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Nashville Zoo at Grassmere

St. Louis Vacation

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I think it’s safe to say that Mr. Handsome and I are officially “zoo people.” So far, I have written posts about our trips to the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere (including Little Buddy’s first visit), the New Orleans Audubon Zoo, and the Memphis Zoo. Recently, we took a St. Louis vacation with Mr. Handsome’s family (altogether, there are almost 20 of us!), where we visited the St. Louis Zoo and Grant’s Farm, which is basically a zoo.

Grant’s Farm is a family attraction that has free admission and is enjoyable for all ages. The tour starts with a tram safari ride through a prairie that is home to several unique species of deer, as well as zebra and long-horned cows. The farm also has a pond filled with koi fish. Did you know that koi can live a couple hundred years? Apparently, there was a koi fish called Hanako that died in 1977 at the age of 226.

Grant’s Farm is named after Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, because a portion of the land was a wedding gift from his wife’s parents in the mid-1800s. The farm was purchased by the Busch family about 50 years later, after Grant filed for bankruptcy.

While there is a Busch family mansion on the grounds, there is also a cabin (called “Hardscrabble”) that was built by Grant. According to the tour guide, the cabin is one of only a few remaining residences that were built and lived in by United States presidents. At Grant’s Farm, we also saw…

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Baby’s 1st Zoo Trip

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Nashville Zoo

Spring has arrived, and the weather has finally warmed up! The three of us took a family trip to the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere in honor of my birthday. Of course, Little Buddy’s vision is still developing, so he definitely couldn’t see the animals, but it was still an exciting milestone. Soon after we arrived, he decided that he needed to eat, but thankfully I had thought ahead and brought a bottle so we didn’t have to find a place to nurse. Mr. Handsome carried him and fed him while we walked.

Nashville Zoo

By the time we reached the rhinos, he had finished eating and immediately fallen asleep.

He completely missed the kangaroo exhibit, which is my favorite. It’s pretty much a kangaroo petting zoo. You walk into an enclosure that contains about a dozen kangaroos, and if they walk up to you or are near the path, you are allowed to reach out and pet them. Most of them were sleeping, but we were able to take a picture with one that was awake (see top photo). He was standing beside the path near the exit, almost as if he wanted his picture taken. And lo and behold, everyone stopped on their way out to take advantage of the photo op.

We thoroughly enjoyed our family trip to the zoo. It had been two-and-a-half years since Mr. Handsome and I had been (remember my post from October 2016?) My mother-in-law bought us a one-year membership for my birthday, so we look forward to many more trips. As the year progresses, I am looking forward to watching Little Buddy begin to recognize the animals. Maybe by this time next year he will be naming them!

Lion Bares Its Teeth on Command

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I think we officially have a thing for zoos. Last fall, we visited the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere and the New Orleans Audubon Zoo, and we recently took a day trip to the Memphis Zoo.It was a rainy and slightly chilly day in Memphis, but we’re very glad we braved the weather because the zoo was incredible. Our first stop once inside the gates was the lion exhibit. We stood there for a few minutes as the three lions (one male and two females) sat on the ground resting.

Just as we were about to move on to the next attraction, things started getting interesting. One of the female lions stood up to stretch, opening her mouth up wide.

She waltzed over to a viewing point on the other side of the exhibit. No one was there, but she seemed to be wanting some attention, so Mr. Handsome and I ran to meet her. She stood their patiently as we fumbled for our photos. We were literally just two feet away from her face.

She put her head down, almost as if she wanted to be pet. Don’t worry, we didn’t stick our hands through the bars.

I turned my phone onto camera mode and took a quick video (see below), during which she showed her teeth on command. Pretty neat!

New Orleans Audubon Zoo

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A couple days ago, I posted pictures of our first of two days in New Orleans, Louisiana. On the second day, we visited the Audubon Zoo. (We must have a thing for zoos because we had just toured the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere several weeks before.) The Audubon Zoo was very clean and well kept, and there were a lot of neat exhibits to see. It took us about three hours to go through the entire property.In Nashville, the giraffes were too far away for us to get a good view, but in New Orleans, three of them were standing right in front of us as we walked past their enclosure. For some reason, they were all quite focused on licking whatever was in sight. We took a couple snapshots…

 

We walked past the elephant exhibit just as the zookeeper was performing her daily inspection. The elephants are trained to raise their feet on command so the zookeeper can examine them. The crowd “oohed” and “ahhed,” and I’m pretty sure the animals were hamming it up on purpose. Is it just me, or does the one on the left looks like it’s smiling?

 

The Audubon Zoo is home to a “giant anteater.” I thought he was way too small to be considered giant, but then again I’m no anteater expert. The little guy was extremely friendly. Maybe he thought we were bringing him some ants…

Did you know that anteaters consumes an average of 30,000 ants daily? At that rate, I can’t help but wonder why we still have ants in our world.

I can’t remember what species of bear this is, but it is apparently the original “teddy bear” (as in the species that inspired the stuffed animal). The picture isn’t great, but he sure looked cuddly!

Then there were the flamingos. Their enclosure stunk like shrimp, but they sure were pretty.

 

Visit the Nashville Zoo

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While trying to come up with a fun, after-church excursion two weeks ago, we decided to check out the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere. Turns out that the land used to be a plantation. How neat is that? It was donated to the city of Nashville for use as a nature center.

Although it was 90 degrees and humid, we had a blast. Before exploring
the various animal exhibits, we toured the Grassmere Historic Home–built in 1810–and walked through the gardens and stables.

I really enjoy history, so seeing all the old buildings and artifacts was the highlight of our zoo trip for me, but the animals also turned out to be pretty fascinating.

Can you see the giraffes in the distance? We couldn’t convince them to come any closer, but Mr. Handsome enjoyed watching them from afar.

And then there were the meerkats. This little guy came right up to the edge of the exhibit to have his picture taken.

After that meerkat lost interest and walked away, I looked up and saw Mr. Handsome standing in the middle of the exhibit! But then I realized he was in a plexiglass enclosure. LOL

We were surprised to find out that the kangaroo pen was a petting zoo. We both enjoyed having our picture taken with a ‘roo. For those of you who live in Australia, how often do you see wild kangaroos? Are they friendly?

 

The Nashville Zoo is also home to flamingos, zebras, antelopes, ostriches, leopards, cougars, various types of birds, and a handful of other creatures. We look forward to returning for future visits as new exhibits open.