A Weekend in Omaha: Part Two

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday this season! It's crazy to think that this year is rapidly coming to a close and a new one is almost upon us. There hasn't been hardly any snow yet up here in Montana, which is a bummer because I've been wanting to take some snowy mountain pictures for all of y'all to see. Anyway, until it snows here is part two of our trip to Omaha Nebraska.

Getting to visit the Omaha zoo was actually a dream come true. I had heard over the years how wonderful this zoo was and had been wanting to go and visit it for around 8 years to be exact. So I was so excited when we had the chance to finally go, and it did not disappoint!

They have so many individual and unique exhibits. Here are three different types of Lemur monkeys that were from the Madagascar exhibit. I really wish I could take the ring-tailed ones home with me, they're just too cute!

The Dessert Dome was amazing! It had animals from different desert regions set up in their natural habitat. On the top floor under the dome were the day creatures, and as you walked your way through, it went underground where the night dessert creatures were including bat caves!

One thing I really appreciated about this zoo, was even if some of the animals weren't on exhibit you could often still see them because it was set up to where you could walk through the backside of the exibits and see the rooms they keep them in when they come inside to feed or rest. Such as with all the tigers and panthers (which I failed to get pics of).

It's hard to see, but there are several baby cheetahs all huddled up by that rock. They weren't super tiny anymore, but you could tell they were still young and smaller than their mother.

I just absolutely meerkats! They are the funniest little things to watch and are so adorable how they run around and are always on the lookout for predators. If only they knew how safe it was in a zoo then they might just be able to relax for once in their lifetime, haha! David and I were totally like those annoying kids hogging the viewing area here for a little while. ;)

One of my favorite parts was the butterfly emporium. There were hundreds of gorgeous butterflies flying about and would even land on you sometimes. There was also a viewing area of the caterpillars and of butterflies in different stages of their metamorphosis.

Giraffes are so oddly beautiful and graceful to me.

You could feed the giraffes if you wanted to, so that's what they're are all lined up and waiting for in the bottom left picture. And don't miss the baby giraffe, he was so cute!!!

These Orangutans were so silly!! The little baby climbed into the sack and rolled around in it before climbing back out and putting it on it's shoulders like a cape. The mom kept hanging on the fence and sticking her hands through wanting people to hand her stuff.

My favorite part of the whole zoo was the Lied Jungle which is the largest indoor rainforest exhibit in the country. It was beautifully designed and felt so big as you walked through it. It's built inside a round dome, and at the bottom where you start showcases animals and plants that would be found on the rainforest floors, as you walk around and go higher you see waterfalls, lots of plants and animals, and then you find the monkeys and parrots up high in the treetops.

The gibbons were our favorite!! They swung around and were so entertaining to watch.

There were lots of fun bridges to walk over, and a few caves along the way as well.

The whole place was very open which added to the whole experience because you felt like you were right there in the midst of all the plants and animals. It makes me wonder how they keep the monkeys contained and not swinging from all the trees in there...

Reading a map for a zoo is just about as hard as trying to map out which way to travel across the country, haha!

This dove's name is the bleeding heart dove, quite appropriately named.

This little guy was just walking along the path and making traffic stop for him as he pleased.

Here we have the beautiful Macaws sitting elegantly high up in the trees.

In here they had lots of bat caves and they could fly around freely. So as you're walking through, you never know when a bat might fly right past you. I didn't care so much for that part!

There were hundreds of them all huddled up on the stone walls.

There was an aquarium as well! It was on the small side but still was beautiful and super fun.

I loved this tunnel you could walk through and see all the sharks and fish swimming over you.

Jellyfish are one of my favorites parts of the aquarium even though I'm actually kinda terrified of them. They're just so beautiful and intricate to look at.

I have to say this was probably the best zoo I've been to. It was beautifully set up, and even though there were tons of animals and exhibits to see, it's compact enough to be able to make it through in a day, and I'd totally go again because I love zoos that much!

So there you have the second half of our weekend in Omaha! If you're ever near the area and have some time to kill I'd say its definitely worth the time to go down town, grab a bite to eat, do some window shopping, and even visit the zoo if you have all day!