Aug 30, 20213 min read

Our Family Tradition: Zoo Trip

Another trip for the books!

We just returned home from a mini vacation with family to The Columbus Zoo & Aquarium. We started this fun family tradition five years ago and have continued to love it since.

Do you have a family tradition you love?

Family Traditions

We wanted to do something every year that our daughter and future kids would love. Something we would all look forward to doing. Therefore, we woke up at 6am and hit the road for our first three hour car drive to the Toledo Zoo with our three year old daughter. A tradition was born in that moment. We dreamt and discussed going to a different zoo every year until we've seen every zoo in our in home state (Ohio). When we finish those, we will start traveling to other zoos in other states.

Our first zoo trip for this family tradition was The Toledo Zoo & Aquarium in Toledo, Ohio. Surprising this zoo just might be one of our favorites still today. The Aquarium at the Toledo Zoo was pretty amazing and very large. Larger than any other Zoo Aquarium we've seen. It was our favorite part for sure! The Toledo Zoo has over 10,000 individual animals and 720 species.

... we took a year break when I was pregnant with my son...

Our second zoo trip we stayed more local because we had just had our second child; Jaxon. He was a couple months old and I wasn't sure how he would handle the heat. I also stressed out a little about how I was going to feed him, diaper changes, the drive, etc. We went to The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in Cleveland, Ohio. We've been to this zoo a hundred times and then some it seems, but it's still a great zoo to visit! It's home to about 3,000 animals.

Our third zoo trip was a bit more adventurous. We traveled outside of the state and went to The Pittsburg Zoo in Pittsburg, PA. I've always heard great things about this zoo, but it was smaller than we had thought it was suppose to be. Though it was small and it felt like we did more walking than viewing animals; we still very much enjoyed the "laughing" monkeys. I forget what kind of monkeys they were. These hilarious little guys were a highlight to our trip. Both our kids still remember they're laughs and ask to go back and see the laughing monkeys.

... Then covid happened and we couldn't go to a zoo in 2020. :( ...

When this year came around and we could finally go back to traveling, we knew we had to go big or go home. The Columbus Zoo was the place we were going- no questions asked. We decided to invite our family who lives close by to join us and brought our niece with us too. She was so excited to go with us on a small vacation!

The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium is the largest zoo in the United States!!! It is home to 10,000 animals on 580 acres! You will see animals on every part of your walk. Not only will you see them, but these animals actually seem happy and are up and moving/interacting. We've been to plenty of zoo's with empty pens or sleeping bored animals. This zoo also had a very large playground area for kids right outside the main dining hall. There was plenty of other smaller playground areas and a splash pad area right outside the aqurium! It was perfect because we went on such a hot day! We did not go to the water park right off the zoo, the Zoombezi Bay is right next door, and there's a second entrance to it from inside the zoo.

We had such a great time with family that we are planning another family vacation next summer to.... HERSHEY PARK in Hershey, Pa!

Amazon Find:

We needed new travel bags before this past trip so we found these off Amazon! These travel duffel weekender bags are huge and have pockets galore! We absolutely loved them and there's even a pocket for "dirty gym shoes". We used it for our dirty clothes and could keep them separated from our clean clothes! They come in a few different color options and size options! We went with the 65L version and it was big enough to hold two adults clothes for a weekend trip.