Columbus Zoo

It was not the most ideal day to go to the zoo, I admit. The temperature was hovering freezing, and getting colder. The rain was steady, and starting to change to wintry mix (my favorite term, but not my favorite kind of weather). But the kids were out of school, and we had talked about going to the zoo on this very day for two reasons. One, we had not gone there yet. Two, it's free-admission day (who can say no to that?). And as long as it was not a blizzard out there, we were going to the zoo.

The main attraction, of course, was the polar bear. The zoo made it easy for us to find the bears with large white paw prints on the ground leading us to them from the entrance. These arctic beasts were fun to watch, but I did wonder how they felt living in a place with virtually no snow, or ice. And with a lot of crazy people watching and taking pictures of them. But that's another story.

We also wanted to visit the Asian elephants whose original home-land, I am quite certain, is the same as mine. Sadly, they had just lost one of the adult elephants, Coco, a few days ago, so the zoo is down to four elephants. The youngest, Bodhi is barely two years old. He's adorable, and lovely to watch. He is one of the few male elephants in this country (one of about 20, I was told). Most elephants in the US are females, or so I learned today.

We wandered around a bit more, knowing that we had to return for a more complete visit. But we will save that for a warmer and dryer day! Plus we had a date that we could not miss.

Aside from this President's Day freebie, the zoo admission fee is half-price through the end of February. Parking is $5 regardless of when you go, however.

I have my reservations about zoos in general, but the Columbus zoo seems to be as good as one could get. And with children who are always hungry to see and learn about animals, you just can't go wrong making a trip to this worthwhile place.

Columbus Zoo and Aquarium
4850 West Powell Road
Powell, Ohio 43065
P.O. Box 400