The new Dallas Zoo

We went to the new Dallas zoo today. Can you see the elephant behind Finn?

It's actually the same zoo that was there before, but it has doubled in size and feels new. The new Savannah (opened less than a month ago) is incredible, and the closest thing to Disney's Animal Kingdom I've ever seen.

The tiger exhibit is beautiful, but the tigers were hiding.

We got to see them feed the lions. The lions do a "training demonstration" where they sort of do tricks, although their training is all based on helping the keepers care for them.

I am standing very very close to a lion here.

Very, very close. I could have touched the chain link. Except that there was a keeper with a giant can of Mace between me and the lion. The lion's don't live in this chain link area—it's only for training demonstrations.

The Dallas zoo's old elephant pen was small and sad. The new savannah area is huge, and really pretty. I didn't take pictures of all of it, but it's amazing.

And the giraffes are right next door! They are very friendly.

very pretty, too.
Finn is waiting on the giraffes to come see us.

Here's how close you can get to the giraffes: REALLY close. You can feed them!

So we did! We all gave the giraffes some lettuce. That's Jonathan's hand.

(Special giraffe lettuce costs $5, by the way.
But I have to admit that it was pretty cool to feed them.)

Finn is making the sign for "more." He liked the giraffes.

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Pretty good times at the NEW zoo.

Finn also liked the elephants.


Sitting on a bronze elephant sculpture.

I'm using a portrait lens and can't get far enough away.
I'll know next time to bring the zoom lens.

There was a baby chimp! A whole chimp family.


My sweet boys. Sweet, sweaty boys.

Sweaty head = curls.


The children's area is really nice. There is a playground & a stream to play in and cool off.

It's hard to tell here, but those are giant eggs you can climb in and on.

Giant bird's nest. This picture is a little overexposed; can you tell I'm still shooting manually?


Finn has a stuffed cheetah that he calls "kitty." He saw these cheetahs and immediately started saying "Meow! Meow!" A little boy next too us was also pointing and saying "cat! cat!"

This is me at the end of the day. Whew. It was hot out there. But we had fun!