Matthew and I FINALLY got to enjoy a little exploration today. It's been a while since we've both been off and had the money to ejoy a little splurging but we made the most of it today! After a yummy breakfast at Einstein's Bagels we took the 3-hour drive to the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in OMaha, NE. This was an awesome zoo, though it was a zoo in the true sense of he term, verses the Asheville Zoo and Wildlife Refuge. These animals were much closer to us and easier to see. With so many pictures it is just easier to let you see what we did for yourself...with some commentary along the way =)... After we walked ourselves silly trying to see everything we stopped off for an extremely yummy meal at a local BBQ joint called Red Zone BBQ. It boasted some of the best memphis style BBQ around and they weren't joking. This Food was incredible and the BBQ sause was exeptional for a non-vinager based sauce. IT matthew and I EVER go back to Omaha we're visiting this place again! Then after a long drive home we enjoyed a nice cup of STarbucks coffee before coming home to relax. So, before I'm off to enjoy a nice hot, relaxing bath, I just wanted to post some pics of our trip. It's not ALL the pictures, lol but a decent majority of what we saw.
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| MAtthew in Front of the Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Exhibit (A kids' hands-on learning center.) |
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| I had to get a picture with the Lion Pride statue...the first statue we saw when we first walked into the park, |
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| I made Matthew pose with it too! |
THE DESERT DOME
This place is huge and including desert animals from around the world.
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| Welcome to the Desert Dome |
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| The life-sized tortoise statue...I had to sit on it! |
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| Pointing out where we are on he big globe. |
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| Interesting cave drawings inside the dome. |
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| A black-footed cat sleeping in its den. |
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| A Cape Thick-Knee found in sub-Saharan Africa. |
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| Matthew checking out some Blue-Bellied Rollers |
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| An African Jacana...Look at its feet! |
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| Two Bat-Eared Foxes. |
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| An African Klipspringer |
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| Two Meerkats hanging out...Love them, they are SO cute! |
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| This zoo had lots of ponds and if you look closer you can see all the colorful fish. |
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| Some Rock Hyrax |
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| MAtthew posing in front of a HUGE monitor lizard! |
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| a Kookaburra |
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| a tiny little Burrowing owl! |
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| Are these cactii not huge??? |
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| Ardvarks...cool huh? |
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This rather large bird was just asking to get his picture taken and we are happy to oblige...sorry, I don't know what kind it is...
ENTER THE PRIMATE HABITATS |
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| Look above my head and you can see a low-land gorilla sitting in bridge over guest walk-through. |
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| Sizing Matthew up with the primates... |
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Loving the monkee houses!
ONTO THE AVIARY |
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| ALthough there were many varieties of birds the Flamingos are always my favorite! |
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| More Flamingos (don't worry there are more birds along the way...) |
THE BEAR EXHIBITS
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| A longing black bear |
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| Matthew posing with the polar bears... |
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| A closer looking at the snoozing Polar bear. |
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| A sleeping Sun Bear! |
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A free roaming peacock showing off for the local peahens!
THE CAT HOUSE! |
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| a Beautiful leapard! |
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| and a snow leapard...Also beautiful! |
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| a tiger... |
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| Did you know a white tiger has to have two white recesive genes..cool, huh? |
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| MAtthew Posing with a n elephant skull...non elephants at this zoo yet.. I was a little surprised by this! |
They even had a
BUTTERFLY HOUSE!
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Showing the cocoon lifecycle!
THE AQUARIUM |
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| Tufted puffins! |
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| emporor Penguins! |
MORE AFRICAN ANIMALS!
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| Momma Zebra and her baby...born late last year... |
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| some Addox Antelopes |
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| Some Bongo |
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| An ostrich of course, lol! |
Posing with some statues
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| This lake had thousands of koi! |
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| African Rhinos...Matthew was SO thrilled to see these guys! |
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| the White Rhino...they are HUGE, up to 4500 ibs! |
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| and a random goose family wandered around, how cool is that??? |
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| Matthew posing with the giraffes! |
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| This baby giraffe was born in march...SO CUTE! |
...and finally
THE JUNGLE HOUSE!
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| a mayalan Tapir... |
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| more primates! they were in most of the tree tops |
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| we walked under a waterfall..a cool effect! |
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| they has bats openly nesting near the tourists...kinda freaky but cool! |
We took a lot more pictures but just to give you an idea of what we saw...We both had a blast! I forgot how much fun a zoo can be. ENjoy the pics! Take care!
