From June 5 –
After we got our luggage and car from the valet we hopped in and headed to the Philadelphia Zoo. A zoo is always a hit with our group and Philly boasts being the first zoo in the USA. Brent and I went there on our first trip to Philadelphia many years ago and we knew the kids would enjoy it.
It’s a pretty good size zoo and it’s not too far from downtown. There were several field trips there but many of them were starting to leave since it was the afternoon when we got there. They’ve made a lot of improvements since we were last there, including these really cool mesh walkways where animals can walk overhead throughout the zoo. While we were there we didn’t see many animals taking advantage of it, but it was really fun to see when we did.
These little otters were some of our favorites. They had all kinds of slides and things they could run, play and tumble around on and they were very active and fun to watch.
We were starved for lunch and one of the first things we did was grab some gross zoo food. It was such a beautiful day so we decided to eat outside. But wow. The Canadian geese were the most aggressive I’ve ever seen. They had us all cornered in, were very aggressive, and so annoying/frightening.
The peacocks walking freely around the zoo were much more welcoming and so regal to watch. It’s always fun when some of the animals are allowed to be “wild”.
The big cat area was so nicely done and they had so many pretty animals.
The gorillas are always some of our favorites, too. They had a couple of Momma Gorillas with little ones who were just wild and having the best time playing.
As much as the moms would try and hide from the babies they could never get away from them. She’d hide in a corner or move and just a few minutes later the babies would be right back on her. Real life right there!
It’s a really large zoo and I don’t think we got to see every single part of it since closing time was approaching. Nothing seemed to really ever be open past five pm – while it was already a few weeks into summer break for us it seemed like everything there was still operating on winter/spring schedules and not taking advantage of the nice days and extra daylight.
Once again we were last out and the final people in the gift shop as they were closing up for the day. The girls loved the Zoo and our overall time in Philly. Of course a couple of new stuffed animals made their way home with us.
From Philly we were in rush hour traffic due to the time of day, but it gave Abbi time for a quick little snooze as we headed towards our hotel in Delaware for the evening.
We made it ! Delaware! Another state for both girls. (Lilli may have been through Delaware quickly on a previous trip to Maryland, but she hadn’t done anything in Delaware before.)
There’s not a lot in Delaware. Literally. There really weren’t a lot of restaurants and nothing to do that evening. So we went to a tiny little mall near our hotel, ate in the food court Chic Fil A and walked around the mall. It did have a Claire’s so that made the glittery part of our group pretty happy!
