O! What a City.

Last Saturday we took the trek to Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo for the first time. Jeff's sister Regina mentioned her family was going and we of course decided to tag along.
It's an amazing place and is more like a trip to Seaworld than a trip to the zoo. We visited the desert, caves, a swamp, rainforest, an ocean, the artic, and a butterfly garden all in the confines of Nebraska! They have an amazing amount of animals there, the gorilla house is NEVER ending. Seriously, you've never seen so many gorillas. And I contend that they have EVERY SINGLE species of snake on the planet. I am not exaggerating. There are snake displays every where, every crack, every crevice. It's really a little creepy.
In the "Desert Dome", which is quite literally a giant dome with a desert in it, there were cage after cage of hummingbirds. So totally cool. And owls, the kids and I were loving it. We really love the birds at the zoo, the Australia aviary is one of our most favorite places at the KC zoo. But the lone owl there is IMPOSSIBLE to find. They even had bears, that's right BEARS. The KC Zoo has not one single bear. Not ONE.
The aquarium was a hit with it's tunnel you could walk through and under all the sharks, sting rays and fishies. We sat and chilled with the sea life for a good 20 min.
Oh and the bats, the bats were hilarious. In the "cave" we'd put our faces right up the wire mesh barrier and a bit would immediately fly right up to our face and spit on us. At least we were hoping it was spit. Think that's gross? Oh relax.
While we had a great time, avoided major fits, and saw everything we set out to see - I came out of it appreciating our little KC Zoo. We already love our zoo, as manifested by our dozens of trips there, but this trip made me really feel glad to have a close-by more simple zoo where you just pop over, take a walk, and see a few animals along the way.
We all met up at Cracker Barrel on the way home. Mmmmm, Cracker Barrel meatloaf.
Our only complaint? Omaha's very sad motto, "O! What a City." Rough. After getting on the highway while leaving we saw a giant wild turkey, alive, by the side of the road. Jeff and I decided that a MUCH better city motto would be "Omaha, where turkeys wait by the side of the road". I know that would peak MY interest as a potential visitor.