~Beware~ Upcoming picture overload. Just can’t help it.
Sometime last year, I was searching for day trip ideas (and, namely, to find places that we could drive to that had dolphins), and I happened upon a site that mentioned that you could hand feed the giraffe at the Maryland Zoo.
And I quickly made a note of that. (I have a note on my phone saved with “kids activities,” so I always have a running list of adventures we can partake in)
I loved the idea of hand feeding the giraffe, because that’s something that we can’t do at any of the zoos we’ve visited so far.
And then I found out you could also ride camels while there.
And groom the goats.
It was a veritable gold mine of bucket list items!
And then, a few months back, there was a Groupon for a Baltimore hotel.
And that’s when it all fell into place.
{more on the hotel coming later}
The zoo was our main purpose for visiting Baltimore.
That and the fact that none of us had ever been, making it a fun little weekend jaunt that wouldn’t break the bank.
The zoo is open from 10 to 4, and we pulled into the parking lot at 9:45 am, snagging a parking space in the very first row. The grounds are beautifully maintained, right down to the parking lot.
I do believe this is the second least expensive zoo we have visited so far, costing under $40 for the three of us to visit (no AAA discounts, by the way, but they do give military discounts).
There are two major sections to explore at the zoo, but we made a beeline for the giraffe area first, to make sure we didn’t run out of time. There is a free tram that will take you from the main gate to the African Journey section where the giraffes are.
The giraffes aren’t, of course, the only animals in that section, and once the tram dropped us off, we passed by vultures, a leopard, a cheetah, a warthog and more. At the giraffe feeding station, you can buy browse for $2 a piece to hand feed them. Because the zoo had just opened, there was no one in line, and it was perfect timing. And it also meant I could juggle two iPhones and a camera to capture the perfect pictures. I will tell you, though, that the giraffes eat the browse in the blink of an eye, so make sure you’re ready to take the picture. There were two giraffes there, both girls, one was in her mid-teens and the other was two years old.
Adorable.
Memorable.
Pure awesomeness, and definitely worth it.
If you look carefully, you can see its tongue outstretched all the way to the piece of browse that Nick is holding. Crazylong tongue.
Bucket list item: check.
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