Keep It in the Zoo!

Summer Bucket List Item: Go to a Zoo... .check!

I've never been to a big zoo in my adult memory, so I decided to take a day of vacation and head out of town with my friend MB and hit up the St. Louis Zoo! It was hotter than Hades I won't even lie. I wore a tank top and got a bit of sun. The St. Louis Zoo is free to get in... um plus! It's $15 to park close or park free and hoof it with off street parking. The only things we paid extra for was $4 to pet the sharks and stingray... more on that later, and $4 to see the sea lion show. Here's some of the highlights of the day...

Anteater and a large rodent animal

Rhino

Hippopotamus, hip hop, hip hop anonymous? (get it? Big Daddy, Adam Sandler?)

Mama elephant and 2 mo old baby elephant

These elephants were doing all they could to keep cool

using their trunks as a hose and spraying off

The sea lion show

Gorilla pickin it's nose

Chimp backside.. he wouldn't turn around :/

Grizzly bear.. just paced in a circle

Camels and a baby camel

Kangaroo and baby kangaroo

Small Giraffe and larger Giraffe

Flamingos

This guy was a total GQ Model, totally posin

This turtle may or may not be dead...

Zebra family

I was bummed all the big cats were no where to be seen. I mean really, you live in Africa, can't you handle a little Midwest humidity!? But other than that we got to see almost all the animals! We forewent the birds, who cares about birds. My favorite part was getting to pet the stingray, who knew they actually like being petted? They would line up like a little stingray parade and actually come up to your hand to get a pat. The sharks were a little less enthusiastic but still would come up to you. They felt not like I expected them too, they were slimy feeling but at the same time not slimy and kinda velvety. It's hard to describe, I highly recommend trying it out! Oh and don't worry, they had their barbs removed so no chance of a Steve Erwin encounter (still too soon?)

I was also very very glad that there was lots of shade around, that helped a lot! They even had the mister fans set up around the park to help cool you off. It was very very humid and sweaty hot, but the sun was shining and the rain stayed away, can't ask for much more!