Beach Trip

On our recent beach trip, we had a blast visiting the Northwest Florida Zoo and also the Gulfarium. At the zoo, we went on a train ride through open plains with llamas, zebras, and other grazing animals. It reminded me a lot of the movie Jurassic Park, with gates that slid closed as the train entered the area. Thankfully, there was no T-rex to chase after us, but we did have a close encounter with an ostrich that came in for a closer look--about a foot from the back of the train where we were sitting. Another big hit with the kids was hand-feeding the giraffes. Watching their long dark-colored tongues extend out and wrap around leaves from our hands was a lot of fun. We also purchased food for the petting zoo animals. We enjoyed feeding goats, cows, and rabbits.

A white peacock? I've never seen one of these!

The alligator pond had fishing poles where you could feed the gators...we missed the feeding time, but it would be a lot of fun!

A closer look at the Komodo Dragon

The ostrich that came close to our train

The tongue on this cow kind of freaked me out!

We were able to see the dolphin and sea lion shows at the Gulfarium and they were very interactive and fun to watch. There were also alligators, various birds, tropical fish, sharks, and stingrays. There is also an area where visitors can touch horseshoe stingrays and other sea creatures. We had fun, but some of the shows were kind of long for the kids.

The announcer at the Dolphin Show was really loud...see the kids plugging their ears