Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium

Back in September, over Labor Day weekend, we loaded up the kids in the van and drove two hours west to Omaha (one of our favorite nearby cities) to check out their zoo that everyone always speaks so highly of! It did not disappoint!

We thought we would probably get to spend a few hours there before Finch would need a car nap, but we all ended up having so much fun that after six hours we realized we needed to leave if we wanted to get home before the kids' bedtime. I really can't say enough good things about this zoo. It is absolutely incredible and engaging and creative. I can't wait to go back!

The new Children's Adventure Trails area (which I somehow didn't get any pictures of, but did get some video, which you can see below) is unbelievable. It just opened in July and we could have spent hours in there alone. It has a really cool treehouse playground as well as places for animal interactions, a waterfall and water stream you can play in, a raft crossing, a stroller roller coaster, and more. (FYI, this is also the exhibit where we found a good family restroom to change Finch's diaper.)

Finch is so into animals — it was fun to see him taking it all in and hear his reactions to everything. We thought he would love riding the train, but we were the last ones on and ended up in the first row right behind the engine, which was very loud and spit hot coal at us. We learned our lesson for the ride back :-) From the train, Rooney got to see her favorite animal, the zebras, which we don't have at our local zoo.

It was a warm day, but we never got too hot as there are misters throughout the zoo where you can press a button and get a cold mist of water all over your body. It was so great!

Because we have a membership to our local zoo, we got discounted tickets. I think for admission, train tickets and food, we only spent about $60.

Here are some photos from our day, if you'd like to see!

My favorite part of our trip was watching Dottie the giraffe get fed right before our eyes! She was so close, I could have touched her!

And the aquarium is stunning. The jellyfish were so electrifying and amazing to watch. It's hard to miss God's creativity when you see so many different and unique animals in one day!

"So God created great sea creatures with every living thing that scurries and swarms in the water, and every sort of bird—each producing offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:21

The gorillas were sort of difficult for me to watch. They looked really angry and made me feel uncomfortable. Did you know they are 98.67% human? I think that is astonishing!

The elephant exhibit is unreal. There is an amphitheater viewing area, so we grabbed some lunch and watched them while we ate. Definitely a highlight.

The Omaha Zoo must have incredible donors to accomplish what it does, as it keeps expanding and changing each year (they were working on a bunch of improvements during our visit). And in six hours, we only saw about half of it, so we definitely want to plan a trip back!

Have you been to the Omaha Zoo? What should we make sure to see next time?