Making New Animal Friends

One of the most exciting trips that we’ve taken so far since moving was to the Franklin Park Zoo. I know, you’re probably thinking, “geez, it’s just a zoo,” but for Cade and I you can’t get much better. We are huge animal lovers, so we enjoy being around them quite a bit! This trip was made even better by my parents surprising us with tickets. They are fairly expensive, as most zoos are, and we were going to wait awhile before going. We also were still pretty bummed about having to leave our previous town’s zoo, which was free and we went to quite often. So, getting to go to this zoo and meet all of its friends was quite a big deal for us. We just had to figure out how to get to it. Franklin Park Zoo is down in the Roxbury-Dorchester area of Boston, which was quite a trip for us, with a bus transfer. It was also a little bit of a rainy day. The forecast had originally called for rain all day, but the morning of they dropped the rain in the afternoon. So, on top of the long commute, it was a little bit of a last minute thing, but sure enough, we made it down there and were able to enjoy a nice afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the first things that we came to was a prairie dog cluster..and, Cade and I went a little crazy over it. Prairie dogs were one of our favorite things at the Columbian Park Zoo, but there were never this many out!

 

 

 

 

 

Next was a tiger and white tiger…very pretty. They also had this jeep that actually went into the lion exhibit, so you could technically cross that line if you got inside the jeep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There also was a super big camel. We had forgotten how big they are, and he was so furry. We thoroughly enjoyed him. Right around his area, the little train passed us. We didn’t take it since we wanting to just walk around, but it was cute.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, we went into one of those enclosed areas that has a specific area of animals, which had an ant eater, gorillas, a pygmy hippo, lemur, and a potto, which I absolutely went insane for..I’m pretty much a sucker for tiny things with big eyes. He’s the one in the dark picture, because he’s a nocturnal animal, he liked his darkness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the entrance, we actually went through it backwards, and I thought it was gorgeous.

 

 

 

 

 

Next up was a bird exhibit. You were supposed to pay for the food to feed them, but the girl must have been feeling nice, because she gave us food for free after telling us to hold our hand out and they might come to us..and they didn’t. Oh, but with that food, it took all of like 3 seconds for our hands to be filled. I have to say this was probably my favorite part of the day. There’s just something about interacting with animals, especially ones that you wouldn’t normally interact with, that just moves me. So, I left feelings super excited and just moved…sorry I don’t have better words for it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the very end, we hit up one more area before it started raining again…oh, and I’m glad we did, because….there was a baby sloth! Now, when I said I freaked out about the potto, that was nothing compared to this. We were supposed to be quite to not scare the baby, but it was extremely hard to contain myself. I could have sat and watched them for hours.

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, a great afternoon exploring a new zoo with new friends. Although it was a long trip to get to and from and it cost quite a bit of money, I’m sure we will be back. My only hope is that they find a way to make some money to spend on the exhibits. This was the only big issue that I found with this zoo; some of the cages just seemed very old and not really appropriate for the animals. Other than that, we loved making new animal friends.