(Not sure if this is written about earlier or not, so I'm going to share it again.) Right before we left we went to a dear friends house to pray with them. They have 4 kids; the older two prayed with us incredible prayers. Then we were talking about the trip. The mom asked us if we had enough money saved, and we told her honestly that we had some set aside but was trusting that God would provide as we needed. Next thing we know the oldest boy is handing us a $20. Then the 2nd oldest boy gave $11.50. They couldn't let leave the younger 2 kids out, so they both 'gave' us some money through their older brothers. When we left their house that day, we had in hand the most expensive and precious $36.50 we had ever received. Immediately we knew we had to do something special with the cash. Due to their love of animals, we quickly landed on the zoo in Omaha.
So on this special day, we handed over most of the money to buy admission to the zoo and aquarium. :) The rest of the money bought us an expensive water later in the day. So thankful for these boys! Words cannot express how grateful we were.
Let me start by saying that it is indeed one of the largest zoos we have ever been to!
Some highlights of the day included:
The Bears!
We first saw the bears. The zoo has 4 different varieties: 2 sun bears, 2 Andean bears, 1 polar bear, and 1 black bear. One of the sun Bears captured our hearts immediately when he was perched on top of a tree above the fence line (but couldn't jump to where we were). He entertained us even before the feeding! During the feeding he would catch his food (see video on Facebook page) while sitting in the tree! He even husked a corn cob. :D
We also enjoyed watching the polar bear swim laps. She would go in circles in her water pool, swimming in her back then diving under the water. During the feeding, she waited until the trainer had thrown all of the celery and the melon into the water. Then she gathered up the celery and the melon into her mouth at once. She brought it to the rocks, ate all her celery, then ate the melon peel and all! (Sadly we didn't get any pictures of her.)
The other bear we enjoyed watching was one of the Andean bear. He was the first one we saw feed. It was adorable!!
We didn't spend much time watching the black bear, but was fun to see after watching a video about them in Aspen.
Desert Dome
One of the things that this zoo is famous for is its desert done. Inside the dome it maintains a desert like atmosphere because of the way the sun reflects off the dome. It was an amazing, nature-like exhibit.
Definitely a unique part of the zoo that we both loved!
Penquin Feeding
We had the opportunity to watch some of the penguins being fed! There were two trainers who came in to feed them. One handed out the fish and the other one recorded how many fish each penguin ate. This is to have information in case an animal is getting sick or about to molt all their feathers. Right before a molt they eat as much as they can so they can live off their fat reserves when they don't have feathers. Really interesting! The keepers were so very willing to talk with us!
Aquarium
Within the zoo there is a small aquarium with emperor penguins, sharks, fish, and more!
We took a selfie with the penguins. It didn't fully work, but we tried!
We enjoyed all of the beautiful fish as well as see the jellies and an eel!!
Sea Lions
We had the chance to watch trainers work with the sea lions. The male sea lion was very loud! The trainers had them wave flippers, jump through hoops, and fetch rings. :) It was fun to watch!
There were two cute little baby sea lions that was born in early June. Right as we were about to leave, a trainer announced that there was an opportunity to name the babies. I submitted the name 'Magnolia' in honor of my friend's daughter who passed away a few weeks ago from a DIPG brain tumor.
Gorillas
One of the male gorillas enjoyed showing off for everyone who was watching! He stood right by the glass and posed for a few girls taking photos. He then walked over and was posing for us! The personality of this gorilla made us smile. We decided to take a selfie with him! ;)
Giraffes
Our last stop of the day was to see the giraffes :)
After the zoo, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner prepared by our hosts! Then, after showering off the gross sunscreen we had used that day, we played the best game of Settlers of Catan ever. It was a close game from start to finish which made it really fun!! We will miss this wonderful couple who welcomed us into Nebraska.
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