Fish, elephants and penguins, Oh my!

Hands down, Allie's favorite zoo attraction is the fish, any kind of fish. And really, anything you'd find in water. She also really loved seeing any water falls. I think she thinks she's a fish.

We got to see plenty of fish at the St. Louis Zoo last Friday. I'd forgotten how big the place is though. With a group that included three kids, we weren't able to make our way to see everything before the kids (and really, the adults too) were exhausted and ready to go swimming instead.

It was a nice day, for St. Louis, meaning it wasn't 100 degrees. It still got plenty hot though. We got there right when everyone else got there, and had to wait a long time to park. For such a big zoo, they don't really have a good traffic/parking system.

But whatever, once we all got into the zoo, we started with the River's Edge, which featured, among other things, a very very large Asian elephant enclosure. The running joke was that we kept coming up to more elephant space!

Another highlight for Allie was the Penguin & Puffin Coast. The line to get in was long because it was hot and inside was a brisk 45 degrees! It was a little cold for me and I was happy to get back to warmth, but not before Allie got to experience the cute creatures.

We had gotten to the front of the line and ended up being the first group to go in the next time. While we waited, there were a few penguins outside, but Allie was most mesmerized by a big water fall.

You can't really tell here because of the reflection of the glass, but a penguin had swum right up to Allie and was showing off for her. She was quite impressed.

You leave the Penguin & Puffin Coast through, what else, the penguin & puffin gift shop. We decided since Allie loved it so much that we'd buy her a stuffed penguin. I too have a stuffed penguin at home that Doug bought me when we went to the zoo however many years ago! His name is Louis. Allie's penguin's name is Penny. We're pretty creative on names, aren't we? I didn't manage to take a picture of Penny though. I'll have to get on that.

As the kids were starting to wind down, we walked around the outdoor primate enclosures. These were another set of big habitats. I'm sure its nice for the animals, but it was hard for us to see them sometimes!

As the patience of the older boys was wearing thin (Allie was great, probably because she was just riding in the shade of her stroller!), we decided to head to the Zooline Railroad in order to sit down but still see more of the zoo. The line was a decent size so we watched a few trains come in and out before it was our turn. Allie was very excited to see each "choo choo."

After we were done with the choo choo, we decided to head out to get a late lunch and then go back to the hotel. At Red Robin Allie proceeded to cover that pretty polka dotted top in macaroni and cheese. But I'm happy to report it all came out!