Zoo Photos

The Indianapolis Zoo was the fourth zoo we've taken Harper to this year. I have to say we've enjoyed them all, but the zoo in Columbus might be my favorite so far. The zoo in Indy is a "cageless" zoo, so the animals look like they are in their natural habitats. We got there early in the day which was good for two reasons:

1) The animals were more active.
2) By the time we left it was about 700 degrees outside!

Harper was a real trooper. We were there for about three and a half hours and she only rode in her stroller for about five minutes. She did not much want to be carried either. We just kept offering her water and hoping for the best. She probably could have kept going, but all the adults in our party were about to pass out. Harper would look at something for as long as she was interested and then wave/say, "Bye bye," to it, letting us know we had a green light to move on. She would charge ahead saying, "Mo more, anmoos." (One more animal!)

Harper especially enjoyed the desert area and community of meerkats. When two of them started playing and then struck a hugging pose in front of her she said, "Awww. Meetat coot!"

The other highlight was the dolphin show. It wasn't as fantastic as something you'd see a SeaWorld, but it was still fun. Best of all, it was indoors and therefore out of the glaring heat of the sun. We had to wait in our seats for about fifteen minutes before the show started and Harper was fairly content to be passed from one lap to another and watch the dolphins swim in the pool. Her favorite part of the show was when the dolphins used their tails to flip beach balls into the audience. She was impressed with that bit of aquatic athleticism.


The other really cool thing was the underwater dolphin dome, which was basically a glass room built into the dolphins' pool. You walk into it and the dolphins can swim on three sides of you as well as over your head. Here is a picture of Harper in the dolphin dome, you can see she is enjoying it, even if you can't actually see the dolphins in the photo.


Since it's only two hours from home, I'm pretty sure we'll visit the zoo again. Perhaps when the asphalt is not melting beneath our feet.