It’s Day 11 of #LoveBlog! Woohoo! Today’s prompt is Perfect Date. Find the rest of the prompts here.
Dan and I have two favorite date activities. We love science museums and zoos! If you forced us to pick just one, though, we would pick zoo dates. I can go to the same zoo over and over again, but I usually only want to visit each science museum once a year. In fact, our second date was to the Columbus Zoo. Considering I kissed Dan at the end of the night, I’d say that date went VERY well! When I later moved back to Columbus, Dan bought me my own zoo pass so I could go back whenever I wanted.
Whenever we travel, we try to go the local zoo and science/natural history museum. Luckily many big cities offer a CityPass that allows us admission to all the best tourist attractions.
How many zoos have we visited during our relationship?
Columbus Zoo and Aquarium – August 4, 2011 and many more times in 2013-2014, including the day Dan proposed
Toronto Zoo – June 2012 for my birthday
Houston Zoo – October 2012
Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden – June 8, 2013 for my birthday
Denver Zoo – July 12, 2013 during a trip for my second cousin Corey’s wedding to Sara
Toledo Zoo – December 19, 2014, when Emily and Patrick announced Emily’s pregnancy!
Dallas Zoo – January 17, 2016
I’m actually surprised that we still haven’t managed to visit any zoos in South Carolina or Georgia together. Luckily 2016 has barely begun, so we have plenty of time to explore southern zoos.
Dan and I have a few favorites each time we visit the zoo. We both LOVE polar bears. In fact, I actually adopted a polar bear for Dan for his birthday several years ago. We were bummed to find out that this adoption didn’t include getting to hug a polar bear. We also love penguins and otters. I’m personally partial to flamingos and big cats as well.
That said, my absolute favorite part of each zoo date is visiting the reptile house. I have always loved snakes ever since my kindergarten or first grade class took a trip to the zoo. That was my first time ever holding a snake (a rosy boa). I’ve wanted a pet snake ever since!
Alas, my parents never let me get a pet snake. Pets weren’t allowed in student housing at Furman. Then I traveled a lot after graduation. Then I was too broke for a pet. And now Dan won’t let me get a snake either, although we’ve talked about getting a leopard gecko. At least Dan takes lots of photos for me in the reptile house! Marriage is all about compromise, y’all.
Aside from the animals themselves, I get Dan to take as many pictures of me with the bronze animal statues as possible. Sometimes I even try to pose like the animal.
Also I get really annoyed at the kids who don’t understand lines for photos and their parents who let their kids run wild around the statues when all I want is a photo. It’s one thing if a whole bunch of kids are playing on the statues. It’s a completely other thing when there are clearly families and couples patiently waiting to take pictures by the statues, and someone else’s kids run up in there with no parental care at all. That’s my one pet peeve at the zoo!
In conclusion, my perfect date is a day at the zoo! I’m so grateful that Dan loves zoo trips just as much as I do.
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What’s your idea of a perfect date? Do you love zoos as much as we do? Share your thoughts below!
We really enjoy visiting zoos, too! I really wanted to go to the Dallas Zoo one time while we were visiting Angel’s family, but they talked us into going to the Fort Worth Zoo instead, claiming it was better. I have no idea which is better, but it was nice. We’ve also gone to one near Minneapolis, and recently to the Taiping Zoo in mainland Malaysia. Probably next time we go to Singapore we’ll hit up the Singapore Zoo because I’ve heard that one’s amazing! We purposely didn’t go to the zoo in ShenZhen because of their notorious reputation for not treating animals well enough.
Ha, I have no idea which one is better. The Dallas Zoo was part of the Dallas CityPass, so that made our decision for us! It was good, but honestly, we’re so spoiled… We’ve been to better!
It’s so cool that you’ve been to several international zoos. All of mine have been in the US. Good for you for checking on the ethical treatment of animals first. That’s so important!
We love zoos too – for different reasons, I love animals and he loves the drawing inspiration(which is why we’ve never done a real date night since I’d have to take the pencil out of his hand!) We’ve only been to the Toronto Zooo but I’d LOVE to see the San Diego and Columbus zoos!
You should post some of his drawings online!
I really loved the Toronto Zoo. I actually went twice, once with Dan and once with “my” kids. (I was a live-in au pair for a French family). We were there when a baby polar bear was old enough to be in an exhibit, but young enough to need his own exhibit. I’m pretty sure Dan took literally 100 pictures of the polar bears. Not only was the cub being super-cute and playing with his little tire, but the adult polar bears were walking around, swimming, coming up to the glass, stretching, just being so active!
how fun! i love the zoo and sounded like you had a great time! so glad finding your blog through the webinar last night! hope you’ll stop by mine!
It’s always nice to connect with new readers!
Wow! I went to zoos as a kid but not since middle school. My husband is highly alergic to furry things (last time he was around a horse he ended up in the emergency room) so I think we will skip zoos. We did go to an aquarium in GA and it was awesome!
I’m highly allergic to furry things too, but the zoo animals are so far away from me that they don’t bother me. I always skip the petting zoo parts, though, because of my allergies.
The GA aquarium is amazing! Dan & I keep meaning to go back.
I LOVE the Columbus zoo. And all zoos for that matter. I could go probably once a month and be happy. Unfortunately, Pearson’s attitude is more like “I’ve already seen it. Why would I go back?” But he usually indulges me at least once a year. Also, we’re going to the San Diego zoo while we’re in California next month. I am SO EXCITED!!!
I do too!!!! One of my best visits to the Columbus Zoo was when they had a baby primate of some sort. He wore a little diaper! His mom wasn’t maternal, so the zookeepers had to bottle-feed him. He was so cute!
I went to the San Diego Zoo as a kid. I wish I remembered it more! We lived in Santa Ana and went to the Santa Ana Zoo too, but all my kiddie zoo memories run together as one zoo.
I love the zoo!!! I’m excited to take Bensen one day this summer for a family date! I think he’d love all of the animals!
I know my in-laws already enjoy taking my nephew to the zoo 🙂
What a unique idea for a date! Such a fun idea.
Thanks! <3
Zoos are great! I’ve been to Houston, but not Dallas yet. I was super thrilled with the Dallas World Aquarium, though, which is an awful lot like a zoo.
If you ever get the chance, go to the Detroit zoo! It’s got everything, including bronze statues! 😀
We’re getting ready to move near Detroit! I’ll have to add the zoo to my list of things to explore!! 🙂
Ooooohhh, definitely do! If you haven’t done any exploring yet, go to Royal Oak and Ferndale. Super fun downtowns! And if you’re a book geek, go to John King Books.
Sorry…I’m from a suburb of Detroit and go back regularly, I *looovvve* the area and could talk about all the awesome stuff all day!
I’ll have to keep that in mind! We’re currently in California but we’ll be moving to Port Huron (an hour north of Detroit) in June for my husband’s job (Coast Guard)!
We love going to zoos! Our favorite so far has been the one in Seattle! I love that he got you a pass to zoo!
He’s always been so thoughtful that way. He’s a keeper!
I used to love going to the National Zoo in DC! And even better, it was free!! It was such a great place to hang out on free afternoons. Plus, I have a thing for giraffes and they had a few there, it was awesome.