Omaha Zoo

Hailey, Robert and I have a wonderful opportunity to visit my parents for three weeks. I was very nervous about the flight and all the traveling the kids will do but they did great. We bought a portable DVD player for Hailey and a Winnie-the-Pooh DVD (all our pooh movies are VHS). Our flight left Salt Lake City at 10:00 on Saturday and we arrived in Omaha around 1:30. Robert took a short nap while we were waiting take-off. Since I had to get things for Hailey, I moved too much and Robert woke up. He was happy and hardly fussed the whole plane ride. Hailey was entertained my Elmo stickers and Pooh. (She watched Pooh without sound because she had a hard time keeping the headphones on.)

Mom, Dad and Kyle meet us at the airport. Hailey is a very shy person at first but she warmed up quickly. After we went to Subway for lunch and changed diapers, we were off to the zoo.

We went to Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo which was established in 1894 as a small Riverview Park zoo. Click here to see a map of the zoo. This place was huge!!!

We started in the Lied Jungle. "This exhibit is the largest of its kind in the world. Covering 1.5 acres directly inside the main gate, the Lied Jungle. has 123,000 square feet of floor space with 61,000 square feet of planted exhibit space, 35,000 square feet of display management area and 11,000 square feet of education space. The Lied Jungle is 80 feet tall, about the same as an eight-story building." (website)

Everyone took turns pointing out things to Hailey (or chasing her around).

This was an interesting animal to look at. I'm not sure what it is anymore. I think it started with a Z.

Dad and Hailey are looking at the 15ft waterfall.

Here's Robert enjoying the zoo.

Of course, no trip is without their little complications. Hailey had exploded out of her diaper, so mom and dad went to the car to get her new pants while I feed Robert. Thankfully, we were close to the entrance and the building we went into was a little play center.

After our short break, we went to the Aquarium.

This turtle is from the shark tunnel. "One highlight of the Scott Aquarium is an underwater stroll on the ocean floor. Visitors will wind their way through an oval-shaped, 70-foot long, zig-zag acrylic tunnel that takes them past coral heads, canyons and caves. This tunnel, at the bottom of a 17 foot deep exhibit, allows visitors the experience of being on the ocean floor with large sharks and rays swimming past them on two sides and overhead." (website)

Hailey had a fun time swinging on the bars whenever she found some. I thought it was funny that the next picture I took was of the monkey swinging.

We briefly walked by the monkeys outside but didn't go in the Orangutan Forest because we wanted to see the big cats.

Robert was a very happy boy for the most part. He's teething right now to get his top teeth.

We finished up with the desert dome. I was surprised to see all the different animals in this section and how open they made it feel even though you're still in a building. It had a lot of twists and turns to section off the different types of deserts.

Hailey's trying to swing on the railing, while I'm trying to point out the roadrunner to her.

The bottom part of the building had the Kingdoms of the Night exhibit. A neat part about this was the swamp. "The world's largest indoor swamp is located under the Namibian sand dune of the Desert Dome . Experience the 160,000 gallon, 1/4 acre mysterious swamp with a floating boardwalk. It features a Trapper's Cabin, a beaver lodge, cypress trees, and 30 swamp animal species in barrier free habitats." (website) Since everything was dim and there were crocodiles around you, it felt very freaky. The last thing I was thinking about was taking pictures. Also Robert was pretty hungry by this time and needed to be held.

So, one last thing that made this area neat was the White Alligator. There were no signs about it (since the lights were dim we probably wouldn't be able to read them even if they were there) but since I recently went to Hoogle Zoo with my sister, I knew what it was. The difference between a white alligator and an albino alligator is that white alligators have blue eyes and are very strong. Albinos have red eyes and are weaker. Here's a story about them.