Family Trip to Binder Park Zoo

I mentioned before that my 3 youngest nieces came down from Wisconsin to visit for a few weeks. They did this last summer and we took a trip to the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo. This year, I wanted to take them to Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek, Michigan. Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts, we weren't able to make our trip until their last day in town. But the good news was that their dad was in town too and we made it a big family trip!

Our group consisted of me, my husband, my mother-in-law, my brother-in-law, our oldest nephew (age 25) and all our nieces (ages 20, 13, 11, and 8.) Even though we had a large group, we were able to stay together easily despite the crowds. (We had to go on a Saturday and it was super busy.) And we managed to see everything during our trip.

The zoo has a new black bear exhibit which I thought was great. My youngest nieces were less impressed as they see them all the time in Wisconsin. But the young bears were super cute. (No pictures because you have to view them through glass & I knew it wouldn't turn out well.)

My favorite part of visiting Binder Park Zoo is feeding the giraffes. Because the zoo was so busy, the giraffe feeding area was super crowded. I highly recommend going during the week if you want to feed the giraffes. It's less busy and you won't feel rushed to get through the experience.

The zoo had 2 baby giraffes born in June and this was the first week they were on display. They were adorable!

My 11-year-old niece loves cheetahs, so she was excited when we came upon the cheetah exhibit. Luckily for her, today the cheetah was prowling about the enclosure and even make cute meow noises. It was so funny to hear a noise that sounded more like a house cat coming from this wild creature.

We all had a great time at Binder Park Zoo and I can't wait for our next visit. If the budget allowed, I'd love to go up again this weekend for their Reptile Weekend. I know my reptile-loving husband would enjoy that!

 

Celebrating Our Anniversary at the Zoo

Last week, to celebrate our 2 year anniversary, M and I took a day trip to our favorite zoo, Binder Park Zoo. The weather was nice and we had a great time just walking around, looking at the animals.

I don't think a trip to the zoo really needs explanation or much commentary, so please enjoy these pictures I took.

A Day at the Zoo

It's no secret that M and I love to go to zoos. And we're lucky to have a local zoo that's only about 30 minutes from our house. I know we'll be spending a lot of time here when we have kids. For now, we like to go at least once a year and check out the animals.

Last October, some plans we had with friends fell through, so M and I decided to take a spontaneous trip to the zoo since we were in the area. We had a great time just strolling along, taking our time at each enclosure. And luckily for me and my camera, the animals were being especially photogenic that day.



One of the things I love about this zoo is that you can be right up against the glass at the tiger enclosures. This day, the tiger was pacing and I managed to get some great up close shots. He actually brushed up against the glass as he was turning and it was wild to think just how close we really were to a tiger.



The White Bengal Tiger was less active that day and enjoying a nap in the sunshine.



The Koi are always pretty and I'm amazed at how big some of them are.



The red pandas are my favorite part of this zoo. They are so cute and playful. Here, they always seem to be up in this tree.



He did come down, but went right to his food and didn't want his picture taken anymore.



The barn owl looks annoyed, doesn't he? I guess he'd rather sleep than have visitors.



This peacock was hanging out at the pony ride area. Since the pony rides were closed, he took it over for his own lounging area. I'm amazed that he just sat there and let us get close and take pictures. His coloring was gorgeous!



I can always hear the lions roaring from across the zoo. This zoo is near a residential area and I think it would be cool to hear the lions roaring from your house.



The zoo has two male lions and they like to "play." I'm not sure how much is playing and how much is trying to be the dominant one, but they're fun to watch.



Sleepy warthogs are actually kind of cute!



This leopard also liked to pace in front of the glass. It felt like I could just reach out and touch him.



The smiley alligator was also enjoying a nice fall day.



Meerkat! No, of course this is a prairie dog. The prairie dogs were enjoying a meal as we watched them. It's so cute to watch them nibble their fruits and vegetables.

We had an enjoyable afternoon with the animals. I can't wait for our next trip to the local zoo.

