Palm Beach Zoo

It's official. After the Miami Zoo, I'm pretty sure there is not another zoo that will ever measure up. I mean--fences?!?! I'm not used to seeing that! I'm not some huge animal activist, but I just LOVED how Miami had such huge, open areas for the animals, and that they used moats around their homes to keep them in and people out instead of big fence cages. It's hard to see through the fences, and impossible to take decent pictures. Plus, they had wooden fences at waist level which meant EVERY SINGLE ONE of my kids wanted to be lifted up to see EVERY SINGLE animal. Exhausting. Miami Zoo sure spoiled us, and I definitely knew we would miss it!

I get an email from macaroni kid each week about free/cheap stuff happening in the area. They had it labeled "FREE ZOO DAY" and so, even though I thought it would be crowded, I decided to check it out to see if it would be worth paying for in the future (it isn't). Turns out, it wasn't COMPLETELY free and that was kind of a bummer...but we tried it out anyway.

It was hot. Why in the world would I do anything like this is South Florida in AUGUST? (because I thought it was free!) LUCKILY, they have a huge splash pad, which I didn't know, so I didn't dress my kids for it--even though they had swim suits from the mornings swimming lessons in the van--but I let them get in fully clothed. It was that hot, I didn't even think twice. Run to the water children, run!!! That was about all I could think of. I just wished it wasn't so socially unacceptable for me to go ahead and do the same!

To be fair, the zoo had some pretty cool aspects. I loved the tiger area, it had a big waterfall. I really liked this area back by a jaguar that was all Mayan-ish with a temple and statues and that led in to this massive bridge that was really fun. And then of course the splash pad was a huge redeeming quality. So it was a nice zoo, just...not Miami Zoo. And I'll probably be saying that the rest of my life :)

The kids got free tshirts at the Y earlier that morning.

One thing about a fence though, they are WAAAAY closer to you because you don't have to have the distance of the moat. I felt like this guy was so so so close to us!!! You could see his whiskers and his big muscles!

That blue parrot was chatting away.

Hello banyan trees! We've missed you! (Although, to be fair, there is this gorgeous road I drive to get to Will's school (I'm excited that that is how I will drive there) that has banyan trees lining either side and they meet overhead so it feels like you are in a tunnel. Golf Road, you are gorgeous.)