slo’s FRIDAY 7/11 poll - Going To The Zoo 🐘🦒🦍🦓

[snowwite]

I like good zoos, but haven't been to any since San Diego in 2016.

San Diego was awesome! We will definitely be back to the zoo and Balboa park which is massive. We could have spent a week there.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

San Diego Zoo is absolutely the standard. It's great they've gotten their pandas back! But driving an hour to their sister park, the Safari Park - that's our favorite place to spend a day. We also enjoy some of the older, but evolving zoos, like Philly, Zoo Atlanta, National Zoo DC, Tampa...... the changes to better support the animals and human education have been really impressive.

 

[snowwite]

San Diego Zoo is absolutely the standard. It's great they've gotten their pandas back! But driving an hour to their sister park, the Safari Park - that's our favorite place to spend a day. We also enjoy some of the older, but evolving zoos, like Philly, Zoo Atlanta, National Zoo DC, Tampa...... the changes to better support the animals and human education have been really impressive.

We also really liked Naples zoo in Fl and the Edinburgh zoo in Scotland

 

[Micca]

It's been over 20 years since I've been to a zoo, and that was to attend a fund raiser for the zoo. We go to AK at least a couple of times a year, but we all know it is famously "Nahtazu:

 

[disneychrista]

We don’t have a nearby zoo. Closest ones are 2+ hours away. Haven’t been since my daughters were very young, maybe ages 3 & 5.

 

[LilyWDW]

I live pretty dang close to the Lincoln Park Zoo (151 bus IYKYK), so I go there quite often when I want to get out of the house but not spend any money. It's a really nice zoo and beautiful to walk around. I grew up going to Brookfield though but have not been out there since like Jr. High. I don't have a car so I don't see me going out there again any time soon. Though I think there is a train?

 

[EACarlson]

I've got a little zoo in my town, a small zoo 45 minutes away, a decent sized zoo 90 minutes away and I'm 3 hours from the zoos in Chicago. I usually make it once or twice a year, when the kids were little and we lived 10 minutes from the MN Zoo, we would go at least once a month. I have not been to any zoos this year, last year I think it was only Animal Kingdom. I've got a work conference in San Diego next year that I'm either going to fly out early or stay an extra day to go to the zoo. I really want to see Pandas.

 

[LoveSpringsteen]

Our Cleveland Zoo is great and I’ve been many times over the years, but I’m not a zoo person. I love animals but I’m just not a fan of zoos.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Countless trips to Brookfield as a kid, some as a parent. A number of visits to Lincoln Park. But none in many recent years. I would like to visit again, I think, this time would be on a scooter though. I do like zoos, always interesting and fun. Always enjoyed the serpent building and touching either my mom, many, many years ago, or Marie more recently, on the back of their leg.

 

[CynBeth]

I'm in the suburbs between Baltimore, MD and DC. So, we have the National Zoo run by the Smithsonian in DC and the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. Sometimes we even go to the zoo at Hershey Park in PA. We go to zoos once or twice a year usually, event though the kids are teenagers.

We visited the National Zoo about two weeks ago, it was nice, but hot as heck (DC summers are like a special kind of hazy, hot and humid). DD13 had an overheated melt down in the otter section. She was drinking water all day, but randomly started crying because I took her picture. Had to buy her a gatorade and an ice cream to make her human again.

We visited Zoo Tampa back in April (lovely), can't wait to visit again. I expect to visit the Honolulu Zoo in August, we've been there before, it was nice.

My absolute favorite is the Oregon Zoo. Natural beauty, etc.

We are adults with no kids and love zoos and aquariums. I also live in the DMV area and get to both DC and MD zoos a few times a year. We were recently at National Zoo on 6/29 was that the day you were there? Wherever we vacation we always have to go to the zoo and aquarium if that city has one. When we are at Hershey we make sure to visit Zoo America. We were in Philly for this past Memorial Weekend and went to the zoo and also the aquarium in Camden and they changed so much since the last time we visited many years ago.

 

[HopperFan]

Love animals, love the zoos, am a member of our zoo and go as often as possible. We will used our zoo membership for discounts at other zoos.

 

[tvguy]

I bet it has been 40 years since I went to our local zoo. But I was at the World Wildlife Zoo in Phoenix in 2020 (the day the world started shutting down due to Covid). Been to the Oakland Zoo, San Diego Zoo in the last 8 years. And the St Louis Zoo about 30 years ago. I have mixed feelings about zoos. They are interesting, but I prefer the zoos that are rescuing animals that would not make it in the wild as opposed to zoos that just have animals on display.

 

[clappyclaps]

I like going to the zoo but like many others here, I haven't been to one for quite a few years aside from AK. I'd like to go to them more often but the best zoo near me is quite expensive and often struggle to have someone to go with!

 

[disney212]

We have a yearly zoo membership at the Cincinnati Zoo, it is awesome. Our zoo is VERY hilly so we use our early entry for members which allows us in 1 hour prior to the general public. It's also a botanical garden so we get some extra walking in to stay in Disney shape, lol. We are also only 2 hours from the Columbus zoo which is great. Some weekends we head south west to the Louisville zoo which is smaller but still nice. We are also within 2 hours of the Indianapolis Zoo but haven been in ages, our Cincinnati membership

 

[disney212]

I was going to add our Cincinnati Zoo membership offers free or discounted admission to over 100 zoos/aquariums !

 

[BayouQueen]

I really enjoy zoos and we seek them out when traveling, because they often rescue and showcase local animals. We're members of our local zoo.

 

[citruscurtis]

So... it's official..no one from Oregon or Washington is on this dis board

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FIRST...no one mentioned the most historical zoo in the US.. so that indicates no Oregon folks

SECOND...no one mentioned Dungeness crab on the seafood thread the royalty of all seafood... only available on the Humboldt current

I read all 30 posts... not one mention the crab....so it's official... like the Webb says... just the facts Mam

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Going to the zoo seems like a kid thing, to me. We went a lot when I was young, and I went several times with my kids when in elementary school. But it's not a regular thing.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

I love going to the zoo. We live about 15 minutes from the zoo and get a membership every other year. This is our off year. We get a lot of use out of it because we are so close we can go for just an hour or two and it's nice to be out in the fresh air. The free parking with the membership is worth it. It's $99 for the year for the named person and a guest and you can join at any time.

ETA- Membership also provides discounts on admissions to 100s of other zoos and aquariums which is a nice perk.

 

[georgina]

I have a membership to the Smithsonian National Zoo. While entry is always free, with the membership I get several free parking passes and grandson gets free rides on the zoo carousel. Plus some discounts and early access to special events. Went to a panda preview in January before it officially reopened (it was extremely cold that day!) and got to see the new young ones without huge crowds.