We decided to do a family mini vacation and go down to Seattle for two days, we got a deal on a hotel and stayed for one night (more on that next post). The first stop on our trip, the Woodland Park Zoo.
It has been awhile since Jason and I went to this zoo, and Everly’s first time here. We tried to plan it so Everly would nap on the drive down, thankfully she did. The border guard even made fun of us for going down on a day with 80% chance of rain. We didn’t care, we were taking the risk and would enjoy it either way Thankfully it rained on our drive down, but it was just cloudy for most of our time at the zoo, the sun even came out for the last half of our visit there. If you do visit the zoo, be sure to get a coupon for it from the Entertainment book, or if you do go and it is raining the zoo offers a rainy day discount.
There was a big sign near the entrance that listed all of the baby animals that you could see around the zoo, this just made the visit to the zoo even more fun, baby animals are the best! If you are going to check out this zoo, wear your walking shoes, and if you have little ones be sure to bring a stroller or baby carrier they will likely get tired as there is lots of ground to cover. It took us over 4hours to go through the whole zoo. 
Everly may be young, but she loves animals. She loved that so many of the animal spaces had viewing areas right at her level when in the stroller. We had a few moments where she got upset when we left one area to go to another, but she was soon excited and happy again once she spotted the next animal. 
Since we went on a potentially gloomy day the zoo was not very busy at all, it also helped that it was a school day. We saw mostly other parents with youngsters, or grandparents taking children through the zoo. We did not pack a lunch to bring with us, since we did not want to complicate things going through the border but you could easily stop to grab something and bring it in with you. If you did not pack a lunch, they have a great little cafeteria area with many options. We were able to get lunch for our selves that we could share with Everly. They even made our food choices fresh to order.
Last time we were at this zoo they were working on making the penguin area, so it was wonderful to see all the penguins this time round. For some reason I love penguins. We lucked out and it was feeding time as we went past, so we got to stop and watch them be fed, and see them zooming through the water following the staff member around the exhibit.
My highlight though might be the carousel that is inside the zoo. Its over 100 years old and all of the horses are beautiful. I was beyond excited, because I have so many memories of visiting the carousel back home in Burnaby. I wanted Everly to get to ride on the carousel, and Jason went along with my excitement. Some how we ended up being the only people on the carousel when we went to go on. It actually made it a really special moment for it to just be us 3 on it. Everly loved riding on the horse that went up and down, my one regret is not pulling out the video camera.
Everly got tired half way through, Daddy was a super star and rocked our Ergo baby carrier and walked with her in it for a bit while giving her a bottle. We were able to transfer her to the stroller and she had a little nap while we enjoyed visiting the Tropical Asia section of the zoo.
Honestly I cannot say enough good things about this zoo, it is one we will definitely visit again. While we were there we clued in that they were setting up all of their Christmas lights for the coming holiday season, this could be a really fun way to visit and see all of their lights, maybe the next time we go we will have to plan around that. This zoo is worth the drive down. 