The Fragile Desert: One of the newest additions to the zoo and still under some construction.
Up close and personal with the tiger and the snow leopard.
Despite the heat, Amaya's pretty excited about the animals.
Our tickets included a opportunity to feed and touch the sting rays.
We were a little surprised Amaya wanted to try to touch the sting rays... her arms were a little too short to touch one, but we're proud of her for trying.
More sting rays...
There was also a separate Children's Zoo to pet various farm animals.
Since we had just been at the fair to see the pigs, cows, and sheep, we zipped through this area pretty quickly. We did get a few snapshots of the ducks.
This little guy was holding an interesting conversation with Amaya.
Dolphin Show! We liked this show quite a bit more than at Shedd Aquarium because the dolphins did a lot more jumps and tricks. However, Steve and I both agree that the Minnesota Dolphin Show was still better than this one.
Two of the dolphins spent some time at the Minnesota Zoo... Spree and Chinook.
Feeding time!
The arena wasn't air conditioned, so we were still melting and hoped that we might get wet... unfortunately from this big splash, we only got a few drops...
Amaya posing at the dolphin statue.
After the dolphin show, we went inside and grabbed some ice cream. Here Steve and Amaya are figuring out our game plan for the remainder of the day.
We decided since there was still so much more zoo to see and the hours were dwindling down, we'd catch a ride on a Motor Safari and see the entire zoo in 45 minutes. It gave a chance to sit down and get out of the direct sun and get a view of all the animals. While it great to see the entire zoo, we weren't able to see very many of the animals and decided that we liked the Monorail at the Minnesota Zoo better (and it's air-conditioned too!)
The landscaping was absolutely beautiful and they had so many different fountains.
Another fountain....
Sculpted bush...
Gorgeous flowers...
A close up of the flowers...
After the ride on the Motor Safari, we headed to the hand painted Carousel. Amaya wanted to ride a monkey...
Another view of the Carousel...
We were so hot and tired and the zoo was closing in about an hour that we figured we'd head back to the car and go back to the hotel. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to see more animals, but certainly didn't blame the animals for hiding out in the shade. But on our way back to the car, we saw the ELEPHANT!!!
We got a sudden burst of energy and ran to catch another glimpse of the elephant before he went back inside.
Then we saw some action at the exhibit next door... the RHINOS!
They were so close, we could almost touch them!
Here's another one hiding out in the back...
We kept walking around the circle, hoping that we get to see a few more animals come out of hibernation... Here are the antelope...
and the buffalo....
and the HIPPOS! I love these guys!
I'm so glad we decided to stay a little longer to see all these creatures! Not very many more people decided to stay... we kinda felt like we had the place to ourselves.
I wanted to get one more picture of Amaya by the pretty flowers. Unfortunately, she was showing her terrible twos and the only way Steve could get her to stand by the flowers was to put his hat and sunglasses on her. Cute picture regardless!
Amaya crashed in the car shortly after we exited the parking lot. We headed back to our hotel, but in order to check another thing off my list, we stopped for dinner at Giordano's.
They are famous for their stuffed crust pizza. We ordered a cheese stuffed crust pizza and it was just as good as I remembered it 10 years ago!
Amaya gave it two thumbs up too and ate an entire piece! As Dora would say, "DELICIOSO!"
Up close and personal with the tiger and the snow leopard.
Despite the heat, Amaya's pretty excited about the animals.
Our tickets included a opportunity to feed and touch the sting rays.
We were a little surprised Amaya wanted to try to touch the sting rays... her arms were a little too short to touch one, but we're proud of her for trying.
More sting rays...
There was also a separate Children's Zoo to pet various farm animals.
Since we had just been at the fair to see the pigs, cows, and sheep, we zipped through this area pretty quickly. We did get a few snapshots of the ducks.
This little guy was holding an interesting conversation with Amaya.
Dolphin Show! We liked this show quite a bit more than at Shedd Aquarium because the dolphins did a lot more jumps and tricks. However, Steve and I both agree that the Minnesota Dolphin Show was still better than this one.
Two of the dolphins spent some time at the Minnesota Zoo... Spree and Chinook.
Feeding time!
The arena wasn't air conditioned, so we were still melting and hoped that we might get wet... unfortunately from this big splash, we only got a few drops...
Amaya posing at the dolphin statue.
After the dolphin show, we went inside and grabbed some ice cream. Here Steve and Amaya are figuring out our game plan for the remainder of the day.
We decided since there was still so much more zoo to see and the hours were dwindling down, we'd catch a ride on a Motor Safari and see the entire zoo in 45 minutes. It gave a chance to sit down and get out of the direct sun and get a view of all the animals. While it great to see the entire zoo, we weren't able to see very many of the animals and decided that we liked the Monorail at the Minnesota Zoo better (and it's air-conditioned too!)The landscaping was absolutely beautiful and they had so many different fountains.
Another fountain....
Sculpted bush...
Gorgeous flowers...
A close up of the flowers...
After the ride on the Motor Safari, we headed to the hand painted Carousel. Amaya wanted to ride a monkey...
Another view of the Carousel...
We were so hot and tired and the zoo was closing in about an hour that we figured we'd head back to the car and go back to the hotel. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to see more animals, but certainly didn't blame the animals for hiding out in the shade. But on our way back to the car, we saw the ELEPHANT!!!
We got a sudden burst of energy and ran to catch another glimpse of the elephant before he went back inside.
Then we saw some action at the exhibit next door... the RHINOS!
They were so close, we could almost touch them!
Here's another one hiding out in the back...
We kept walking around the circle, hoping that we get to see a few more animals come out of hibernation... Here are the antelope...
and the buffalo....
and the HIPPOS! I love these guys!
I'm so glad we decided to stay a little longer to see all these creatures! Not very many more people decided to stay... we kinda felt like we had the place to ourselves.
I wanted to get one more picture of Amaya by the pretty flowers. Unfortunately, she was showing her terrible twos and the only way Steve could get her to stand by the flowers was to put his hat and sunglasses on her. Cute picture regardless!
Amaya crashed in the car shortly after we exited the parking lot. We headed back to our hotel, but in order to check another thing off my list, we stopped for dinner at Giordano's.
They are famous for their stuffed crust pizza. We ordered a cheese stuffed crust pizza and it was just as good as I remembered it 10 years ago!
Amaya gave it two thumbs up too and ate an entire piece! As Dora would say, "DELICIOSO!"