Springfield has many awesome parks within the local park system and so we decided to check out one of their pearls. The city park system owns and manages the city zoo, Dickerson Park Zoo.
We got some literature and checked out their website and decided that this would be a good place to have an annual membership. The fee for the membership was very inexpensive, especially when you consider how much our girls love to explore new things.
We were greeted by this peacock which is one of many that roam free through the zoo. Neleha loved chasing these long feathered "chickens" as she calls them along with other birds that walk rather than fly.
We found that Dickerson Zoo was just as interactive as other zoos we have visited in the past. This area was where you were encouraged to feed a baby goat, calf, and camel. The girls really enjoyed having these animals lick the food from their hands and then being able to pet them at the same time.
The most amazing of the interactive areas was the giraffe tower where you could also feed full size giraffes. Kristy was as excited as the girls were about this opportunity. We purchased some giraffe biscuits and then got to hand feed these long necked spotted African natives.
For the first time we each got to pet a giraffe, a very cool experience indeed. What was most funny about the occasion was that at first Molly mistook the giraffes tongue for a fish, she asked why it was eating a fish. She quickly realized that it was a tongue as they used it to gather the biscuit pieces from her hand. Their tongue was very long and did resemble a fish, so it was easy to see where she could get confused.
Neleha was right at home in the reptile house. This girl is afraid of most fury animals but you bring a snake or a lizard out and she wants to take it home.
Neleha was very impressed with this huge anaconda that was slithering around in the above pictured water exhibit.
We also came across a little water play area were the girls got to cool off. They always have a blast playing in water.
On our way out of the water play area they both wanted to strike a pose atop of this frog, these girls sure are beautiful, just like their Mommy.
Neleha is a big fan of Thomas the Train and so when we came across the zoo train she knew what she wanted to do next.
Kristy and Molly looked so cute together during our little relaxing train ride. At one point the engineer even stopped and picked up two long peacock feathers to give to our girls. They thought that was very awesome!
Neleha was having so much fun on the train that she wouldn't even look at the camera.
After our train ride we stopped at the play area and then headed for the Asia exhibit to see elephants and tigers.
At one point Molly got tired of walking and so Neleha agreed to share her seat with her. Later on they got to cool off one more time at a misting tree.
Our first of many visits to our local zoo, I'm sure......
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