Miami Metro Zoo

On Jan. 23, Friday, Richard and I decided that we wanted to go to the Miami Metro Zoo...The weather was going to be very nice, about 72 degrees for the high....So we got ready, had our breakfast and headed out for the day...

Our day began around 10am with us heading to Walgreens to pick up my prescription that has been ready for almost a week...After the pick up, we headed up to the Miami Metro Zoo (MMZ)...It was an easy drive and the zoo was easy to find...The MMZ is on 124th Avenue off of 152nd Street near the Florida Turnpike...The road leading in to the MMZ is about 3/4 mile long and leads cars to the parking lots...Parking is free, which was amazing...We found a parking space for our truck, or should I say 2 spaces...*S* There weren't many cars there so it looked like it wasn't going to be crowded but we did see school kids...We purchased our one day ticket and asked some questions...Then we thought that we were going to return to the MMZ at least one more time so we bought a second day pass for only $7 more each person...

As we entered the park, our cameras were out and we were taking pictures...While taking pictures I got pecked at the back of the knee and I thought Richard was swiping something off...Come to find out it was an Ibis that was pecking at the back of my knee...We started our slow walk towards the new Amazon & Beyond, which opened up in December 2008...Along the pathway, there is a place to rent Surrey Bikes...For 2 hours and $22 you can rent a bike and bike along the pathway and around the MMZ...You can rent strollers and electric wheel chairs...

The MMZ has several areas of interest and we only saw 2 areas in 6 hours...The main thing that Richard and I do is take lots of pictures of anything and everything...The flowers, shrubs and trees were unusual...All the animals...from Flamingos, Ducks, Tigers, Birds, different Safari type animals...The Amazon & Beyond area was amazing...We missed the Hummingbird Encounter which I would have loved to have done...We didn't see any Bats...and Snakes galore...The MMZ is a very nice zoo...After all day of walking, we realized why the guests rent the Surrey Bikes...*S*

At lunch time we did take a break...At the beginning of the Amazon & Beyond, there is an area where you can sit and buy some lunch...It isn't much to choose from but we got a big salad that had eggs, ham, lettuce & cheese...We got a lemonade to share too...The salad was really good and even one of the employees went and got Richard some honey mustard for his part of the salad...I got Ranch for mine...There was plenty of salad for the both of us and we both felt full...For dinner we stopped at the Oasis and shared some chicken tenders/fries and a lemonade...

At 4:45pm, we grabbed the monorail which takes you around the park...There are 4 stops with the monorail...We took the monorail to Stop 1, the beginning of the park...From there we had to go through the gift shop and walk around to the building where you can join the Miami Zoological Society for an annual pass...The cost of that was very nice, $64/couple for a year...You can't beat that, huh! The only thing that the Society couldnt' do was put the second day fee that we paid towards the annual cost...So we now have the second day tickets on sale for $10 each...We hope that someone will buy them from us...We do plan on returning back to the MMZ at least 3 more times so it will pay off for us...and with the Zoological costs it will get us 10% off on merchandise and food in the park and we will also get 20% off of entrance fees at other Florida attractions like the Miami Seaquarium and Theater of the Sea...After we got done signing the papers for the new fees for the year, we walked to our truck and headed home...

It was a fabulous day..The weather was about 72 degrees..The sun was out for most of the day...We could not have asked for a better day to visit the MMZ...We look forward to going back there and taking lots more pictures of all the other areas that we did not get to see as of yet...