The Philadelphia Zoo

Every year for the boys' birthdays our in-laws get us a membership to the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. As a part of the membership you can get free or discounted admission to a list of reciprocal zoos (see http://www.marylandzoo.org/membership/reciprocal-lists/) and I have a few of them on our "to-do" list. This past weekend we decided to take a random, unplanned trip to the Philadelphia Zoo. Some of our best day trips are the ones where we wake up on a Saturday morning and decide to go somewhere new. The Philadelphia Zoo was an extremely pleasant surprise! It is by far the nicest zoo we have taken the boys to.

The Philadelphia Zoo is located on the outer edge of Philadelphia and less than 2 hours from Baltimore. The Zoo is extremely clean, there are a bunch of brand new or recently updated exhibits, and the layout of the zoo is perfect.

The current exhibit is called the Trail of the Lorax. Throughout the Zoo are special places to stop and use 3-D glasses to read special messages about saving the Earth and see special pictures. Caleb, our excited reader, enjoyed reading the messages!

One of our favorite exhibits was the PECO Primate Reserve. This two-story, brand new, state of the art building gives you the opportunity to get up close and personal with gorillas and other primates. The boys enjoyed sitting inside this box and watching a gorilla in action, just a few feet away.

Throughout the Zoo are many opportunities for silly photos, a favorite of our family!

Seeing these hippos was special, as other zoos we have visited have not had hippos.

We enjoyed getting up close and personal with the giraffes!

The Zoo has many attractions (that we avoided to keep costs down) including a hot air balloon ride, camel rides, swan boat rides, and train ride.

Other exhibits/things of note:

• Be sure to see the FREE 4-D Migration Experience in the McNeil Avian Center. This 15 minute presentation is about a cartoon Oriole bird Otis and his flight from Philadelphia to South America and back. It included wind (as it was raining) and other fun special effects!
• Arrive early and park in the Zebra parking lot, the closest lot to the zoo.
• Bear Country includes several bears and is another great stop. We enjoyed the polar bear keeper chat.
• The naked mole rats in the Rare Animal Conservation Center were very entertaining!
• You can bring in outside food/beverages (which is the best way to go!), but if you choose to eat at the Zoo there is a healthy food vendor by the pond.
• Join the MD Zoo and you get a 50% off discount.

Again, we were very impressed by the Philadelphia Zoo and will be going back one day!