Great Bend Zoo

Yesterday, the kids and I took a little road trip to the Great Bend Zoo. It's a really neat zoo. It's certainly not the biggest or best we've ever been to, but considering it was FREE I was really pleased with it. I would say it took us about an hour and fifteen minutes to get through, and it was pretty compact. The North America exhibit was partially closed, so we didn't get to see any elk or bears. We also couldn't find the lions or alligators, but other than that, everything was out. The monkeys were pretty cool, and we really liked the fish exhibit. Afterwards we went to the park for a couple minutes, then lunch and home. Total cost of our trip was $8 for lunch at Wendy's (God bless you, dollar menu!) and about $20 for gas (but if you have a vehicle that's not a gas guzzling V8 SUV, I'm sure that price would be lower!). It was a cheap way to get out of town for the day and try something new. I had an awful headache by the time we started home, so we didn't stop at this historical museum that I kinda wanted to check out. Maybe next time?

I think our next trip will probably be either the Exploration Place in Wichita or the Manhattan Zoo. (Can you tell I love putting links in my blog?!) We used to live in Manhattan, so obviously we've been to that zoo plenty of times, but not for almost four years now. They've also completely re-done the city park there, so if the weather will cooperate with us, it would make for a nice day. I would also really like to take the kids to the McPherson water park sometime this summer. The problem with water parks is they usually don't open until after lunch, and Raegan needs her afternoon nap very much. Or should I say Mommy needs Raegan to take her afternoon nap very much? :)

Some pictures from our day:

I wish I could have gotten a picture when this swan was standing up tall. His head reached over the top of the fence!

Raegan was too busy people watching to be bothered with picture taking!

The cats were huge! And very majestic looking.





Looking over my shoulder at Zane (i.e. Best Person Ever!)

There were skeletons of different animals at the entrance/gift shop building. I thought they were very cool.

Tons of birds wandering around - peacocks, ducks, geese, and swans.

At the park afterwards.

Raegan loves doing things with big bro!