3 Months, 3 Cities, 3 Zoos

In April it was the zoo in Milwaukee.

In May it was the zoo in Cincinnati.

My friend, Dotto, had free passes to the Columbus Zoo, so guess where Harper and I were last weekend. . .

The zoo in Columbus of course!

We are thinking about starting a website comparing various zoos in the Midwest. I may wait until Harper can give some more specific commentary. Her speech is still lots of grunting and foreign baby-language, with the occasionally recognizable word. She would be happy to inform you that the Columbus Zoo has, "Oh. Big. Tur-tle!" And then she'd probably say, "sorry," repeatedly. The tortoises were having some trouble keeping their lunch in the bowl, and Harper said, "sorry," every time something fell on the ground.


The Columbus Zoo is enormous! We were there for three hours and didn't even see half of it. I was reading another blog written by a mom who also went to the zoo that day, she said she'd never seen it so crowded. That would have been my only complaint, it was stroller-to-stroller traffic all morning. Granted, it was a gorgeous day, I think everyone in about a 50-mile radius decided to head to the zoo last Saturday!

We mostly saw fish and monkeys, and I was still totally impressed. It's a beautiful zoo.

We spent lots of time in the building with manatees. There were at least three of them, swimming in a very large tank. There were also sting rays (I think that's what they were) and assorted fish in the same water. Harper just parked herself there. Every once in a while a large fish would swim right in front of her. It would startle her a little and then you could just see the thrill set in.


"Hi! Sish. Wa-wer!"

There were also ducks swimming on the surface of the water. I pointed out their feet to Harper, but she didn't make the connection. When I tried to pick her up to look at the part of the ducks she would recognize, she wriggled like I was zapping her with electricity and said, "No-oo, dow, sish." Which means, "Put me down you maniac, I was enjoying my lovely underwater view!"

Apparently we need to get this girl to the Newport Aquarium!

This zoo trip also marked Harper's first boat ride. The Columbus Zoo has a train, a carousel, and a boat ride! If you've ever been to a water park, I would say the boat ride compares to a lazy river ride. We just floated along this little course. I would not categorize it as a thrill-ride. You'll notice you can't even see the water in the picture I took!


The boat ride, Harper enjoyed. The waiting in line to get in the boat, not so much! She kept saying, "Boap? Wa-wer? Go!" Waiting your turn is a concept almost totally lost on a one-year-old.

We are debating a trip to the Indianapolis Zoo in August. They also have some sort of Sesame Street exhibit at the children's museum there. I'm pretty sure it would be Harper's dream destination.

Maybe we'll try to hit the Louisville Zoo in September? Giselle? Any thoughts?

Thanks for a great time Dotto!

(Dotto and Harper at the Culver's in Powell, Ohio. The other highlight of the day!)

*****
P.S. I neglected to mention that Columbus is more than an hour from our house. Fortunately, Nana and Dziatku taught Harper all about big trucks last week, when they drove to Cincinnati. Since we were mostly traveling on I-70 , there were lots of big trucks. All I had to do was point them out to Harper and she was perfectly content!