Day Trip: Los Angeles Zoo (Los Angeles, CA)

A trip to the zoo is always a fun way to spend the day together.  It kind of makes you feel like a kid again.  The Los Angeles Zoo is a great place to go for this.

The Zoo is embedded in the Los Angeles hills so when you actually go inside it is amazing how spread out it is.  You forget you are in the hustle and bustle of a city because it is completely enclosed.
We went on a week day so it wasn't very crowded, but there were still a lot of people for the middle of the week.  Admission is $14 per person.  Not too bad for a day at the zoo.
The la zoo has a wide variety of animals, however, I feel like there is always some exhibit closed for reconstruction.  The exhibit closed when we went...the elephants.  Boo.  But we could see them far off through a gap in the fence, so I guess that's good enough.  When we first walked in the entrance there was an open aquarium to the left with seals in it (I think).  We grabbed a map and figured out where we wanted to go. We started up one of the many hills, and were greeted by some pink flamingos.  Their flamingos must be eating some excellent shrimp and lots of it because they were extra pink.  Up the hill we came to some Kangaroos.  There were lots of little joeys and most importantly right next to the Kangaroos was a little snack booth that sells churros, ice cream and drinks. But these churros are special!  You can get them filled.  We had a churro filled with bavarian cream.  Oh my gosh!!  It was delicious, I think it cost something ridiculous like $6 but it was so good!  And one of those things we just had to try.  After the yummy treat we kept moving and ran into some zebras and some gorillas.  The gorillas are always particularly
fun to watch.  Playing with each other, pealing bananas, and scratching themselves, basically what it's like at home.  Just kidding.  Anyways...we stood and watched the gorillas for awhile and then decided to start heading towards the food.  On our way there we met this little antelope whom My Love made friends with.  It was making kissy faces at him and wiggling his ears every time My Love looked at him.  It was the weirdest thing.  But super cute and fun.  Next we saw the incredible king of the jungle, and his wife.  My Love got a great picture of the male.                                                  







The lions are always amazing to see, when you know how powerful they are.  But today we saw something different.  The male and his wife decided to get a little frisky, and there was instantly a weird laughter and shock mixed reaction along with a mass exodus of the families, as parents began explaining "they're playing."  That was quite funny.  Finally, we made it to FOOD. I was so hungry.  The little restaurant/food hut was right across from my favorite animals, the giraffes.  As we purchased our expensive and not so tasty food (so bad I didn't even finish mine) we sat at a table watching the giraffes.

After we finished eating we walked up another hill, this whole place seems to be uphill in every direction.  This took us to some pretty cool creatures.  First we came across some awesome primates, that looked like they were praying.
And when they were finished they wrapped their tails around the tree branch and dropped to a hanging position and played with each other.

Down the path was the mysterious tiger, who kept himself pretty well hidden.  After running back and forth down the front of his exhibit we got a good view, for about four seconds until he decided to go inside his shelter.  Across the path from the tiger was the most adorable hippo I have ever seen.  Even though the first of the pictures we have of him are of his butt, he eventually turned around and started playing with his toys in the water.  It was adorable, he was like a big baby...a really big baby.

He played with this ball knocking it in and out of the water, and going after it as it floated away, and finally resting his cute "little" head on it.  He was definitely my favorite of the day!  Across from him was a disappearing bear, that was there and gone so quickly we barely managed to snap a picture of him.  My Love, loves the bears.  He once got to be up close and personal with a trained bear and fell in love with how sweet they can be.

After the bear we had basically seen everything.  The stroll through the zoo was great, and there were a ton more animals then the ones I have shared...  There was a great lizard exhibit, and also a bird exhibit.  The colorful birds are always cool to see.  It is amazing the colors and patterns you can find in nature.  Besides the food (minus the churro) the zoo was great.  And our final stop on the way out was by the great old turtle.














Destination: Los Angeles, CA

Points of Interest:
Los Angeles Zoo http://www.lazoo.org/