Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska

Ok, I have heard about this place for several years and just haven't made the 3 hour trek up there. It's really quite simple, it's literally straight up Hwy 71/29 the entire way there. We decided to drive up Saturday evening and stay overnight so we would have the maximum amount of time before we had to head back home. The drive was smooth, the hotel was clean, and we all slept well ready for our fun day at what tripadvisor.com has labeled to be the best zoo in the U.S. Well, seeing this advertised had my standards set pretty high. We arrived and it was a gorgeous day! The weather was beautiful, it was sunny but breezy, and there was plenty of shade for when it did get a little warm. We paid our admission and I purchased tickets for the Dinosaurs Alive exhibit as well. We made our way through the Mutual of Omaha Exploration Station and saw so many snakes, spiders, amphibians, and other little creatures. The girls kept squealing as they moved from habitat to habitat seeing the creepy crawly critters. We saw the Lied Jungle and were amazed at the beautiful rainforest like atmosphere, it really felt like we were in a different world. There were all sorts of monkeys in the trees and Daddy took the girls over a rope bridge which Picasso didn't care for at all. We went into this huge Desert Dome and saw so many types of cactus and thorny bushes, then we made our way down into the Kingdoms of the Night. It was like we walked into a cave, there were nocturnal animals including bats, owls, and a night time swamp area complete with alligators, eek! Oh wait, I grew up seeing gators lounging in the sun on the bank of the lakes, these didn't scare me ; ) I had read about the amazing Scott Aquarium and was so happy walk through the underwater world. We viewed sharks and jellyfish, sea turtles and starfish, stingrays and the largest crabs I've ever seen with their legs spanning at least 4 ft across. The Butterfly and Insect Pavilion was awesome and we saw so many beautiful butterflies! On our way out we were treated to see a whole section dedicated to real cocoons in each different stage. There were even a few butterflies that had recently emerged fluttering around. We walked through a time portal and were transported to the Jurassic age with the Dinosaurs Alive exhibit. There were over a dozen animatronic dinos and the girls were in awe at how big some of them were. Thankfully we made it out alive and decided it was time for a late lunch. We ate hot dogs and grilled burgers at the Omaha Steaks outdoor cafe and since ice cream cones were $1 for Labor Day weekend we got one on the way out. We were there for 6 hours and still didn't see everything. It is definitely worth the drive and we will absolutely go back at some point and see the few exhibits we didn't get to this time around. I highly recommend making the trip north to visit Omaha!