Henry Doorly

Our second day in Iowa actually took us to Omaha, Nebraska to the Henry Doorly Zoo. My Aunt Sherry had mentioned that it was an INCREDIBLE zoo so we had to check it out. It was just a short 60 minute jaunt from Exira. Can I just say WOW?!? It was an amazing zoo with admission cheaper than the Ft. Worth Zoo and a thousand times better. We were there for at least five hours and didn't make it through half of the zoo. And - because I know you are all aware of what God's creatures look like I will spare you the pictures of the animals.

I will start with these animals. Our attempt at a decent family photo with all eyes facing the camera with a smile on our face. Not so much - Cole is sticking out his tongue. And - believe it or not - this was the best photo of all of us.
This is usually what we look like, though!

The first 'exhibit' we went into was the aquarium - we spent a good hour and a half in there alone! It had a walk-through tank with some incredible sea life. I captured a shark right over our heads!

I thought this next picture was cute of the kids. The jellyfish were lit by a black light and the kids were fascinated.

After the aquarium we went into the Desert Dome. It had several different desert areas with animals indicative to those areas. It also had a lower level (and by that I mean underground) that was swamplands. It was completely in the dark with some black lights. There were TONS of alligators that you walked over on a narrow bridge and they made noise. Scary noises - I thought they were sound effects but they weren't. They also had beavers, bats and a cave area with stalactites and stalagmites. (that sparked a revival of Cameron's memory of his trip to Carlsbad Cavern with Kelly and we heard more than we ever wanted to know about bats, caves and rock formations!)

I may have lied about the animal thing. There were peacocks that roamed the zoo and were afraid of no one. Here is one walking right in between Cameron and Macie!

We roamed around a while after that and saw a million animals. The kids really wanted to ride the train all around the zoo - but we had to leave the stroller and didn't really want to. So - they then persuaded us to ride the air-tram. Again - we still were unable to take the stroller but Todd was kind enough to walk from the total END of the zoo to the FRONT of the zoo to meet us. He even stopped halfway to see if he could get a picture for me! So Sweet!

Kelly, Cole and Macie

Me with Cameron and Collin seriously rethinking my decision to take Collin up there. No seat belt and a space big enough for him to wiggle right through! I moved him between my legs and had my hand in front of him the entire time - he didn't like it, I didn't care! We were pretty high and we got to see all the hippos, giraffes, elephants and rhinos from the air!

It really was a great zoo with a TON of interactive exhibits and hands-on activities for the kids. There were several times that you could go to a particular exhibit and participate in feeding the animals. If you ever make it to Omaha - I recommend the Henry Doorly Zoo. ( And for the husbands out there - Rosenblatt Stadium is literally across the street. You could make a trip out of it during the College World Series!)

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