Big Cat Habitat and Gulf Coast Sanctuary

The Big Cat Habitat and Gulf Coast Sanctuary is located outside of the main area of Sarasota. It is well worth the trip though if you're an animal lover. Here, you'll find various rescued animals, with tigers being the main focus, but also with bears, lions and others.

This isn't a very large facility, but they do great work in taking care of the animals. In addition, each day at 2 PM, they do a great show featuring some of the animals, but also explaining what individuals can do to help out.

Roger Williams Park Zoo

The Roger Williams Park Zoo is a medium sized zoo in Providence, RI. The zoo is set up well, so that strolling through it at a leisurely pace will allow you to see all the animals and exhibits in about three hours. Some of the highlights were the elephants, giraffes and snow leopards. We were also there during Halloween time and there were plenty of jack o' lanterns to see during this time.

The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore

Written by Matt Rosenfeld
While not one of the most famous zoos in the country, the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, located in Druid Hill Park, is a pleasant zoo to experience.  The zoo size is pretty average sized compared to other zoos around the country, however, they have a few unique animal exhibits that are worth the trip here.

The polar bear exhibit is pretty neat, and allows you to go into a Tundra Buggy, which is what is used in Manitoba, Canada for tourists to experience polar bears in their natural habitat. At the zoo, it lets you get closer to the polar bears as it goes over the top of the exhibit. There are also lions, penguins, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes and much more to experience here.

For those staying in the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, a car (or taxi) would be needed to get here.  It is good for a 2-3 hour trip though, just for a basic walk through the zoo, stopping at most of the animals.

The Living Desert

About a 15-20 minute ride from Palm Springs, CA, the Living Desert (located in Palm Desert, CA) is a zoo that plays up the desert angle.  We did arrive late in the day, but in just an hour we walked through the majority of the zoo.  Unfortunately, we were a bit disappointed due to the lack of animals out.  Granted, zoos are typically better in the morning if you want to see animal activity, however, in this case, many animals just weren't in their enclosures, which made us feel a bit cheated.

There are many activities to do in the Palm Springs area, and this one just can't get our recommendation based on our experience, especially if you are going in the afternoon.

Cape May County Zoo

Cape May County Zoo is a big, beautiful zoo, not to mention free. We traveled down to Cape May when the zoo announced two baby snow leopards had joined the exhibit with their mother.

For a free zoo, it was much bigger than we expected, and had a lot of animals. Not only did we get to see the baby snow leopards, but also monkeys of all sorts, bald eagles, turtles, red pandas, bears and more.

There is a $1 per person suggested donation. As we pulled in, there was a zoo employee taking donations, as well as mailboxes around the zoo for making donations.

We traveled here with our 5-year-old niece, and one thing we loved was there were not food stands or gift shops inside the zoo. In fact, food and drinks are prohibited in the zoo except in designated areas. There is one small gift shop that you must pass to get in and out of the zoo, as well as a carousel.

Bronx Zoo

When most people visit New York City, they usually stick to Manhattan.  The Bronx isn't very well known as a tourist destination, and in all honestly, isn't exactly the best of neighborhoods.  However, in the middle of it all is The Bronx Zoo, which is a gorgeous park in the middle of this urban center.  For both locals and visitors to the city, it can be a pleasant experience.  The amount of land is quite large for a city zoo, but isn't overwhelming.

While I thought the grounds were landscaped nicely, the main attraction of course are the animals.  However, this is one area where I believe this zoo is lacking.  The sheer amount of animals on display falls quite short of other famous zoos in America.  In addition, the habitats were quite large for some small animals, which made it difficult to view them.

If you're in the area, this zoo can definitely be enjoyable and worth your time.  However, from this visit, I'd be very hesitant to make the 2 hour drive again as the zoo just didn't offer anything special compared to other zoos for me.

One thing we did take advantage of, is on the first full weekend of each month, if you have a Bank of America debit or credit card, you can get into the zoo for free.  At least then, you can't complain about the cost!

