St. Louis Vacation Day 2 ~ The Zoo and Turtle Playground

On Thursday, we got up bright and early to go to the St. Louis Zoo. We did LOTS of walking, and Eli was none-too-happy about that. But, we made it. We lucked out with the weather. Although it was a little muggy, it was mostly overcast and not too hot.

Brynne with "Blueberry" and Eli with "Tag"

Although we have a pretty good zoo in Tulsa, we did see some new fascinating things at the St. Louis Zoo ... like the leaf cutter ants. I could have stood and watched them for hours. They cut up leaves into small pieces, carried them (and rice that was in a bowl) up the wood "maze" and carried them out a hole on the other end to their nest. They use the leaves to cultivate fungus that they eat. Sounds boring, but it was really neat to watch. It held all of our attention. We were hogging the exhibit.

The hippos were SOOOO cool!! It's fun to watch them run on the floor under the water making them bounce like they didn't weigh anything.

And this is baby Kenzie who was born last year. She was adorable!

The butterly house was so awesome. We saw so many species of butterflies. And the garden smelled wonderful!

And the super-cool penguins! The freezing-cold exhibit is so neat! You feel like you are in the movie Happy Feet.

Lovelace, the "Guru"

Another highlight was touching the stingrays and a nurse shark.

We saw lots of snakes, too, but I can't stand to look at them long enough to take photos. Dawson convinced an employee to take his camera down to the lower level to take a close-up of the anaconda. Oh, gosh. So creepy!!!

We ended our day with a stop-off at the Turtle Playground.

Another really great day, but we were so tired! Eli and Brynne came back to swim at the hotel for a bit, and then we went to bed with plans to sleep in the next morning. We all needed to rest up before we spent the day at The City Museum.