The Lowry Park Zoo
Yesterday Peter and I picked up Bresa from school and then drove over to Tampa with all the kids. We got there just as our friend Reba was getting off of work. We stayed with Reba at her apartment and just hung out and ate pizza and talked until we were too tired to stay awake.
We spent the night and in the morning we packed up and headed to the zoo. The Lowry Park Zoo is rated the #1 zoo in the USA. We have our Central FL zoo pass and it got us half off admission to this zoo so we were excited to be able to spend the day there. The first thing we went to was the giraffes of course. Like the Brevard zoo we went to last year, this zoo also lets you feed the giraffes from eye level. The girls had a blast and Abbi was super excited since giraffes are her favorite animal.
After Africa we visited the flamingos, black bear, panther and gators in the swamplands and then went to the Manatee and Aquatic Center. That was really cool. I like to see fish through glass in the water instead of looking down from above. 
The girls watched the fish in the big tank for probably 20 minutes and though Javan didn't seem too interested he was wide awake and happy. As you can see the fish are bigger than he is. On the way out of there the girls got to go to a big feeding area and pet stingrays. 
They didn't hesitate to dip their hands in and feel the smooth fins. Some of the stingrays started splashing and got a bunch of people wet and the girls just thought that was hilarious.
We grabbed up the best lunch I have ever eaten at a zoo and though a bit pricey was actually worth the food you got. We walked through and saw a bunch more animals and then went into the Lorikeet Encounter. We fed the Lorikeets
at the Brevard Zoo and the girls were too afraid to hold the food so I didn't bother buying any this time. We just walked through and saw the pretty birdies. They weren't as crazy as the ones in Brevard and there weren't as many so it was quite a bit more peaceful than I expected. Peter and I aren't into monkeys so we decided to skip the Primate World and headed over to the petting zoo. 
Bresa brushed some goats up real nice and Abbi walked around and petted them all. Once our hands were clean we told the girls to cover there eyes and we walked over to the pony rides for a nice surprise. I don't know that the girls have ever seen a horse other than the ones for mounted Police and they have definitely never ridden one (other than their toy Booster). Bresa loves horses because she has a friend who does, so she is always talking about ponies and having a horse. When it was finally time for their turn Abbi mounted up like a natural and Bresa was so excited she couldn't stop laughing. They went around the walk and I ran all over trying to get as many pictures as possible while Peter waited with Javan. 
After the ride we saw the rest of the animals and then headed out. Javan did really well all day long. He only cried at the very end when we were leaving because he was hungry again, I took him out of the stroller to carry him and he fell asleep. 
I guess it was a long day for all of us. On the way home we stopped in Lakeland and had a wonderful dinner with Peter's Aunt and Uncle and cousin (the one getting married next week). Then we stopped at Grandma's and dropped off Bresa since she doesn't have school on Monday and Grandma happened to be off of work. Goose was happy when we finally got home and I was happy to see my bed. You can click on any image to view it larger. *Thanks Reba for letting us stay with you, we wish you could have come with us to the zoo. We had a blast though so we may be returning.
posted by We are the Taylors @ 11:41 PM
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