a trip to the Jacksonville zoo!

While we were in Florida, we made plans to visit the Jacksonville Zoo. I had checked it out earlier (when we planned the trip to Florida) and found a coupon for buy one get one free tickets. The toddler was free, so it only cost us $14.95 for the three of us! (My parents and my nephew also went along. We had enough coupons printed so it was very reasonable for the entire family to go.)

We had a few animals that we knew we had to see. Giraffes, elephants, monkeys and lions (or tigers.) The toddler knows all of those animals and he was quite excited to see them. We first hit up the monkeys. They were LOUD and the toddler wasn’t a fan of all of the noise they made (considering how noisy he can be, this surprised us.)

My only complaint was the zoo didn’t open earlier. It was hot, and it opened at 9 a.m. An 8 a.m. opening would have suited us just fine, but we made do.

Next up were the giraffes. We were there as some people were finishing up feeding them and I was surprised at how close the would come to the platform! The boy got a great view of them and we spent a good amount of time in the shade just checking them out.

We saw an elephant sculpture on our way to see fish, turtles, reptiles and other animals.








We crossed the grounds of the zoo and got to see rhinos, elephants and finally the lion.








Doesn’t the lion remind you of a scene from the Lion King? 

I knew we would only spend about 3 hours at the zoo before we had to head home. The toddler fought the good (nap) fight and lasted all of 2 hours before he fell asleep in the stroller. We let him walk with us after realizing most of the exhibits would be too tall for him to see (and it was easier to pick him up briefly than to strap him into the stroller after every exhibit.)

All in all, it was a great visit.