Topeka Zoo and Gage Park

Today I took my girls Picasso and Princess Tiger Lily to the Topeka Zoological Park. It was a little over an hour drive and it was a b-e-a-utiful day for cruisin' in the Odyssey! The zoo was small, the cost was small, and it is just right for little ones. It offered quite a few animal exhibits although today several of the animals weren't in their habitats, boo! Right as you walk in are the giraffes, three to be specific, and even though they are smelly creatures they are soooo majestic (and tall!). We followed the path to the right and Picasso made a connection with the big man on campus, no really, it was the big black gorilla. He was by himself and he watched us watching him through the glass. He came right up and brought one of his toys but chose to just sit and look. His eyes were like puppy dog eyes, just begging for us to come and play with him, wondering why we weren't. Oh I know, I'm getting all mushy and tugging on your heart strings. I mean, this is supposed to be a light hearted account of our travels right? Picasso seriously didn't want to leave him and said "Mom, I don't want to leave him". You see, she is an EXTREMELY sensitive young girl and gets attached to basically everything under the sun - friends, family, toys, doughnuts. Yes, she actually had to kiss a two day old dried out doughnut goodbye before I threw it away. That was a long time ago and she is making progress lol! Back to the gorilla, I was finally able to peel her away and surprisingly no tears were shed and we moved on to the next mammal. Both girls loved seeing the otters who were trying to get to small pieces of food that were put up in hard to get to spots. They were very entertaining and drew a crowd of people watching and laughing at their antics. Hmmm, maybe we can trade our Boxer for an otter or two. Nah, Bella our Boxer is great! She sleeps all day, plays soccer when she's outside, gives tons of kisses, and sleeps all night. We have trained her well! And she's only been sprayed by a skunk three times, each the night before we were to leave for vacation ironically. She's also never tore down our fence surrounding our garden in the back yard, Bella would never do that! It must have been the squirrels, those pesky critters. So we made it through the zoo in about an hour and a half and afterward we walked across the street to Gage Park. It was a fantastic park that was spread out and had all kinds of fun things for the kids to crawl on, slide down, climb up, and trip over. Yeah Princess Tiger Lily tripped her way through the park and came home with the marks to prove it. Her elbow, chin, cheek, and knee have battle wounds. Who knew a two year old would like tumbling so much, I should probably look into classes for her. We decided to just grab a late lunch on the way back home and said Bon Voyage to Topeka. It was a wonderful day in wonderful weather with my wonderful girls and so worth the trip!
topekazoo.org