Springing Into the Lincoln Zoo

Did you guess what place we featured yesterday?

Yesterday was opening day of the Lincoln Children’s Zoo, so I knew that I wanted to feature them at the beginning of the season. Now I must confess that when we went to the zoo earlier last summer, writing a Nebraska blog was not on my radar. Obviously the pictures that I took were not with publishing in mind, and for whatever reason I took hardly any that day, even of my kids. Although I did go back later to take a few additional shots of the entrance, if you want to see the animals, you will have to go there yourself! 🙂 Or enjoy the photos on the website taken by Lincoln’s National Geographic photographer, Joel Sartore. His shots are AMAZING – maybe I won’t post any upcoming animal pictures! 🙂

One interesting program that was started last year was Zoofari with Nebraska’s own Larry the Cable Guy. Throughout the zoo, you can see the videos playing which tell about the science behind zoology in a fun way for kids. The best part about these videos? They were developed with children’s hospitals in mind to bring Zoofari to children who maybe cannot visit the zoo right now themselves.

In the future I hope to do another post after I have traveled through the zoo purposefully with the intent to share ideas. For now I will simply share our favorite things about the zoo. We love watching the penguin show. Just wandering around to look at all of the different animals can keep my kids entertained for hours. Usually each visit we are there for almost all day, and the zoo is really not THAT big. My kids just enjoy visiting.

Of course, our other favorite part is riding the train. But empty cars are definitely a bit sad.

The train cars look much more fun when filled with happy kids! Especially my boys have loved riding when they were younger. Although we went there right before one of my kids turned two. He was not such a fan and sobbed loudly the whole two times around the zoo’s perimeter. Funny now but rather frustrating at the time!

The Lincoln Children’s Zoo has all kinds of classes and programs for kids of all ages. If you have a teenager, they can even volunteer with the zoo crew. Memberships are also available. We enjoyed having one a few years ago, but due to a busy summer ball schedule, we usually just manage to make it there once now. But I do always look forward to our annual trip!

P.S. If you make a trip to the Lincoln Zoo next week, you could win a family membership simply by taking your picture! They are part of the See Lincoln: Picture to Win Contest. Here are the details on what you need to do to participate.