Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo

Well, we simply could not go to Omaha and not visit the hometown zoo! I grew up going to the Henry Doorly, and it is an amazing zoo. We started off with the rainforest. Once you step inside, you are transported to the rainforests of the world. The winding path takes you through tunnels and behind waterfalls.  We loved watching the monkeys swinging through the trees. This was a great start to our zoo visit!

This photo gives a small impression of how big this building is.

Kyrie doing her monkey impression.

Our next stop was the aquarium. The aquarium was redone several years ago, and it was just as amazing as I had remembered, especially, the large penguin habitat and the underwater walkway through the shark tank. My favorite part of the aquarium was the jellyfish room!

The desert dome was built when I was in college, and Darren & I had only visited it once prior to this visit. I think I could probably just wear out & retire the word "amazing" after this blog post because it is just hard not to use it to describe these exhibits. The path in the desert dome takes you through several desert habitats from around the world winding you through canyons & sand. You want to think that a desert is a desert, and this exhibit shows you how different they really are.

Degen wanted to rush, rush, rush through everything. To slow him down, I asked him to take some pictures. He took this photo of me!

Degen took both of these photos! 

The zoo has a lot of nice water features. Since the zoo is quite large and hilly, and Nebraska weather can get quite warm, it is great to be able to stop and cool off at one of these many water features. 

We hopped on the train to see the rest of the zoo. I LOVE that the zoo has a real train that goes all the way around it. Did I mention that the zoo is quite large and also hilly?!? Riding the train is a great way to sit back and relax while still seeing the zoo. 

Kyrie was happy to see the giraffes (one of her favorite animals).

Degen checks out the map...with his sunglasses on upside down!