Block Leave-The Zoo

On Wednesday of our time in Jacksonville, we went to the local zoo.  Jacksonville zoo is pretty well known and with Mara's love of animals I knew she would have a great time.  Josh took off the afternoon and we headed out after Mara's afternoon nap.

quick to point out the animals

Daddy look!

The zoo was split up into different continents and we wanted to try to hit as many as possible.  We started off in Africa.  Now nothing can compare to the many safaris we went on during our time in Kenya, but it was fun to revisit some of our favorite animals.  We saw a cheetah, antelope, monkeys, elephants, rhino, lions and ostrich. They even had an elevated platform where you could feed giraffe off of.  Mara loved every second of the big animals.  She was constantly pointing one after another out to us while running ahead to the next.

bongos one of the antelope we never saw in Kenya

We then walked through a jaguar exhibit.  They had some unusual animals for the South Pacific and South America that I had never seen so it was interesting to spend some time there.  We also took a turn in the reptile house.  This is usually my least favorite part of the zoo (frankly because most of them smell) but this time it was pretty nice.  Not only did they have snakes and frogs but there were also a few turtles and even an armadillo!

The elephant enclosure

From there we took a short break from the animals to take a turn around the carousel.  I didn't know what Mara would think of it as she is usually pretty timid when it comes to new things.  I finally got her on one of the stationary animals and she did great.  I think she was a tad envious that it didn't go up and down.

Getting a ride from daddy

This guy was Mara's age

The last major continent we had to explore was Asia.  They didn't have a lot there but the two large male tiger were pretty awesome.  While we were there they were pacing back and forth.  There was a fence separating them but you could tell they were getting a tad territorial.  What was really cool was the zoo had built an elevated walkway for the tigers and you could walk underneath them.

One of the pacing tigers

On the way back to our car we swung into the monkey section and got to see a few before the zoo closed.  It seems that closing time is also feeding time so the animals were quickly disappearing as it got closer to five.  Mara has recently learned what a monkey says and she was quick to show us when she spotted them.

A rare glimpse at the Great Apes

Overall we had a great day at the zoo.  It was exactly what I expected it to be.  I knew Mara would love to look at the animals.  I do wish we would have had a little more time to explore but I never expected Mara to last more than 2 hours!  It was a great start to our vacation and a much needed outing away from our hotel.  

Mara wasn't really a fan of the statues