Last week we spent the day at the Philadelphia Zoo with some dear friends. They had gone with us about two years ago and were looking forward to visiting with their little tour guide, my son. We had a perfect weather day, surpisingly not hot or humid, for a July day. This is the last year that the zoo will have a ZooBalloon to ride. Having never tried it, we decided to give it a go and see what it was like. It was fun to see the city from 400 feet above. I could see as far as the Limerick Nuclear Plant! My son and husband loved going on the balloon ride and want to do it again!
After that we headed over to the giraffes, my son's favorite animal. We had the chance to see the family of three being fed. Abigail, the "baby" giraffe is five years old now. She is really cute!
We haven't visited the Philadelphia Zoo in a while and there were lots of new addtions and updates to see. The big exhibit this summer seemed to be the Zoo360, a cool way to see many of the animals as they explore the zoo on their own in a tube that runs throughout their exhibits. We got to peek at this snoozing tiger, who looked just adorable with his big paws on display.
We also had the chance to explore the new children's section of the zoo, KidZooU, a beautifully designed area that is interactive, educational and accessible. Our friends who we were exploring the zoo with that day both use motorized wheelchairs. They were able to get up close to the exhibits along with my son. The design of this new area was remarkable.
We had a great picnic lunch at a table that was made for wheelchairs (they really need a few more of those, in my opinion!) and continued on to the Primate house to see the cutest gibbons ever! The baby gibbon was putting on quite the acrobatic show for us.
It was a great visit to the zoo with great friends! We are looking forward to going again soon, since we were able to purchase a family membership at a discount.
