Albuquerque Aquarium & Zoo

We got to go a long ways for our last field trip. My husband was working out of town, so we tagged along with him. We love to travel with him, when he has to travel for work. We get to see new things; learn about new places; and visit new museums. This time we got to visit with friends and family too, which made it extra special.

One of the days that we were in New Mexico, we spent at the Albuquerque Aquarium and Zoo. Why is it that zoos are just so much fun? No matter how many times you take kids to a zoo, they’ll always be happy to go again. We hadn’t been to a zoo for quite awhile, so that made it even more fun.

Here are a few of the favorite things that we saw.

We liked the Trumpeter Swan because he swam right up to us. I think he was used to getting hand-outs, but I was quite happy to take his picture. We saw Swans when we were in Malheur, but those ones weren’t used to getting hand-outs so they swam the other way. Even though seeing birds in the wild is a special treat, seeing a beautiful bird like this up close, no matter where, is just special.

We saw several birds at the zoo, but the most important one was a Road Runner. I was hoping with all of my heart that we would get to see a Road Runner in the wild. I’ve never seen one before. Everybody I talked to said, "Oh, I’m sure you will." Well, we didn’t. Fortunately, though we did get to see one at the zoo. So I can’t complain, I suppose, but I still really want to see one that’s not in a cage, so I’m trying to plan my next trip there just so I can see a Road Runner. Not really.

This guy was hugemongous. I made up that word, but it’s still true. We’d never seen anything like this before and there was two of them. He might even be older than my grandma. (Don’t worry, Grandma, he looks a lot older than you too!!)

Now this was the most exciting thing that we saw. We stayed and watched this little giraffe for a long, long time. I say little, but actually, he’s quite a bit taller than me. They’re around 6 feet tall when they’re born. It seems like babies from almost every creature are just cute. (There are a few that I don’t think are cute, even as babies.)

The zoo was full of babies and pregnant mamas while we were there. The zookeepers must have thought that it was time to really increase the population of the zoo’s inhabitants. We saw a baby chimp, a baby camel, a baby elephant, a pregnant snow leopard and what looked like a pregnant zebra and of course, the baby giraffe.

But the cutest babies of all were mine!!