Fort Wayne Zoo

Saturday, June 4th, we loaded up and headed south into Indiana for some family fun time. My Aunt Joan just remarried Scott Huffine and they have a newly constructed home where they were throwing an open house party. Lots of family I don't see fairly often were attending, so we naturally wanted to go. Once on the road we realized we hadn't had breakfast, so when everyone was complaining of rumbling tummies we decided to stop in Auburn at the Cracker Barrel. Both girls ate well, especially Mia, eating almost all of her humongous pancakes and devouring at least one slice of my french toast. After our breakfast we continued on to Fort Wayne. We saw the mall on our left and the turn for the zoo coming up on our right. Mia coughed and gagged a bit, then I heard Andy say, "Oh gross!" I turned around to see Mia covered in her previously eaten pancakes and french toast. Now my car is usually a pig sty, but with some prompting and help from my husband we completely cleaned it out the night before. The only things left in it were car seats, a stroller, sippy cups and a small diaper bag with a few diapers, wipes, and snacks. I then told Andy to go to the mall instead of the zoo to buy Mia a new outfit. I stripped her down in the parking lot, wiped her up as good as I could and became one of those parents who takes their child shopping in a just a diaper. We ran into the first store we found, grabbed the first dress of the rack and bought it and dressed her right there in the store. We were pretty sure her getting sick was due to eating too much and her body needing to cough up some junk. She wasn't running a fever and seemed fine. So we attempted to try the zoo.

Andy and Olivia enjoying the scenery

The zoo did have some gorgeous landscaping!

Look out animals, Mia's at the wheel!

Always time for a carousel ride

Mama Canada Geese with their little ducklings

Let me first suggest to never go to a zoo on an extremely hot day, especially when the zoo is crowded. We started off in the African safari section, which is a super long loop with very little shade. Most of the animals were trying to hide from the sun and sleep. We were all dripping sweat within no time. Olivia did a bit of whining, but we still managed to drudge on and enjoy the zoo the best we could. By the time we were out of Africa, we didn't have much time left, nor did we want to stay much longer. So we headed to the primate area, mainly because the orangutans are my favorite. We're on a first name basis with one another. So we were able to get to more shaded and even some air conditioned sections of the zoo before heading out to go visit my Aunt Joan and Scott's new home.

Eating in front of the giraffes

Relaxing by the orangutan statue after getting cooled off in the water misters