Thursday, April 19, 2012

A Trip to Binder Park Zoo

You may have noticed that M and I love zoos.We love to see a variety animals up close and learn more about them. We're lucky to have a local zoo that we enjoy visiting, but we also like to take day trips to other zoos in the area. It's nice to be able to see some different animals in some new scenery.

One of our favorite zoos to visit is in Battle Creek, Michigan. Binder Park Zoo is a bit of drive just to visit a zoo, but it's worth it for us. We try to make a trip up there every summer. M first took me there when we were dating and it won him major points.

Last summer, we took our friends T and R with us when we made our yearly trip. They had never been there before and we had a great time showing them around.

One of my favorite things about zoos is taking pictures of the animals. It's a great way to practice my very limited skills. Unfortunately on this trip I was either have so much fun with friends to take many pictures or, as I suspect, many just didn't turn out well.

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Doesn't this goat looks like he's smiling? He definitely had some interesting dental health!

Binder Park Zoo has a great petting zoo area. They have everything from rabbits to goats to pigs and even llamas.

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This isn't great picture of the prairie dogs, but I wanted to share it because of the story that goes along with it. The prairie dog habitat is quite large with plenty of room for guests to stand on three different sides and watch the prairie dogs. Every side has a large sign explaining that these are prairie dogs and tells about their natural habitat and diet.

As we were standing there watching the prairie dogs being cute, a woman walked up with a small child. She then proceeded to loudly tell the child to look at the meerkats. Over and over again, despite the signs saying otherwise, she kept calling the prairie dogs meerkats. T and I could not stop laughing about that lady. Now, whenever M and I see prairie dogs, we call them meerkats.

Let me show you the reason that we love Binder Park Zoo. It's the reason a trip to the zoo won M major points when we were dating.

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Yes, an extreme close-up of a giraffe.

At Binder Park Zoo, you can feed the giraffes. You just hold out the giraffe biscuit and they take it right from you hand, sometimes licking you as they do. It's great fun if your a giraffe lover like me.

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The great thing about the giraffes getting so close to feed them is that they are also close enough to pet them. I love being able to pet their necks and and heads. They are very gentle and sweet animals, of course that might because you are feeding them!

Notice the baby girl in the above photo? She was dressed in giraffe prints and oh so cute. Her father held her up so she could get a better look at the giraffe. That is so going to my child someday!

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Giraffes have insanely thick and long eyelashes!

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Binder Park Zoo is also home to one of other favorite animals, the red panda. I could just watch these guys all day long. This little guy was very active trotting around his habitat. They are so cute and cuddly, I just want to take one home with me!

We had a great day with our friends and enjoyed visiting the animals. If you ever in the Battle Creek area, you should check out Binder Park Zoo. Feed the giraffes and tell them I sent you!

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