A day at the zoo

Winter is closing in on us, threatening to come down cold and heavy any time, any day and each day of the week is a surprise blessing or ...
This Sunday too was one such day and we were blessed when we saw a ray of hope and the feeling of warmth to step out in our t-shirts. Armed with a free ticket to the zoo –parking inclusive (courtesy Neera and Mpls Library) we ventured out to Apple Valley to meet our neighbors of yesteryears :).Check out Minneapolis Public Library for further details on the free ticket offer by Macy's. They are offering quite a variety of entry tickets to the museums, art galleries and Arboretum and it might be worthwhile grabbing a few.

Coming back to our story, we hadn’t planned anything else and we decided to pamper the kids in us:).The last zoo I had seen was in Singapore in 2004 complete with Night Safari and Jurong bird park. I had so thoroughly enjoyed it that time ,I was sure that Minnesota wouldn’t let us down.
Well, the zoo here is sure a nice place to visit and the animals are well cared for but I think even Indian Zoos have much more to offer- at least many more animals to see. Probably because of the severe weather conditions, they are unable to flaunt as many species. One of the main highlights of the zoo was the Wells Fargo Family Farm where you get to see goats, pigs, hens and cows- but don't we watch them everyday on our roads in India? Of course, it is very exciting for kids as they get to feed them and pet them.

kid feeding goatiee

The Empress of Blandings

The bird show is right now closed for a month for training so I cannot comment on that but the dolphin show...I cannot even compare it to the one I saw in S'pore. I would just call it informative about dolphins and its nice to watch the them perform cute little tricks.

Some of the must see in this zoo are: the Prairie Dogs-they are just so adorable! the way they dig holes, collect grass and are constantly on watch- ready to jump in the mud and hide themselves; Moose and Caribou- I never knew they were this huge and this lazy :) , tigers- if they are not sleeping they look awesomely majestic prowling about.
the cute little Prairie dog

Worth a visit once if you have kids...