Zoo Ready!

On Saturday my friend Carrie and her daughter Ellie came down for the day. Carrie and I were excited all week about heading to the Richmond Metro Zoo together.

Carrie arrived about 11:30 AM and we soon headed out to the zoo! I was nervous about how crowded it would be. My previous trips were all on the week days, and I would try to get there right at the opening (10 AM). While the parking lot had a lot of cars, it never felt too crowded in the zoo.

I packed us a glamorous  toddler-friendly picnic of PB&J sandwiches, grapes, Pirate Booty, clementines and cookies. We had our lunch first at one of the many available picnic tables.

My absolute favorite part of this zoo is being able to feed and pet the giraffes  If you'd like you can buy a $2 cup of feed. This was the first time I did, other visits Hudson just picked up pieces off the sidewalk by the giraffes, and that worked great too! (One tip that I saw on my last visit and used today, bring a gallon-sized Ziploc back so you can dump the feed. This way you don't have to keep the open cup from spilling during your entire visit!)


One disadvantage of arriving at this time, was many of the giraffes were not interested in eating, whereas previous visits all 6? giraffes are nearby and eager to eat.


We still managed to get a few slobbery licks!





We also took the $3 safari train ride, which was a welcome break! We would have gotten more out of it if we could hear the conductor talking about the animals during the ride. The people behind us were talking throughout the ride, and we couldn't hear. That's ok, we still enjoyed seeing the animals and parts of the park we wouldn't otherwise see.

We saw dozens of other animals, but I didn't take many pictures. I was too busy carrying my water, holding hands, holding off the gag reflex from animal smells, and having a genuine good time :)

After about 3 hours at the park we were all tired! We stopped at Chick-fil-A for a cold treat and Hudson played in the playspace while the rest of us enjoyed ice cream, air conditioning and sitting.


It was a perfect day, and Carrie and I always laugh about how our ideas of a good time have changed over the years! This was possibly our last get together before Carrie has her baby in June. We both know things will be more complicated after that, but we also know we'll managed to get together even with more little people in tow!