Lowry Park Zoo

On Tuesday of our vacation, we visited the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa. It was about a 45 min. drive form our condo and well worth it! Parents magazine had an article about the best zoos to visit in the US a few months ago and Lowry Park was in the Top 10,maybe even #1....I don't remember, but I decided then that since we were going to be so close we should try to visit. My friend Emily was coming up to visit us for the day so she met us at the Zoo.

Last summer we took Braden to Zoo Atlanta and he really enjoyed it. He was a little timid at the petting zoo at first but we stopped by on our way out of the park and he loved it. The patting zoo at Zoo Atlanta is really the only interactive area, as far as petting animals, but at Lowry Park Zoo you can pet a giraffe, ride a camel, feed lorikeets, and pet stingrays. Plus they have a really awesome children's area with water activities. The one thing that I wanted to do was pet the wallaroos, but it was closed for the summer.

We asked Braden which animal he wanted to see first and he said the monkeys, since he tells us that is his favorite animal. The monkeys were really neat, but I did miss seeing the gorillas at Zoo Atlanta. Next we visited the giraffe. It is amazing! He walks right up to a watch tower and will eat out of your hand and let you pet him. He has a HUGE tongue.

In one area of the zoo there is a camel that you can ride. Brad asked Braden if he wanted to ride the camel and he said yes. However, when he was on the camel he changed his mind! Brad had to hold onto him really tight because he was ready to get down! Oh well! He also rode the carousel which he loved, petted sting rays, fed birds, watched manatees swim, and played in the fountain! We only stayed for about 3 hours because it was SO hot, but it was a great zoo and we would love to visit it again!