The Kansas City Zoo:: A Great Sunday With The Family

Today was my first visit to the Kansas City Zoo in what has to be at least thirty years. And I had a great time with my family. Well, most of them anyway. You won't find any digital photos of my own here because my digital camera is in Fiji with my oldest son. But that was a previous post.

The reason it's been thirty years between visits has nothing to do with being "zoophobic". When we lived in DC we would go to the National Zoo about every other year. What a fantastic zoo that is. And if you are in Washington, DC you should definitely make time to visit the National Zoo. After all, your tax dollars are paying for it!

To say that I was pleasantly surprised with the changes and updates of the Kansas City Zoo would be an understatement. Listen, KC will probably never have a world class zoo because of our location, city size and civic commitment to the zoo.

Editors Note: While I doubt KC's commitment to a world class zoo I've heard the Omaha Zoo is fantastic and a must see. Nearly everyone whose been says it is fantastic.

The kids really enjoyed the sea lions show, the train ride and of course the chimpanzees. My two year old was not thrilled with the lions, however.

"No lions eat me! No lions eat me!"

I think that was the direct quote. Anyway, if you go to the Kansas City Zoo just make sure to wear comfortable shoes. You will do a lot of walking. That is not really an option. Kansas City is large geographically and sparsely populated compared to other cities. Our zoo follows our city's format.

One of the attractions you will be sure to want to stop at until Labor Day is the Koalas. There were two that I could see. Beautiful, sleeping animals. Finally while we were there one woke up and looked right at us. As brief as that was it made the trip worth it.

The coolest non-Koala sighting of the day for me was the Tiger. He, or was it a she?, was inside a log and so all you could really see was his head. His eyes looked right through you. Literally, I was 8 feet away from a beast that would like to throw ketchup on me and go at it.

We enjoyed the zoo and think Kansas City is doing a nice job with it. I would like to see some of the building maintenance improved however. The old Ape House is deteriorating rapidly and really looks bad. In fact, it's an eyesore. Maybe someone will donate enough money to do something with it. It would be a shame to lose this benefit to the Kansas City area. Things like a zoo, small as it may be, benefit all of us. People look for quality of life in a city they want to live and work in. Quality of life determines, along with location, real estate values. So naturally, I'm in support of anything that keeps those up.

This summer grab the kids and pack some sandwiches and head on over to the Kansas City Zoo. I think you'll be glad you did.