Fun at the San Antonio Zoo

Our Park Guide, Max!

The San Antonio Zoo is on the cusp of its 100 year Anniversary; they're calling it the "Zootenial Celebration."   Despite some of the improvements that are being done to the zoo (read: exhibit closures, construction noise) to mark the occasion, we still had a fantastic time.  It was a prime summer day, but the park didn't feel crowded.  For the most part, the boys were happy and we had a great time looking at and exploring the animal exhibits.   

---

Throughout the zoo, a group of young volunteers was on hand in the exhibits to help the kids passing through learn more about the animals.  These little "Information Stations" were really engaging and I was impressed at these teenagers' willingness and patience to interact with Max and have long-winded discussions about the animals with him.  I think he actually surprised a few of them with what he already knew about animals.   Looks like that subscription to NatGeo Kids wasn't such a waster after all! 

Our first stop in the zoo was the bears.  Since it was mid-morning, the bears were still fairly active.  We got to see one bear move about his enclosure for a while and we explored the information stations at length.   

Then we made our way to the Reptile Exhibit, which included a two-headed turtle ("Thelma and Louise") which was born at the zoo and was clearly quite a celebrity. 

After the reptiles, we decided to take a trip in to the Butterfly House.  It wasn't stroller friendly, so Mike waited outside with Maverick while Max and I went in and explored.  We had to pay a few extra dollars to go in (I suppose that helps with too many people trouncing through), but it turned out being worth it.  There were so many butterflies - they were everywhere!   Max did a great job of adhering to the butterfly-house rules:  not touching any of them and carefully walking through so as not to accidently step on one.  Our favorites were the giant Morpho butterflies - which were bright blue when open, but looked like owl eyes when closed.  They were beautiful to watch.  One landed on my calf and "rode" with me up until it was time to leave. We got the help of a butterfly keeper, who encouraged my new friend to find a new place to hang out.   As beautiful as it was, it was still a little creepy to have a bug that large attached to me for so long.  In leaving, we had to go through a special "Wind-Lock" at the exit, where they blew air around you to ensure you didn't have any other hitchhikers.     

After ensuring that we didn't have any stow-aways, we made our way to the
Gibbons and Cat Grotto.

Max tells jokes to the monkeys: "Hey Monkey - why did the banana go to the hospital? ----------------Because he wasn't peeling well!"

Next, we saw the Andean Condor exhibit, and the resident was proudly showing off his wingspan!  Lager than Max in body, and with a wingspan nearly as long as Mike and I were tall together, he was pretty intimidating perched up on a rock feature within the enclosure. 

Staying hydrated!

By late-morning, the temperature had begun to get really hot, and I was quickly running out of snacks and drinks for the boys.  So we decided to go ahead and break for lunch.   Once fully fed and watered, we opted to try and stay "indoors" for a little longer and made our way through the aquarium exhibit.   There were a few surprises in the aquarium - the best was seeing what we thought was a rock feature down in the water suddenly move!   It turns out that they had the Hippos in there with the fish!  Max got a kick out of seeing the fish pick around the Hippo's rear end...  "Look at those fish kissing the Hippo's bottom!" he shouted delightedly between fits of giggles.  I know he's  only five, and this is probably just a preview of the future humor I can expect from him.  Still, his laugh is pretty infectious and I couldn't help but crack up a little with him.    

Heading to the next exhibit on the "Snake Trail."

Then it was off to the South American animals exhibit, where we met a Pokémon armadillo, which can roll itself into a prefect ball like a pill-bug, and a giant ant eater that walked on its knuckles to preserve his sharp claws.  There were also birds and monkeys of amazing colors.

Then we headed for the Safari where we got to see an incredible array of animals from Africa.  One of these was an Opaki - a strange animal that looked like a mish-mash of giraffe, zebra, and gazelle.  The warthogs were happily wallowing in mud - just like you would expect pigs to do - to protect themselves from the heat and sun.  They looked so gross!    But I have to admit the day was growing hot enough to make the mud look kinda refreshing.  We were also lucky enough to be greeted by one of the zoo's mongooses (yes, it's mongooses and not mongeese! lol)  He seemed very interested in Max and stared at him long enough for me to get a picture of him.  Otherwise, he was running all over the place, much like a meerkat.

After the Safari, we were pretty tuckered out.  The temperature hit 105 and we decided to try to go indoors for a while.  We ended up in the Hixon Aviary, which had a beautiful collection of birds from all over the world.  Some were new to the zoo;  interestingly, to help the new birds adjust, the zoo keepers painted the windows of the enclosures  up so you couldn't see in (and the birds couldn't see out).  Little by little, they would strip the paint off in sections, eventually "introducing" the bird to its new home. There was also an incredible open-air exhibit in the middle of the pavilion where they had a collection of trees - and all through the trees were free birds of nearly every color.  They could flit around where ever they liked within the aviary, but they mostly stayed in the safety of their trees.  They were all singing and chirping.  One tree had a bird on nearly every branch as if they were purposely decorating it.   I wish I had taken better notes on which birds were which - but the zoo was moving a lot of the animals around so that many were not correctly labeled.  Still, I truly enjoyed looking at the feathered beauties!  The boys just enjoyed cooling off! 

In addition to all the animals, the zoo also had botanical specimens that were truly phenomenal!  Even in the midst of summer, there were colorful berries, beautiful roses, flowering vines, and towering centuries-old oaks.

After the Aviary and Botanical Trail, we decided to say goodbye to the zoo. We still had one fun thing left to do, though....

The TRAIN!!!

When we left the zoo, we walked across the street to ride the San Antonio Eagle around the park. We had to buy tickets in the gift shop, and Max had fun trying on dinosaur masks.  They were pretty cool!  When the train pulled into the station, Max immediately hopped on to the car directly behind the engine.  He wanted to watch the engineer drive the train!    What a relief to sit down on the train after walking all day - it was a great way to put our feet up and enjoy a little summer breeze before the ride home!!

Good Bye, Zoo! We sure had fun!