Saturday, June 11, 2011

Saturday at the Animal Park

We don't have to drive an hour for a decent park, but we do if we want to see monkeys and tigers and anteaters and tortoises and their friends.

A few weeks ago, Lauren bought us a family pass to our nearest zoo, the Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend. It's good for a year, and there are at least two great things about this pass: first, we don't feel rushed to see things at the zoo, because we can always go back; second, it gets us in free to a number of other zoos, including the ones in Toledo and Cleveland. Today was our first visit to the zoo.

Granted, the Potawatomi Zoo, at least from what we've seen, is far from the most impressive zoo either of us has ever been to. Really, it's like a nice park with an assortment of animals to see. Some are exotic and some are not--we could see better horses than the pony that's there for a pony ride in a 5 minute walk from our house, and cows and goats aren't exactly something we have to seek out either. Even alpacas are easy if you know where to look. But red pandas, tigers, a leopard, an anteater, tortoises, otters, the pig-like peccary, toucans, and diana monkeys? Not so easy to spot on a casual stroll. And there were lots of animals that we didn't see that are rumored to live there as well. It was a very nice place to walk around and a perfect day for it--sunny but not too hot, and there were enough places there for us to get out of the sun.

Thea seemed to have a good time, at least until she got cranky (nap time), and even then she found things to get excited about. We also enjoyed ourselves, with the time passing very quickly. We're already looking forward to our next trip to the Potawatomi Zoo (maybe we'll see the lions next time!). If we can get there early--members can enter at 8 am, before the rabble general public are allowed in at 10--we could easily spend a few hours and then hit the nearby farmer's market and get home before the nap-needing meltdown.

1 comment:

  1. Hey, I know where to look for alpacas!

    Speaking of which, we have one that is pregnant. Came to us that way unbeknownst to all, wo we don't really know the due date. There is little in this world cuter than a cria, though, so if everything goes well and mom isn't over-protective, you might want to bring Thea by for a visit!

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