Fort Wayne Zoo

July 15th 2011- Today I took a half day from work so I could get home and get packed for our overnight trip to Fort Wayne. My dad also did the same thing and Jeremy did for the most part as well. We all met at our house and then got the car packed and it was time to pick Addie up from school for the 1 hour and 45 minute drive to Fort Wayne to our hotel. We picked Addison up at 3:00 and headed out. We arrived atour hotel by 5:00, got checked in and decided to head to Red Lobster for dinner.

At dinner, Addie did pretty good. Towards the end of dinner, she wanted to walk around so as my parents were waiting for the bill, Jeremy and I took her with our waitress to the lobster tank and she took out a lobster for Addie to touch.

We all learned about Lobsters. They arrive to Red Lobster in a "frozen/sleeping state" .. they are dormant. Also after our waitress too the lobster out of the tank, she couldn't just let him go back in very fast. We had to wait for bubbles to come out of the lobster to make sure he wasn't going to drown.

So after dinner, we headed back to the hotel where we decided there was still some time for Addie to go swimming. Jeremy, Addie and I got our swimsuits on and headed down to the pool with Grammie and Gramps. The pool was like bath water. It was SO warm and we practically had it all to ourselves. Addie loved it. So after pool time, it was heading back up to the room for night time.

As Addie was in her PJ's, she decided it would be fun to run between our adjoining rooms and jump on the couch, the bed, and just run around. She had ENERGY! She was also in the mood to give Grammie a heart-attack. Addie had a blast jumping on the bed with Gramps, Grammie had to make sure there was an adult on all sides so she wouldn't fall off because she was having so much fun. Finally Grammie got Addie and it was time to have a night snack and read and book and then go to bed. After her reading a book with Grammie, she went and crawled into bed with Gramps and laid with him for awhile with her snack. So cute!

Now it was morning and time for the zoo. We had breakfast and then headed on out. We arrived as the zoo was opening so it was great timing. We made our way through the exhibits and for about the first 45 minutes, you thought we were the only ones there. It was so awesome. Addie got to be up close to a alligator. She was in the aquarium exhibit all by herself watching the sharks swim. She was having a blast seeing all the animals.

I really liked the zoo as it was alot of kid viewing exhibits and just right for the amount of time that it took to go through it. 8:45-1:15 is how long we were there for.

Also at the zoo were 4 rides that we got to experience.

The river ride, which I think was about a 5 minute ride was very relaxing. We really only got to see the Dingo's and kangaroos on this ride, but it was very neat and fun for Addie.

Next was the train ride. this was exactly what it was, a train ride. Really didn't get to see many animals, but it was probably a 15 minute train ride.

We made our way to the African journey and rode the sky safari. Addie did great being up that high and didn't make me nervous while we were up there... well, I did get nervous when she went from Jeremy's lap to mine and then the ride stopped for about 30 seconds about 2 minutes after we got on it... (this ride was a continuous ride and not suppose to stop...) we made it through. Last about 10 minutes, overlooking to the zebras.

the cool thing at Fort Wayne zoo was feeding the giraffe's. Addie wasn't a fan of it, but I did it and it was very cool. their tongues are freakinsly long!

The last ride was making our way through the final path and riding the carasol. Addie loves these and she went about 4 times on this ride. Luckily there was a DQ right there so as we ordered food, Jeremy took her on it a few times.

We ended the trip with a trip to the zoo store. Addie picked out a book and a giraffe backpack. They had a deal going on and she ended up getting this huge elephant from Grammie and Gramps. Spoiled little girl!

Her first day back to school, she took her giraffe backpack with her! how cute!!