African Journey!

The zoo in our city is fantastic! If you are ever in Fort Wayne, you definitely don't want to miss it! Most of it is arranged by country/continent--there is the Indonesian Rain Forest, the Australian Adventure, and now the African Journey! The African Journey opened today to the general public, but we were fortunate enjoy to enjoy a "sneak peek" on Wednesday evening!

This exhibit has been a few years in the making, and cost over $9 million dollars to create. It was well worth the wait! The zoo used to have an African area prior to this exhibit, but nothing like what there is now!! The exhibit boasts lions, zebras, wildebeests, hyenas, servals, and more. (I just wish there were African elephants, too!)

We went to the sneak peek reception as guests of my parents, who donated to the exhibit. I'm not sure, but I think they have contributed to all of the new exhibits that have been built over the past 20+ years! They are very generous, and the giving to the zoo is certainly an excellent way to give back to the community!

We enjoyed this special time at the zoo as it was not open to the public, so we had lots of space and time to roam through "Africa." We also enjoyed the free drinks and hors d'oeuvres! The kids were also able to ride the "Sky Safari" for free and make cool African bead necklaces. It was fun to spend the time with my parents and all enjoy it together.

One of the neat things about the new exhibit is that you can hand-feed the giraffes! They seemed to be very hungry for lettuce when we were there! I need to add the video of our kids feeding the giraffe--it has a LONG tongue!

All in all, it was a great evening at the zoo and we are looking forward to many return trips to the new African Journey!