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.



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.


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.



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.





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!



Giraffes have insanely thick and long eyelashes!



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!

Washington DC Vacation Recap Day 5

After spending the past couple days mostly inside at museums, it was time for a change. On our fifth day of vacation, we headed to the National Zoo to spend the day outdoors.

I love going to zoos, so I was excited about our destination for the day. We took the Metro to the Zoo stop and then it's a short walk of a couple of blocks. It's uphill though so it wasn't the easiest walk, but we saw lots of interesting buildings and homes and it was a nice day.

Once we arrived at the zoo, we dove right in. The National Zoo is the only Smithsonian facility we visited that did not provide free paper maps. You could buy one for $2, but we elected to skip that option. They do have signs with maps posted around the zoo, so you don't get lost, but it would have been nice to know where we were all the time.

The National Zoo has a nice variety of animals and we took our time walking around and visiting all of them. As I said, the weather was nice that day and it wasn't crowded at all.

Here are just a few of the animals we saw that day...



Elephants



Pandas! I was very excited about the pandas since this is only 1 of 4 zoos in the United States to have pandas. They were very cute and I took lots of pictures. Sadly, most of them didn't turn out well due to the poor lighting and the fact that pandas don't like to pose for pictures. We spent a lot of time watching this guy eat and we even made a second trip back to the pandas after we saw all the other animals.

 

Owls! The zoo actually has several different breeds of owls which was exciting because our local zoo only has one barn owl.



Orangutans - These guys were being very playful and entertaining.



Lots of lizards and other reptiles and amphibians



Lions and other big cats



And of course, Red Pandas! I took tons of pictures of this baby red panda and his parents. But again, poor lighting and movement meant not so great pictures. I spent a long time watching him explore and play. The red pandas are in a temporary exhibit in the Giant Panda's building while the Red Panda home is remodeled.



Sadly, this is probably the closest I'll ever get to touching a Red Panda.

I mentioned before that we tried to avoid buying food at the museums because it was horribly overpriced. We did get lunch at the zoo because we needed to keep our strength up for all the walking we were doing and there wasn't any place outside of the zoo to eat. (That we knew of anyway.) The food was typical zoo food, but it was what we needed and we got souvenir cups to take home.

After the zoo, we took the Metro to Dupont Circle in DC. Prior to our trip, I had been researching places to eat and I looked into some cupcake shops. One of them was called Hello Cupcake and it sounded good. My friend Tricia had been to DC a couple weeks before our trip and she checked it out. She recommended them, so we decided to visit and pick up some cupcakes to enjoy later.

The shop was really cute and they had a good assortment of flavors. We got 4 different flavors to try. It was really hard not to eat them right then, but I did manage to get them back to the hotel safely.



Our flavors were...

Peanut Butter Blossom - Chocolate cupcake topped with peanut butter frosting and a chocolate kiss. M picked this one. The cupcake had a great chocolate flavor and was very moist, but the peanut butter frosting was a bit rich for my tastes. I did like them together, but it was a good thing we split this one!

Heart of Darkness - Devil's food cupcake topped with chocolate ganache-based frosting and real chocolate chip sprinkles. OMG, this was good! I LOVE chocolate and this delivered. The frosting was thick and rich. Luckily I had snagged some bottles of milk from the free breakfast and stored them in our fridge. I definitely needed milk to help wash this one down. Only eat this one if you are serious about your chocolate.

Prima Donna - Chocolate cupcake topped with strawberry buttercream frosting. M's pick. This one was all M's. I tried it, but the strawberry buttercream frosting was too sweet for me.

You Tart! - Lemon cupcake topped with lemon cream cheese frosting. My favorite! As much as I liked the Heart of Darkness, this one was tops for me. The fresh lemon taste was refreshing and not overpowering at all. The frosting was delicious. I savored every bite of this one and I crave it all the time. This made me realize just how much I love a good lemon cupcake.

We only have one day left in DC, what will we do next?