Sports
We hit the Toledo Zoo next. Well, we did spend an extra day in Columbus and had lots of fun at the water park that is attached to the zoo. We had our first real experience with the wave pool and really enjoyed it. We weren't sure what to expect in Toledo because it seemed to be a smaller zoo. There were some really good reviews online and it fit perfectly into our trip logistically.When we got off the highway we drove through a lower income area and wasn't sure what to expect. Once at the zoo, though, we were pleasantly surprised by the presentation. Here is the entrance. I'm not sure why but when the kids line up for pictures more times than not it is in height order. It is really funny. The zoo is divided by a road into two sections. This picture is in the first section. It is hard to see here but this yard was very intriguing. A zoo in general separates all of the animals and only occasionally do they mix animals in the same physical area. This yard was a big breath of fresh air. According to the sign there were 13 different species in the yard. There were zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, east African crowned cranes, ostriches..... It was great. It made you feel more like you were in Africa. Kudos to Toledo for this one.The Polar Bear exhibit was a nice one too. There was indoor and outdoor viewing. They weren't swimming at the time but if they were it would have been a fantastic view. An interesting thing about polar bear exhibits is they are all pretty boring from a color perspective. In the wild they are almost always on snow or ice - in fact they are on ice flows over the ocean a good part of the year. So you never see many trees or other "decorations". They just aren't used to seeing colors other than white (BTW - a polar bear's skin color is black. Their hairs are actually clear and hollow. The light from the sun shoots down the "fiber optic" hairs to the black skin to help keep them warm. And the fact that thy are hollow helps trap the warm air. The inches of blubber help too.) Right next to the polar bears are the seals - which in a way is kinda mean. I mean they eat seals and must be able to smell them - they have a great sense of smell. The seals were actively swimming as usual. This time something really funny happened. One seal was gliding along at the top of the water upside down. And another seal was also swimming at the top of the water but right side up. The next thing you know they bumped heads. You never think of something like that happening because they are so graceful. We all got a nice chuckle out of it. We also saw lions there. And these were special lions. Not only were they the rare white lions (which is really just a lighter shade of tan) but they were from the Siegfried & Roy show. The white lion isn't actually a separate sub-species but just a recessive gene. Hope is that some will pop up again in the wild. This rhino was interesting. If you take a close look at the horn you will see it bending forward. I've only seen them bend backwards. Also his horn was really big. This is a sloth bear. And in a zoo most animals kinda take it easy and just lay around. For a sloth bear I would expect even more so. But they were active on this day. Running around and having fun.This is one of Dayne's pictures. Toledo was the only zoo on our tour that had hippos. In fact the address of the zoo was 2 Hippo Way. They even had their own hippoquarium. And they were also on the move. They walked in the water as you can see and also on land. They are monstrous creatures. Death by hippo is the leader in animal deaths in Africa I believe.Dayne was fascinated by the cheetahs so I would be remiss not putting one of his pictures here. There were two in Cheetah Valley. These were the only gorillas we were able to see. The gorilla yard was at the far end of the zoo and by the time we got there the gorilla house was locked (and the zoo was actually closed). All the gorillas were in the house and the yard was empty. So we made our way back to the entrance seeing no more visitors. Thankfully the gift shop was still open. Then when we made our way to the parking lot there were only two cars left - ours and one other with people already in it. We actually closed the zoo haha. This was the last of our zoos on this trip. I have already gotten suggestions from people on other zoos to try (St. Louis and Omaha) and have serious interest in NY and DC. We will see. We were glad to share this with everyone and are thankful for the great comments. It was a lot of fun. Editors note: I forgot my adapter for my camcorder so I wasn't able to post any video from that (all videos have been from my camera - that thing is awesome). So there will hopefully be more supplemental material to come. My special note: The time with the kids was incredible. Being with them 24/7 was fantastic. I love them so much. And I don't think I heard one peep out of them the whole trip complaining about anything. They were ready for the challenge and were very helpful and went along with everything. So thanks kids! I hope we can do something this special every year. I love you!!!