride, either on the sky lifts or the train. When we saw the wait for the train we opted for the skyride. Was, again, pretty uneventful as it went over a bunch of construction - but the kids got to see rhino poop which was the highlight of the ride!

The animals were pretty hot, aside form this little lemur who was fighting with the turtle for the heat lamp! The Madagascar building was mostly lemurs, but they were very cute! The kids sang songs from the Madagascar movie the whole time :)

I always love the gorilla building. Below is a little pod that you can view the gorillas from, one was playing on top starting at the kids below. Zach got face to face with one in a viewing area - such amazing and humanlike creatures!

We ended the day with big cats and bears, and then the jungle dessert and jungle building. The jungle building is much like the Blank park zoo on steroids. Such a nice zoo, despite the construction! Would say the day was a success!