A Trip To The Indianapolis Zoo

 The kids and I have had the opportunity to visit a good number of zoos over the years. Each one of them has their perks, but I think that my favorite zoo by far is the Indianapolis Zoo. The exhibit sizes are the biggest (for the animals) that I have seen in any zoo, and the animals seem much happier as they are consistently the most vocal, active, and interactive animals that I have come across. Because zoos are so visual, Sarah normally does not enjoy going to zoos; the one exception is the Indianapolis Zoo because the experience with the animals is as much auditory as it is visual. 

Our zoo membership expired back in October which is when these photos were taken. (I am a bit behind on posting some stuff.) I plan on renewing our membership if we end up staying in Indianapolis for one more year because we used it so much. The zoo's proximity to our house and its ease of use make it a much loved day trip. (We are waiting on Bob's employer to release us to a location of our choosing now that he is being converted to a full time work from home employee. If we get released before April we will be moving out of state in May when our lease here expires. If we don't get released in time then we will be here for one more year.)

Elizabeth and I took the trip below together and had a blast that day. The zoo wasn't too crowded, the weather was amazing, and it was nice to spend some alone time with her. The animals were so talkative that we spent quite a bit of time just hanging out at each exhibit watching them do their thing. 

We went just Halloween. The zoo was decorated for the occasion. They did a great job. 

These monkeys were SUCH chatterboxes when we were there. We probably spend 20-30 minutes just watching them move around their exhibit and talk/yell at each other. We even recorded the sounds they were making for Sarah to hear later on in the day because it was just so neat to hear them go on and on for such a long time. 

We had so much fun feeding the birds. It was just Elizabeth and I in their exhibit and you could tell that no one had been in for a while by the way they congregated around Elizabeth's food. 

I love the display the zoo has upon entering the African exhibit. 

You cannot tell in this picture, but these gals were running towards the water when we got to this part of their exhibit. It was pretty neat to see them run. 

The orangutan exhibit is by far the best exhibit I have ever seen. They have three stories of area to move around in and a TON of interactive items in their home. The window seen here is where the staff has their daily meetings. Often when we would come to the zoo the orangutans would gather around the window to watch the meeting. (Another really cool thing about this exhibit is that the animals have a ton of outdoor space as well. They have the ability to climb two stories in their outdoor space and it spans the perimeter of the entire building - which is huge).