Last Sunday hubby, his cousin and I went to the Columbus Zoo. The zoo is not located in Columbus but rather north of the city of Columbus in Delaware County, OH. The zoo opened its doors in January 1927, covers 580 acres, and more than 11,000 species calls Columbus Zoo and Aquarium their home.

The day was beautiful and blazing hot! We arrived at the Zoo at 1:00pm got our tickets and in we go. To be honest the map was a little confusing at the beginning but we finally got the hang of it (for we I meant my husband, LOL). I can’t handle a map even if it is to safe myself!!

Courtesy of http://www.columbuszoo.org

We headed over the train ride, which you have to pay $2.00 to ride it. If you can skip that do it! Trust me we fell for it. We thought the ride was going to take us somewhere else, but no it just did a loop and came back to the same station we hoped in. The ride probably lasts less than 5 minutes. To us it was not worthy! If you have little ones, then go ahead and do it, they will definitely enjoy the train ride!

After the train ride we headed towards the North America encounter. We were able to see a moose in the flesh for the first time ever. They both were enjoying a nice and refreshing bath at the pond. It was so hot that I was actually envious of them, LOL!

We got to see the Mexican wolves, the brown bears (they were snoozing), and the wolverine (Hugh Jackman was not there).

Then we entered the Polar Frontier. The polar bears are always so majestic! I felt so privileged to be able to see this powerful animal! The two polar bears at the zoo were sisters and  it was so delightful to watch them interacting and playing! We then went underneath to see them swimming! This was by far my favorite encounter.

We then walked to the Heart of Africa encounter. This was pretty amazing! There is literally an African Savannah at the zoo. There were ostriches, giraffes, gazelles, zebras, and wild-hogs!

The monkeys were so adorable!

There was an area to feed the giraffes up-closed and I was so excited for it. My excitement went away when I saw the sign $3.00 per person to feed the giraffes. We just had to passed, I refused to pay any extra money. My opinion this should be part of the zoo experience included in the general admission ticket.

We also got to see the elephants. One of my favorite moment is when we saw this elephant by herself at the water whole. She started going into the water to cool off from the blazing sun. We where so close to her and I was afraid she was going to splash us, glad she didn’t. It was an incredible experience. Although the sun was really beating on us we were having a great time!

A short walk took us to the Asian Quest encounter. Here we were able to see an anaconda, the bats, lions, and the tigers. See the tigers playing in the water and with each other was just a great experience. This was something I’ve never seen. The most impressive part of this encounter was hearing one of the tiger roaring. We were walking towards the lions when we heard this noise and as we got closer we realized it was the tiger in the water that was roaring. Simply a great spectacle! Was something unexpected and that we’ve never heard before. Hearing its roar reminded me that even though they are enclosed, they are still wild animals!

Our last stop of the day was the Shores and Aquarium encounter. The flamingos are my mother-in-law’s favorite animal so I had to take a picture of them! Then we headed in to see the manatees. These gentle creatures are so adorable! It was an amazing experience to see them swimming around each other, really showing off! Lastly, we saw the penguins! The way they walk and stand is so peculiar! They are the cutest thing to see!

The zoo closes at 7:00 pm on Sunday’s and by 6:30 pm we still had two more areas to explore, the Congo Expedition and the Australia and the Islands. So we decided to call it quits with plans to coming back. The zoo has a water park attached to it, Zoombezi Bay. The plan is to come back and finish what’s left from the zoo, then go into the water park to have some much needed fun!

Preview of what’s to come!

See you on the next episode…

All pictures feature in this post belong to me unless source is provided.