Michael & Amanda and chicklets to call our own: The Brevard Zoo

As if we don't have enough animal encounters, we went to the zoo. Sometimes I feel like I live in a zoo with as much as Ivan and Charlotte growl, roar, cheep, moo, bark, meow, etc. These kids love animals. I'm sure Michael and I had nothing to do with that...

I went to the Brevard Zoo with my friend Mary a couple weeks ago. She has a pass that got me and Charlotte in for free so we only had to pay the $12 for Ivan to get in. By the way, I think it's ridiculous to have to pay for a 2 year old. Seriously? And not only is it silly to pay for a 2 year old, but I feel like I was charged a lot. Not just me in particular, but that the price for a 2-12 year old was $12? That seems overboard for me. Anyway, since the kids and I had already been to the zoo, we knew Michael would like it. And we got 2 free tickets from a friend and again only had to pay for Ivan. Not bad, except for the fact that he's 2.

I'm pretty sure this is a Cheetah. Those spotted big cats are hard to identify sometimes. He was pacing all over his yard and walked right in front of us several times.

In all reality, I've been to much better zoos. The Brevard Zoo does not get my vote for best zoo ever or best price for what you get, but hey, there's a splash pad/ swimming pool in the zoo. Knowing it was going to be a million degrees outside, we didn't plan on staying all day or even seeing all the exhibits. This was a first for me. We didn't see everything when we went with Mary, but I didn't have any help with the kids and I expected to leave early because of that. But when I do things with Michael, I expect to go all the way. This time, I realized my limits, both physically and mentally, and we settled to see what we wanted and split before we went crazy or roasted. That was a good decision.

I'm not sure if she just really liked the emus or if biting the bars felt good on her gums. Either way she was very happy right here.

This emu was thumping at us. They make this really deep sound in their throat that sounds like thumping on a hollow log. The kids thought it was neat.

This zoo really just has a bunch of cool birds. There is a room that you can go in and it's all fenced in and there are tons of these little green parrot looking birds that fly around freely. You can buy little fruit cups and the birds will land on you, fight each other for the food, and eat right out of the cup. The kids thought this was really cool but Ivan wasn't quite brave enough to try it out, he just watched mom and dad do it. Charlotte kept trying to catch the birds, which was funny, but the birds weren't the nicest and weren't afraid to bite you. That is what I paid $12 for each time we went. Definitely my favorite part of the zoo.

They took dad by surprise!

Ivan loved seeing the bird eat out of dad's hand!

He even got brave enough to hold the cup! We made sure it was mostly empty so the birds wouldn't actually land on him.

Charlotte is trying her hardest to catch these little cockateels.

We ate lunch right next to the Flamingo pond. That's where we got to feed a scarlet ibis and a roseate spoonbill. Really it was just fish food, but instead of throwing it into the water for the giant coy to eat, we fed it piece by piece to the birds. They would take it right out of your fingers! And the spoonbill's bill felt like two plastic plates fumbling over your hand. Pretty neat experience. And I got pooped on.

Michael thought feeding the birds was really cool too. The one eating from his hand is the spoonbill and the red on is the scarlet ibis. Can you see the flamingos in the background?

One reason why we chose this spot to eat lunch at was for the shade. Shade means birds and birds mean poop. I kept saying they were gonna poop on me and we should move, but we weren't enough.

It didn't take long after that for us to just be done. We went by the splash pad little pool thing and let the kids cool off then headed out. Somehow I don't have a single picture of the kids playing in the water. Dang, that place is pretty cool, too. They have a shallow pool with a manatee statue in it and a deeper pool that has more water park type things. The big pool has a bucket that fills and you pull the cord and it dumps it on you and it meets up with a giant fish tank with fish the size of Ivan in it. And there's the whale's mouth that is a slide that mimics a whale tongue and you can push a button and water comes out the blow hole.

The giraffe exhibit they have is incredible! They had a couple baby giraffes and 3 or 4 adults. The giraffes could reach their heads right up to this platform where everyone was walking.