Riverbanks Zoo

Dan and I had planned to take Luke and Olivia to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC for the first time last fall, but time got away from us and we never made it. So we made a plan to take them sometime during the spring before it got too hot. We also wanted to go during the week in the hopes it wouldn't be too crowded. We had planned to go last Tuesday, but there was a mini heat wave and the 95 degree weather deterred us.

We decided to go to to the Riverbanks Zoo instead of the one in Asheboro, NC because this one is slightly smaller and more manageable for 2 two year olds. We'll save the other zoo for the fall when they are a little older. We finally made it on Tuesday and it was an absolutely perfect day! Dan and I truly enjoyed ourselves and Luke and Olivia couldn't get enough of the animals. Olivia LOVED the flamingos (as she called them: mingos) and Luke LOVED the giraffes. We must have circled back to see each animal no less than 5 times each! We also saw lions, a grizzly bear, reptiles, zebras, koala bears, kangaroos, elephants, monkeys, and lots of other zoo animals.

We left about 8:30am, arrived at the zoo around 10am and stopped for lunch around 1pm. By then, we had seen almost everything, so we circled back to their favorite things. Then we made the "mistake" of going to the gift shop. We saw 2 little stuffed flamingos and giraffes and thought that would be a fun momento from their first zoo trip. Well, then they saw the "big" mingo and giraffe and those became their new forever friends. It only took about 5 minutes of driving before Luke was fast asleep, and Olivia was not far behind. We got home a little after 4pm. It was a perfect day trip outing.

They are still talking about the zoo and it's so fun to see their excitement. We will definitely go back and look forward to many more family day trips!