Howdy! I so enjoyed my trip to the Columbus Zoo with Johnny and my brother and it really was an adventure. The Columbus Zoo is freaking gigantic and we were exhausted by the time it was time to head home. Even more so because we may or may not have forgotten where we parked the car and wandered around the parking lot for a solid twenty minutes. But that’s neither here nor there lol. Everything at this zoo was beautiful and you could easily spend an entire day there and then some. While there was a new sight to see everywhere you looked, I had two major highlights of our outing: The aquarium and feeding the lorikeets! Check it out:

We have an aquarium in Cleveland and it actively sucks. It is expensive to get into, is about three rooms in total, and you could get through the entire property in a half an hour. Although the aquarium at the Columbus Zoo wasn’t a full fledged one like you might find in bigger cities, it might as well have been! The only thing I had to compare it to was the Cleveland one and the Columbus Zoo was infinitely better in every way. It was glorious and so relaxing! The air conditioning, the sound of water, and sights so wonderful it looked like you were watching a screensaver on the computer.

When you enter into the aquarium, you will find a touch tank for the kiddos and a few exhibits leading up to the piece de resistance. As you venture further, you are greeted by the huge tank that runs the length of the sizeable space from floor to ceiling. It was spectacular! We found several species of sharks, fish, and coral in the exhibit and myself and crew were amazed. To see the sharks gliding about, schools of fish traveling together, and a few cheeky fish playing hide and go seek in the coral was like having a view straight into the ocean. The tank was so big that we were seeing brand new things each time we stepped a few feet. Had this been our local zoo and not one two hours plus away, I think we would have sat on the movie theater style seats to kick back and enjoy the splendor. We had a lot of zoo to get through, though!

After we managed to peel ourselves away from the undersea show, we stepped into the next section for manatees, stingrays, and sea turtles. Once again, it was ginourmous and complete with mangrove trees! We arrived at the perfect time because it was snack time and all of us had to laugh. The sea creatures were snacking on hearts of romaine just like our bunnies! It was so funny to see the manatees swimming while munching away at the leafy greens that they held in their flippers. In fact, countless animals at the zoo were having a romaine treat and we would love to know what the zoo’s leafy green budget is. WAY more than the seven bucks Johnny and I spend every week and a half. 😀

My second favorite highlight at the Columbus Zoo took place in the Australia portion where there was an aviary that housed lorikeets, which are small rainbow colored birds. You could walk through the aviary or you could purchase some nectar to feed them. Of course, I had to give it a go and am glad that we only purchased one cup of nectar. There was plenty to go around for my brother and Johnny to feed them too. All of the lorikeets were perched on branches and eagerly waiting for their next nectar fix. It was SO cool to give them their treat and once you were feeding one, all of the rest wanted in too. There was a point when I had three lorikeets to my tiny cup of nectar! I very much wanted to feed the giraffes but we didn’t have the time to do so. I am really happy we took the time to feed the lorikeets because it was such an awesome experience!

If you are ever in the area, I can’t recommend a trip to the Columbus Zoo enough. You will absolutely love it and I wish we could go back this weekend!

Does your local zoo have any animal feeding experiences? What is your favorite sea creature? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah