Chicago Visit Part 2–The Zoo

When I was a little girl – not much older than Ally I remember going to Illinois to visit my Aunt Martha and Uncle Phil and going to the Brookfield Zoo. It is HUGE compared to our zoo. I checked – it is actually 3 times as large as our zoo.

It did not disappoint. We had a few goals:

1) to see the Buffalo, since Ally’s favorite show just had a Bison episode

2) to see the spider monkey, since that is the animal Ally is learning to be an expert on in Spanish class at school during her rainforest unit.

3) to see the penguins, since those are her favorite animals

4) to see the gorillas – there was a baby one – and see how this zoo’s exhibit compared to ours at home. Ours is better.

5) to see the polar bears – they are just really neat animals.

After about 3 hours, Ally made another goal

6) to see the dolphin show

7) to see as many animals as we could.

We accomplished all of our goals. It was a really fun (and long) trip to the zoo. Thank you to Martha and Phil for hanging in there with us to the very end.

Camels and Kangaroos

 

Ally loved the giraffes.

We searched for the Okapi and finally saw it inside. Corky really likes Aunt Martha.

Becky, Ally and Aunt Martha with Corky the Okapi. Then it was time for a bathroom break – Aunt Martha and Ally waited while the rest of used the facilities.

The Buffalo were next – that is a life size picture of one – and see how small Ally is compared to it. We took a snack break near the bison and Ally had a blast playing on the playground structures.

The polar bears were next. (we did see the wolves and the brown bear too).

On our way to penguins Ally compared her wing span to that of the condor. But she was most excited to see t he penguins – a new kind for us – the Humboldt.

Finally it was time to see the rainforest exhibit.

There was a spider monkey named Nico as the mascot/escort thru the South American rainforest. Ally was so excited.

There he is – the mono aranana

We also saw the gorillas – there was a baby one with its mom. Then we walked thru the big cats and saw this tiger and a lion.

These are pictures from the underwater viewing area of the seals. Becky and Uncle Phil said it was highlight of the zoo for  them – so peaceful to see the seals swimming around.  We then had to wait about 45 minutes for the dolphin show.

But Ally loved the show. It was a really fun animal filled day!