Lowry Park Zoo, Tampa FL

Last Saturday I declared that I would not spend another day cooped up in our stuffy little apartment. I did my research and concluded that a visit to The Florida Aquarium would be the perfect (and most affordable) solution to my apartment blues. We spent a lovely two hours at the aquarium and then proceeded to purchase a one year family membership (my affordable activity suddenly wasn't so affordable anymore!).

With our membership paperwork came a blue sheet of paper, listing reciprocating facilities where our membership would gain us various discounts. So for the last week I have been scouring that blue paper for deals. So far we've eaten at two restaurants which each offered a nice incentive and today we went to the Tampa Zoo for FREE. Wohoo! For the month of September, members of the Florida Aquarium receive free entry to Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo.

I love this day and age because technology makes our lives so much easier. I was able to peruse the park's website and glean lots of useful bits of information, like the fact that the Zoo has two water parks for the kids to cool off in. So, we started our adventure with a little water play to get nice and cool before trekking through the forests of Asia, the prairies of Africa and the Florida Gulf Coast.





I was initially quite doubtful as to the quality of the zoo, given that our visit began with lots of unsuccessful attempts to find the animals in their habitats. However, as the day progressed, we found lots of fun and unique exhibits.

I think one of our favorite exhibits was Stingray Bay, where we got to hand feed stingrays and touch and feel them in the tank. For the low affordable price of $3, I purchased two shrimp and one small fish (same size as the shrimp) to feed the rays. It was so neat! They actually swam right up to us and took the food right out of our hands. They got really aggressive and splashed quite a bit, which surprised us all!













We also got to give the kids a little lesson on the facts of life.



Eve and Ally's responses were identical "Eeeewwwww!!!!"

We saw manatees, which I had never seen up close before.









We saw some interesting animal interactions:





The kids got to ride the log ride. Ally is my daredevil, through and through. She was ready to go again and again. Eve didn't quite think too highly of the her log ride experience and Cooper was on the fence.





We made friends with a giraffe:



And some goats:









Overall, it was a pretty good day at the zoo. And the best part was getting in free! (Ok, not really the best part, but it didn't hurt my feelings too much...)

There are still a few weekends left in September, so who knows... maybe we'll do it again!