Mini Vaycay Part 1: Kansas City Zoo

Since we couldn't afford to go to the tropics :( we opted for a quick mini vaycay to Kansas City.  Our first stop was the Kansas City Zoo, which none of us had visited before!

(photo credit)

We arrived just after lunch and, because we are members of our local zoo, we received a half-price discount on tickets.  Our son was free.  The zoo is divided up into three main sections - Kid Zone, Australia, and Africa.  We opted to head for Africa first.  This, as it turned out, was a LONG walk.  I didn't mind it so much because it was very pleasant.  The stroller ride was smooth for our boy, and the landscaping and pretty flowers made for a very scenic walk.  There were no animals along the trail, though, which I thought was strange.  When we finally arrived, we took the air tram (which our son kept calling an "airplane") over the African plains, sighting zebra, giraffes, and all kinds of other plains animals.  We then walked on the trails and saw cheetah, lions, monkeys, rhinos, and hippos.  I forgot to take pictures at the zoo, so here are some of our pictures from the real Africa several years ago:

The monkey that tried to steal our oranges

Elephant - one of the Big Five

Giraffe

Lucky the lion - found at two days old after his mother was killed and raised on a reserve

Bonita, a 1-year-old cheetah who also lived on a reserve

Okay, quick story and some useless information on hippos: While we were at the hippo exhibit, I overheard a man explaining to his wife that hippos are Africa's most dangerous animal.  This is false (and if I hadn't been concerned about embarrassing my husband or following the rules of normal social conduct, I would have set him straight).  I know this is false because I have been to Africa - the actual one - and listened to our native tour guide explain why this is false.  The truth is that, though very dangerous, hippos are not considered the most dangerous because, in the majority of cases, you must get in a hippo's way to anger it.  That is not necessarily the case with Africa's other dangerous predators, such as the Big Five (rhino, water buffalo, leopard, lion, elephant).

Hippos in the wild!  You can't see it in this picture, but there are crocs on this beach too!

These two people at the exhibit were also discussing who would win in a fight - a hippo or a crocodile.  According to our guide, they actually coexist quite peacefully in many of Africa's rivers, though there may be the occasional skirmish.  So there you go - two pieces of utterly worthless information that these two poor people may go the rest of their lives without. :)

We were pretty pooped by the time we finished Africa.  We opted to do the Kid Zone and skip Australia.  We watched the sea lions for a bit, fed the deer, rode the carousel, had some ice cream, and headed to our hotel.

Overall, I really enjoyed myself and would highly recommend it, though I don't know that I would feel the same way if I'd had to pay full price.  It was a lot of walking, but we had fun!