Mother Daughter Day at the Detroit Zoo

One thing about being the youngest is that you have missed out out on a lot of the family culture that occurred before you were born.  When we had lots of younger children we would have a 'friends of the Zoo' membership and go to the zoo regularly. Alas, I believe it has been about 4 or 5 years since we have been to the zoo. Elizabeth can only remember it through pictures.  She has been asking to go to the zoo regularly.  We finally had our chance.  We were in Detroit for a conference and had a day to do what we wanted,  just Elizabeth and Mom. We decided to go to the zoo!

 It was a perfect day weather-wise!

 We enjoyed the butterfly gardens at the zoo. It is all inside.  Actually,  we were held up in the butterfly area for about 10 minutes while they were chasing down a butterfly that had escaped to the transition zone.

 From the butterfly area to the bird sanctuary that was also indoors.  Elizabeth and I had fun 'hunting' the birds in the jungle like area with the camera.  We got out the telephoto lens and shot away.

 Then on to the reptile house.  They had some very large reptiles and some neat exhibits. I think this may have been the best photo of the day.

 This is the most photographed spot in the park.  Everybody stands in front of the fountain and has their picture taken.

 They did have peacocks running around loose.

 They have really pretty flower gardens in front of most of the exhibits.

 One of the neatest exhibits they had was the prairie dogs.  The children can go underneath the exhibit and then there are several places they can pop their heads up and be in the middle of the exhibit.  This little prairie dog was circling the spot where Elizabeth came up.  It was very cool to be that near the 'wildlife'.

 I think our very favorite exhibit was the seals.  For one thing is was air conditioned.  But really the neatest thing about it was the tunnel that went through the bottom of the seal tank.  You could sit there and watch the seals swim over your head and right beside you under water.  So much nicer than just watching from on top the tank.  

 Elizabeth took her turn with the camera.  She put it on paparazzi mode and took a LOT of pictures of me.

 We ended our day at the penguinarium.  It was a triangular shaped tank with penguins swimming around the tank on the perimeter and they  lived in the middle.  They had 3 different kinds of penguins.

 Here we are at the end of our day.... Elizabeth

and Mom.

My overall impression of the Detroit Zoo:  The zoo was rather expensive.  I believe for the two of us to park and enter was $28.  You can see the whole zoo in about 4-5 hours depending on how fast you walk and how long you look.  Many of the cages were empty.  There are rarely more than two animals of any one kind.  They don't have any elephants.  Everything you do outside of looking at the exhibits costs extra.  $4-6.  Our family has played a lot of Zoo Tycoon, the computer game.  I had the distinct feeling that I was walking through a life sized version of zoo tycoon.  Not sure if that was good or bad.  It just was.  I think the Detroit financial situation has impacted the zoo in a negative way.  They have a huge polar bear exhibit that is very nice, but only one polar bear.  Still, we had a wonderful day together!