Saint Louis - Zoo / Turtle Park

So the pictures below are a complete reversal of the time spent at the zoo and Turtle Park, but I do not want to move them around.  After the science center, we drove over to the zoo, and had to park along the street a good walk from the entrance, and seeing as we hit the zoo at 3:00 PM, we only had 2 hours.  And the St. Louis Zoo is completely free, and that is really great!  So after walking in, I knew the musts for our family was the monkeys, the penguins and the new polar bear.  This tour and I think the rain cleared out the crowds and made for probably one of the best 2 hour zoo visits ever. 

 

We started by seeing some monkeys and one sitting right beside the glass for a good visit.  Magan loved the monkey and felt the trip was worth it just for this cute monkey.  But then we got to the Polar Bear area right at feeding time.  Ruby was asleep during all of this, and also kept Magan out of the penguin area which would have woken Ruby up...it was COLD!  Imagine that.  This was really one of the coolest penguin exhibits I have ever been to, if you want to count closeness to the penguins.  It was basically one big open area, and you could reach out and touch the penguins...easy...if not for the big guards in the area. 

 

After the penguins was the large swimming area for the Polar Bear, but he was still outside eating, and everything was empty and quiet...then the Huge Bear dove in and swam right up to the window looking for some more tasty treats.  It was really only me, Sam, Davis, Belle and Polar Bear.  We had him all to ourselves for a good long time, and had fun watching him swim and play.  I tried to get Magan in, but more guards would not allow this...

 

We then went on a long walkabout trail through the African region, really laid out very well, and many good opportunities to see the animals.  So we finally stopped at the hippos while everyone else went down to see them underwater.  Then, because it was closing time, we got to watch all 4 hippos get up and leave the water then leave the exhibit.  Fun watching hippos actually move...this has been rare in past.  Ruby had woken up by this time, and just squealed at the hippos...and the bird that flew right over our heads.  She loved the elephants too, then the stone sea lions back at the front of the park before we left. 

 

Outside the zoo near where we parked was "Turtle Park", so we decided to stop and...of course let Dave run around.  He told me how much Swimmers would like this park.  Sam was tired, and just laid back on the serpent bench.