We went to the LA zoo last June, a month before our daughter turned two. She could already identify a lot of animals and imitate their sounds with the help of an Ipad app called “animals zoo”. We wanted to show her the real thing, so off we went.
Traffic was a breeze. When we got to L.A. Zoo, there were a lot of buses filled with little kids on their field trips. We didn’t have a hard time finding parking, getting in, or seeing the animals. Everybody kind of just look at one exhibit then moves on to the next.
The first thing we saw was the Chilean flamingo, I was in awe. Their colors were beautiful, best-looking animals at LA Zoo in my opinion. I could stare at it all day, if not for the heat though. We move more rapidly than usual so we can see a lot before the noon sun hits.
The walk around L.A. Zoo was kind of an uphill incline. Our daughter for the most part didn’t wanna ride her stroller and wanted to be carried instead. Uphill climb + hot weather + 24 pounds toddler = misery. Hehe. Good thing the hubby was with us. I got to rest my arms.
There were bears roaming, tortoise eating, tiger sleeping, and gorillas kissing. Did I just write kissing? Yes, I saw them kissing. The gorilla area was nice. There are some steps there fronting the gorillas where the kids on their field trip were sitting so they could watch the gorillas while they eat their packed lunch.
It was amazing to see the rhinoceros as well. It’s like an armor-clad animal. It’s a must-see if you haven’t seen one in person.
We also saw zebras and giraffes. My daughter was unusually quiet, probably trying to observe and absorb everything she is seeing.
But what we really wanted her to see were the elephants. She loves elephants! When we got to the elephants’ area, they were walking towards the waterfall and went ahead to drink water. Then my daughter started to imitate the sounds of elephants as she’s seen on TV.
A couple more animals like the koala and the Visayan pig from the Philippines and we were ready for some lunch. We left the zoo around noon and got ourselves some dim sum from Chinatown before heading home. Yum!
By the way, there is a bavarian-filled churro at L.A. Zoo that I heard was really good but we didn’t get to try, maybe on another trip.