Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden

Taking a day off from baseball last Friday, we visited the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. It was my first visit to a zoo other than our very own Milwaukee County Zoo, which I visit at least once each year. Prior to our trip, I had read several online reviews of the zoo written by other visitors. Some of the visitors gave the zoo a poor rating, claiming that the animals were confined to small exhibits and that the animals looked tired and sickly. After reading those reviews and driving through a bad neighborhood to reach the zoo, I didn't expect much from the Cincinnati Zoo.

I was unexpectedly surprised and impressed by the Cincinnati Zoo! The grounds were clean and beautifully maintained, the animals were housed in big, natural exhibit areas, and the zoo offered several "hands-on" activities for visitors. I saw several animals there that I have never seen before in my life! After visiting the Cincinnati Zoo, I now believe our own zoo to be far inferior. I always hear people say that we have a nice zoo, but it doesn't even compare to the zoo in Cincinnati.

Our day at the zoo was highlighted by the following:

• I fed a giraffe! The giraffe licked my finger with his long black tongue!
• Chris touched a snake!
• We all laughed at the poop smeared on the wall in a monkey exhibit.
• We watched a small chimpanzee roll an orange playground ball up, down, and all around his exhibit area.
• We were amused by the baby gorilla who "danced" for its mother and for the crowd of people watching it.
• We enjoyed watching the tiger cubs wrestle with each other!
• Chris and I watched a hippopotamus ignore the zookeeper's signals to come and eat.

Although it rained a bit during our stay, we enjoyed our visit to the Cincinnati Zoo, and would recommend a stop there if traveling to Cincinnati!

Oh...please forgive the spelling error on the title page below ('Botannical' should only have 1 'n' in it.). I just caught the mistake now after I waited nearly 30 minutes for the video to upload. I aim for perfection, but I don't always achieve it (only most of the time)!