o! what a city-part 2

on labor day weekend, we loaded the car and headed west to omaha. we hit up the children's museum, a couple of food joints and some big slides. read part 1 here, if you missed it.

on sunday morning we woke up and got ready. we went down for breakfast and then back to the room to get our things for the day and then we were off to the henry doorly zoo. as we were approaching our exit, traffic was backed up and we thought there was an accident or something since it was about a mile off. as we got closer, we could see that it was just traffic heading to the zoo. once we made the turn off of the off ramp, we could see the parking lots were packed. i wasn't sure how much i was going to enjoy the day with that many people around. we got parked, walked a mile to the zoo entrance and waited in line about twenty minutes to get tickets.

once we entered the gates, i could tell that it wasn't going to be as bad as i thought from the sight of all the cars. we decided to go in the wild kingdom pavilion first, so we could use the restrooms before we really got much further into the zoo. while in there, we saw some pretty boring things compared to what we would later see.

at the cat complex we saw a white siberian tiger. it wasn't the happiest cat, kept walking back and forth growling. we saw some more as we entered the building and then there was another mean guy outside. he was making this funny moan/roar.

 

at the bear canyon the polar bear was sleeping when we noticed him, but then he started looking around. i think i snapped a pretty good photo of him. little boy thought he was pretty cool because his mom let him walk instead of being trapped in the stroller. the other bear was cleaning himself...nice tongue, huh? baby girl finally decided to wake up and enjoy the fun.

 down at gorilla valley, we saw this guy. he was just sitting there watching all the people watch him. he looked fake sitting there, until he started turning his head and then got up and walked off. i'm sure he had enough of the people watching.

from there, we went next door to orangutan forest. very boring inside. i think we only saw one and it was sleeping. on the outside however, there were a few playing and swinging around on the robes, showing off for the crowds. little boy thought he needed to show us his monkey climbing skills. i'm not thrilled that my two year old can climb a fence...again, he sure things he's hot stuff because he can. 

 

it was time to eat so we sat and waited as adam got in line to get some food. as iwas sitting there, i probably saw three different groups pull out their coolers with sandwiches and other lunches packed. i had to settle for expensive, fried food because we didn't know you could bring in your own food. next time i'll definitely be packing our lunches. 

we went into the desert dome...B.O.R.I.N.G. no pictures because i couldn't wait to get out of there, and it just so happened to be the only building we went in that there was a line and you had to wait for everyone to move...and there was no turning around as there was only one exit.

the jungle was probably my favorite part. there were a lot of animals in there that we don't see very often, or have ever seen. they were all pretty lazy, but at least they were out so we could see them and we didn't have to search for them.

the last building we went into was the aquarium. there were a lot of different things housed in this building. first up, the puffins. i always thought they were more like a penguin, but they're not. you can't see them very well, but they reminded me of a fatty duck of some sort.

we made our way to see the penguins. there was a line of people that was moving very slowly, so little boy played/posed by the different species on the wall as we waited to see the real deal.

and here they are. there were tons of them and they were active. there were some swimming. some just hanging out, some flapping their wings/arms/flippers (whatever they're called) and some were waddling around, taking in the sites off all the zoo visitors.

the last room to go through was the ocean tunnel. we saw stingrays, sharks, big 'ol fish, starfish and lots of pretty coral. again, the people kept getting in my way to take a good picture, but these are the best i have to share.

{i think brynlee was on her 4th nap at this point}

we wanted to go into the butterfly building, but there was a 'no stroller' policy. i wasn't digging that, with as little and wiggly as brynlee is. plus, with as many people that were there that day, i'm not okay with leaving my belongings unattended for an unknown period of time. since we were halfway down the hill, we decided to continue down and see the giraffes. the choo-choo was right there too and i was hoping little boy wouldn't see it. he did, but didn't make a big fuss about it so we were able to escape without riding it. 

once we made it back up the hill, after a minor rode block due to an emergency vehicle, we exited the grounds and headed to the hotel to rest and figure out what we were going to do for supper. once the kids were inside and strapped, it wasn't long before this was the view when i turned around, and yes, brynlee was asleep AGAIN. 

we ended up going to the old market area and dining at a place called, upstream brewery. it was pretty good. they brew all their beers and it was a hard decision what i was going to drink. there was a sampler shot that we did and adam and i both tried a few before choosing one. i went with the raspberry lager...yum...and adam went with something that i didn't care for. we had a hummus platter for appetizer and then chose jambalaya and the grilled chicken penne pasta. little boy had pizza and brynlee went with pears. no pictures other than my beer, as the two offspring had forgotten how to act in public and there was no way the camera was going to be safe.

back to the hotel to pack and go to bed. we had plans to make a cabela's stop and then head for home in the morning, and that's just what we did, after stopping and getting a little nebraska apparel. 

the end!