Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium Day – Spring 2018

I am by no means a “Zoo Expert”, but after having been to several zoos across the country, I have a favorite.
I might be biased (Derrick would probably say that I am) but I think that the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium is one of the very best. They have a wide variety of animals. It’s big enough that you can easily spend the entire day there. The landscape is all grown in & all of the walking paths are shaded. It’s simply a beautiful place to walk around & see some amazing animals!

We bought discounted Pittsburgh Zoo tickets almost a whole year ago & they’ve been hanging on our write-on-wipe-off calendar for about 10 months. We originally planned to go last spring, but time got away from us & we decided to wait for a cool summer day (when it’s hot, not only is it miserable to trek around, but the animals are all lazy & sleepy too – which is no fun – it’s best when the animals are up & roaming around!) So, summer stretched into waiting for a cool fall day. Then the Zoo advertised a stretch of “free admission days” last fall and we went – but didn’t need to use our tickets! Which brings us full-circle to the month of May, when our tickets were going to expire & we knew we needed to use them.

So, we went on Tuesday! It was a beautiful, summer-like day – just hot enough to wear shorts & tank tops, but not scorching enough to make you sweat (and regret going to the Zoo). Braelynn has been talking about going back to the Zoo ever since we went last fall, so she was super excited when we told what we were going to do that day!

The first section of the Pittsburgh Zoo is all of the African animals (tigers, lions, rhinos, elephants, giraffes) and to our surprise, Braelynn wasn’t too interested in seeing those animals. Most of them were just being lazy (and not doing anything), but the elephants were inside & had just been bathed, so they were pretty fun to watch. She saw them though & just wanted to move on (if you know Derrick & I, Braelynn definitely favors her father in how she looks at things).

But that all changed when we went into the Aquarium. She was so excited to see the fish! She had to stop at every single tank, and then she’d just stand there, watching the fish swim by. Every new tank she’d walk up to, she’d jump up & down and squeal with delight! We spent more time in the Aquarium (and with the surrounding water animals) than any other section of the Zoo. It was definitely the highlight of our trip.

If you’ve never been to the Pittsburgh Zoo, I highly recommend it! Pack a picnic lunch (there are plenty of tables after you see the monkeys & around the giraffe/zebra sections), and go enjoy a day seeing some cool animals!

This monkey was such a poser – everyone was laughing so hard!

We stood & watched the polar bear trying to pick up his ball, and when he finally got it, he dove into the water! It was amazing!

This sea lion was so enamored with the kids sitting at his window! One little girl had a stone & when the other little kiddos (Braelynn included) realized that that seemed to be the ticket in getting him to stop & look at them, they all went off in search of stones! It was amazing to watch!

It’s not every day that a polar bear holds the door open for you as you leave the Aquarium!