Had a Blast at @ZooATL #staycation #summerfun

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The product(s) featured in this review were provided free of cost to me by the manufacturer or representing PR agency for the sole purpose of product testing. Opinions expressed are my own and are NOT influenced by monetary compensation.

I am not sure if spring break is going on in your area - but it is in FULL force here.  Broxton had his one week, the brothers had theirs another, seems like the end of March and all of April is Spring Break city around this area!   With that being said, I wanted to do a little bit of a "staycation" with the boys.  Living in Georgia ALL of my life, I tend to take the local attractions for granted, but not recently!  

We had the opportunity to go to Zoo Atlanta the other day and to say we had a great time was an understatement!  We had a BLAST!!!!   I was so excited to go and see the twin baby panda's, but Broxton got in his mind he wanted to see the giraffes the most!  The older brothers were just excited to be going to the zoo.  None of the "kids" had ever been to Zoo Atlanta and I hate to admit it, but I had not been in AGES, as in back when I was in school!  (Not going to go into the exact number of years!)  

We decided to head to the zoo and since I did not know where it was, we plugged it in the GPS.  We were surprised to drive along and then BOOM - there was the zoo right there is the middle of Grant Park!  Oh yeah, pretty neat to know that the zoo has been there since 1889.  If you want to be amazed, head over to their site and read the history.  (I think the way that Zoo Atlanta came to be is just pretty amazing!)  

As soon as we entered Zoo Atlanta, we were greeted by a big group of Flamingos... There is something about flamingos that just always seems to mesmerize me whenever I see them - ANYWHERE!  Of course, I had to go over for a few minutes to watch them and see if that draw I have always had was still there.  *Yep, it was!!!  

Flamingo Plaza at Zoo Atlanta

Taking pictures of all the boys looking at the camera has pretty much gone out the window.  I just shoot and move along.  Gave up on that one ages ago!  

One thing I noticed - and really enjoyed- while at the Zoo was that they had little areas that told us about the animal we were looking at.  I loved seeing the elephant (and it was loud when it started tearing down a tree and eating!)  The part that was a little bit extra, in my mind, was that they had the "Status in the Wild" on the display.  As you can tell, African Elephants are listed as "Endangered."

Information cards located near all the exhibits.

I had no clue, but they had a Parakeet Exhibit in the zoo.  It was neat, as we walked in a little area and there were tons of birds in there.  I have no clue the number, but there was a good amount.  You could purchase a "seed stick" for $1 each and hope that a bird would come and eat from your stick.   The boys had a blast in there and I was lucky enough to have a bird land on my seed stick... of course, as I handed it off to Broxton, he had to fly off!   Broxton had a few different birds come and eat from him and he kept eyeing the yellow ones, at times even leaving and making the current bird leave so he could try and feed a yellow one! Yes, he finally did get to feed a yellow one, but it would not sit on his seed stick, he would only lean over and eat it from his branch!

Broxton feeding one of the many birds

Being a mom (and a blogger) you can imagine the number of photos that I like to take on any of our adventures.  I loved that there were several different photo ops for the "fun" pictures through the area.  They had the face signs like this... and also had a couple different statues and what not all through the zoo.

Broxton and a big brother making me happy with these funny pictures!

Hakuna Matata my friends!  Hope that this song is now stuck in your head, as I had it in mine as soon as I saw the warthogs and then the meerkats!  This guy (or gal, I am not sure!)  was cracking me up.  It stayed up top and had to watch all of us watching him!  I think he's kinda cute in a weird way too!

Meerkat observing us observing him!

I was so excited to see the Panda's. Honestly, I think I could have stayed and watched them all day long, but I knew that wasn't going to happen... not only did the boys not want to stay there forever, there was also a good amount of people that were behind us wanting to see them!  This was one off to the side, the twin babies were sleeping and mama was resting below them.

One of the panda's enjoying a snack!

Of course, as soon as the boys saw the Rock Climbing wall, they wanted to do it.  It was $3 per child to attempt to climb the wall.  There is a height / age requirement, so make sure you check it out.  There was also an additional climbing area to the side of it (not sure on the charge.)  If you are wanting to do more activities included in the park price, they also have a play area for kids, but I figured we wanted to see more animals and could do that another time.

The boys climbing up the rock climbing wall.

The highlight of the day:  Broxton got to feed a giraffe!   Yes!   For $3, you get two lettuce leaves and they have the giraffe come over to where you are... You hold it out and the giraffe eats it!   Talk about awesome! Broxton had a blast doing that (he didn't do the rock climbing!)

Broxton feeding the giraffe.

All in all, we had a great day!  I think I might have had the most fun ( I loved getting to take all the pictures!) I saw that they had a birthday pavilion, so if you want to, you can look into having your kids birthday party there!!  I showed you part of our day, but they also had a bunch of snakes, lizards, frogs and that sort (not my cup of tea.)  Besides that, they had this really cool thing called "The Living Tree House" and there was all sorts of other birds in there (they had a thing letting you know what birds to look for.)  Besides the pandas and Broxton feeding the giraffe, I think I loved the monkey/gorilla area one of the best!  It is just so neat to watch their facial expressions and watch how they are in their own element.  Although, I did wonder if they sit there and wonder what makes them so interesting that they are being watched... and what do they think as they watch us?!   I know that we went one day, but to be honest... I am ready to go back again.  I would love to go solo to get more pictures... but I also want to go again to take Broxton when it is later in the day... we were told that the animals get more active as the day goes on.  

I hope if you are in or near Atlanta that you will plan to go spend the day at our zoo, I really loved it and can not believe it has taken me so long to visit.  If you are planning your summer vacation - come to Atlanta and check it out!  If you live here, plan a "staycation" and see what all is there for you to enjoy!