St Louis Zoo

We headed out early on the Saturday morning of November 14th to visit the St. Louis Zoo. The 77-acre zoo is located in the beautiful Forest Park area where the 1904 World's Fair was held. Forest Park includes the zoo, Art Museum, Science Center, Jewelry Box greenhouse, History Museum, The Muny Theatre, 7.5 mile biking, jogging and skating path, skating rink and lakes, golf course, tennis center and much, much more. Admission to the park and zoo are free. http://stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/parks/forestpark/

Huge Great White inside the zoo lobby.

Hayes loved riding this "horse" on the carousel.
The Penguin and Puffin indoor and outdoor exhibit was added in 2003 and was one of my favorites at the zoo. However, the inside exhibit was obviously very cold and not so fresh smelling. Humboldt, king, gentoo, and rockhopper penguins from the southern hemisphere, and horned and tufted puffins from the northern hemisphere are among the species on display.
The Chimpanzee exhibit was another one of my favorites, and I did not know that they are currently on the endangered species list. At one time more than 1 million thrived in Africa and as of 2008 only 190,000 are estimated to be in existence. Several factors have contributed to the loss of species from loss of habitat, meat trade, ebola virus, etc. I could have stayed and watched these amazing creatures all day.
We had to make a stop by the Big Cat exhibit for Hayes. For those of you that don't know Hayes has been acting like a kitty cat for the last 4 weeks constantly meowing. This is the Cheetah. The fastest land animal in the world sprinting up to 70 mph.

We spent about 4 1/2 hours at the zoo and still did not see everything. I can't wait to go back soon and see everything else. If you go I recommend riding the train in the zoo and getting off at each stop to see the different exhibits. Otherwise you'll be walking all day.