Fort Wayne Zoo

Little did we know when we accepted a summer associate offer from a law firm in Fort Wayne, that we would be living 2 miles away from one of the top ranked children’s zoos in the country!

We went today, before Gordy starts his internship, and while the weather was perfect outside. What a treat it was too. It really was beautiful.

We started off by going to the African exhibit, where we saw lions, hyenas, giraffes, and striped mongoose (one of Jack’s favorite) just to name a few. By the time we were half way through Africa, Jack started saying “awwwww” every time we came up to a new animal. A couple of times he even said “Awwww, cuuuute!” (sounding almost exactly like a valley girl). Definitely something he picked up from me. haha

Then we headed over to see the sea lions and the peacocks. The “birdies” (peacocks) are left to just roam around the zoo, and they were Jack’s absolute favorite. Gord gave him the bright idea to try to touch it, so Jack wandered around after the peacocks whispering “touch eeeet”…. He even got close enough to one to touch the tail, until of course I screamed because I was scared the peacock  would have some sort of survival instinct and bite Jack. The peacock did not appreciate my screaming and he immediately flew on top of a roof to get away from us. Whoopsie. Jack was so proud of himself for being quick enough and brave enough to actually touch it.

We spent a few minutes in Austraila’s Great Barrier Reef, but we only saw about a quarter of the exhibit because it was getting close to closing time and we still wanted to see Indonesia.

Indonesia was my absolute favorite. The zoo had so many different types of monkeys, tigers, and birds, and the entire exhibit made you feel like you were walking in a rainforest. I think that Gordy and I loved the orangutans best of all. They were so huge, and to watch these massive guys swing around was incredible.

We had to rush the last couple of exhibits, but overall I’d say we had a really fun family outing. It was so neat to watch Jack watch the animals, even though he called pretty much every animal a doggie. Glad we got to experience this little gem of Fort Wayne together today. It was perfect.