San Diego Zoo

The world famous San Diego Zoo is everything you've ever heard about it.  It encompasses a gigantic amount of space and houses a wide variety of animals from lions to tigers to bears (oh my!).  You can spend all day walking around the entire zoo and still not be able to see all of the shows and animals.

The zoo also is one of only 2 zoos in North America to have Giant Panda bears on display, which you'll wait in a long line to see (and also need to remain very quiet).  These animals don't get exported from China very often, so if you're a Panda lover, it's a must visit attraction if you're in Southern California.

One activity we tried that we weren't too impressed with was the Skyfari Aerial Tram.  This "ride" takes you from one side of the park to the other for $4/person for a one-way ride.  While that will let you cross the park quite fast, you don't get any type of a special view of any of the animal exhibits, which we were hoping for.  I'd suggest that anyone visiting passes on this option (although it is free if you do have an annual membership, and in that case it's a pretty convenient way to cross the park).

When visiting, also be sure to keep your eye out for various discounts instead of paying the full fare.  There are sometimes discounts for people who live in Southern California, as well as discounts for members of clubs such as AAA.  Also, if you're planning on visiting other attractions in the area (SeaWorld, Legoland, etc.), you may be able to buy combination tickets for all of the parks that will save you some cash.

ZooAmerica: Free Weekend!

On the weekend of Saturday, January 22 and Sunday, January 23, ZooAmerica, in Hershey, PA, is holding a free community weekend each day from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.  All guests will be able to enter the zoo at no charge (tickets typically run for $10/adult).  This is a great opportunity to get out to the Hershey area to enjoy both the zoo and also the various chocolate tourism in the town.

It's approximately a two-hour drive from Philadelphia to get to Hershey, so you may also consider staying over night at one of the many hotels in the area.  If this appeals to you, I'd personally suggest booking through hotels.com to obtain the best prices in the area.  And if you're feeling very luxurious, you may want to experience the Chocolate Spa while in the area!

Philly Zoo - Video Compilation

Leann has made a small video compilation of our trip to the zoo.  All animal fans should definitely check it out below!

Philly Zoo

This Sunday's featured trip into Philly had us going into the zoo, which happens to be the country's first and oldest zoo. Before going, I secured 2 tickets to the zoo through my company's discount program and got them for $13 a piece (whereas they are $18 at the door). Parking, however, was not reduced and it cost $12 to get into one of their lots.

Zoo members get free parking and free entrance to the zoo for a full calendar year.

When we first entered the zoo, the first thing we found was a Philly Phanatic statue. This is the second statue we've discovered in the city thus far.

This summer, 20 of them have been planted around the city and we plan on getting pictures with all of them. Only 18 more to go!

Instead of just droning on about each exhibit we saw here, I figured I'd just mention some of the highlights. One portion that the zoo is advertising heavily this year is Creatures of Habitat - Lego creations of various animals. Seeing these is a pretty impressive site. I know it's something I never could create with my Lego-abilities!

My personal favorite animal has always been bears. Unfortunately, the polar bears didn't do much more than sleep while we were there. However, this friendly fellow was walking around quite a bit.

Leann's favorites are any of the cat-variety. We were able to see some lions, jaguars, leopards and cheetahs while we were there. She just wanted to take all of them home. Luckily for me, the trunk was already full in her car!

Of course, everyone loves giraffes. These animals really move gracefully. One day I plan on going to Giraffe Manor in Kenya that has them come to your hotel window in the morning!

The peacocks were quite magnificent as well. It's amazing how animals colored like this appear in nature. Around the zoo, the peacocks are free roaming, allowing visitors to get closer to these magnificent birds.

There were plenty more animals around the zoo, and I'd recommend anyone in the area to check it out.

After the zoo, we decided to walk down to UPenn's campus to go to the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. I'll talk about that and share some pictures for everyone tomorrow.