The Riverbank Zoo.

Family trip to the zoo, a rite of passage I think ...

     We are members of the Greenville Zoo and as such we are afforded certain privileges. One such privilege is half-off entry to several zoos across America! We zoo people (more so my husband than me) think this is a pretty sweet deal. Especially when it includes the Riverbank Zoo.

(These little creatures put on quite the show popping in and out of their burrows.)

(The stroller was massive and therefore a huge pain to maneuver and overall very useless.) 

     The Riverbank Zoo in Columbia is only an hour from our house. So on a day off it makes a great extended morning. We took off around 9:30am with way more bags than we needed. I've resigned myself to the fact that this is my lot in life for the time being. We arrived around 10:30 and proceeded to spend two hours at the park.

     With a toddler two hours was definitely sufficient. We looped the park twice, saw two "shows" and spent extra time viewing our favorite animals. We then drove home while our two babes snoozed in the back seat. Aside from losing out on grownup naps it was a huge success! It is a day we still talk about and a day Tobias desperately hopes we repeat. He asks about it on the regular.

(I took these pictures through the glass, but it looks like the glass wasn't even there! Kudos to the glass cleaners, seriously.)

(My favorite photo from the day.)

     Gray and I loved the Gorillas even though Tobias wasn't as interested. They didn't do much (probably why he wasn't impressed), but their positions and looks were hilarious. Other animals of note were the lions and monkeys, always fascinating for various reasons. We really wanted to see the Tiger, but he was too sleepy to make an appearance, hopefully next time!

(We face-timed Nana because she loves Gorillas too!)

(You could walk through this open exhibit, pretty neat!)

     Tobias loved the Elephants and the Prairie Dogs, but we probably spent the most time at the Brown Bear exhibit. We watched them dig and swim and do bear things like pee massive amounts of liquid (sorry, it was hard to miss). I don't know why he loved them so much, but he did.

(I mean he was glued to those bears, they didn't bat an eyelash without us knowing. He made sure we were informed about every move they made.)

(The smelliest exhibit at the zoo, no joke. Barf worthy.)

     The two shows we saw were great, not too long. We watched a zoo keeper feed penguins and also saw sea lions perform tricks. I really liked the sea lion exhibit, you could go "under" the exhibit and watch them swim. If you stood at the right angle they looked like they were swimming at you, this totally freaked Tobias out and made me laugh (very compassionate of me, I know).

("Tobias, sit down!" This phrase was on repeat for the short amount of time he spent in the stroller.)

     In my opinion, the giraffes were the highlight! You could feed them!! Tobias was brave for about two minutes and let the giraffe grab lettuce from his hand once before delegating the task to daddy, "daddy feed," as he backed away.

(This giraffe was loving the food.)

     Overall it was a great experience! If the worst decision we made was paying too much money for cotton candy, I'd say we did pretty good. We will definitely be going back. Maybe by the time our next trip rolls around Well's will be soaking in the sights and sounds as well ... for the most part, he snuggled me in the ergo, made us both sweat and slept through all the excitement!