Miami Metro Zoo

We were zoo members in Memphis, so when we moved, we decided to make ourselves members of the Miami zoo as well. When you have kids, these things are sometimes necessary in order to keep a busy schedule (i.e. exhaust the kids and reward yourself with some much needed alone time).

So, this weekend we headed to the Zoo. What made it different is that we were joined by the Archbolds. These are old high school friends of mine (by old, I am referencing to the past, not their age...)who were also crazy enough to create an offspring and even crazier...seem to have the most educated tiny hurricane I've seen.

We snuck in both hurricanes as our kids in order to save up some cash for the Archbolds, Lord knows the zoo can add up, but they graciously made it up by their awesome company and a much needed frozen lemonade and hot arepa. Bonus points for them!

We walked for what seemed like FOREVER, but most possibly only discovered 1/4 of the zoo. But the areas that we did visit were amazing.

For all of you (4 readers) that have not been to the zoo in a while, let me tell you that much has changed...at least in the area where we were at this weekend. It is made up of all the rain forests in South and Central America and is anchored by a pavilion (food court sounds so....1990's no?) called Fiesta. They have a water play zone for kids to get soaked in, so bring the bathing suits or an extra change of clothes because they WILL get wet, hell, with this kind of heat I was thinking about joining my tiny hurricane as well.

They have an area for parents to sit around in and supervise their kids from, plus they have pretty decent food. At least it is by far, the healthiest food to be found at the zoo. They have fruit cups, turkey legs, hamburgers with the fixings and humongous hot dogs. Prices are pretty high, but considering its the zoo, this is somewhat expected.

The hubby ordered a turkey leg for Mia and I proceeded to chase my hurricane around the entire area in order to get some food in her mouth. Repeat 100 times. I did this until I felt somewhat reassured that she had gotten some kind of nourishment for the day. After the kids were good and tired, the adults decided to get some food too. The hubby ordered what seemed to be a juicy burger and I went halfsies on my hot dog with the Archbold's queen bee. It was THAT big. Oh, FYI, they even sell beer in this area, actually the whole zoo does, (I love So Fla) so maybe next time I will try to get my buzz on at noon, just kidding, but really a beer with friends would have been a nice option. There's always next time.

We proceeded to direct our hurricanes out of the area to the sound of "noooo's" and "just one minute"... but really they were plenty sunburned and we wanted to explore some more. I can't say enough about this new construction, most of the displays are interactive (in English and Spanish!) and have really cool tidbits of information that even make the parents go ooooh and ahhh (admit it Archbold daddy, you were pretty stoked about that heat sensor!!! And the hubby was playing it waaaay too cool at that cougar display, he knew that cougar phone was awesome!)

There was an aquarium area with huge piranhas and some other fish whose name I can't remember. But all were equally cool, plus they were inside so the AC was a huge bonus. A rain forest cloud area (where the misters make you feel like you're walking on clouds), a rain cloud with actual rain, a working damn, and many many more hands on stuff for our kids. Truly a great place for kids to run around and discover.

Completely soaked from the water, and quite possibly sweat, we made it out of the park ready to head home. Dinner plans were postponed to a later date due to all of us being extremely tired, and again, quite possibly, stinky. Some Cheetos were shared and goodbyes were said, but not for long, as the two grown ups in the Archbold clan seem to be right up our alley. Hurray to parenthood and to zonked out kids right out of the zoo parking lot!


Pros: Clean restrooms (all the ones we visited, which were quite a few), fun for the kids, they sell beer!, decent food.

Cons: May be too hot in the summer, food is pricey, did I mention the heat??