long beach aquarium

for christmas, i asked family for money towards a year pass to something local, a zoo or aquarium to take ronin to that would expose him to nature/animals/learning.  on MLK day, jan & i scoped out the long beach aquarium and were pretty impressed.  there is so much to see, and ronin just loved it.  they have a lot indoors, and sea otters, sharks, rays and tide pools outdoors.  there are a lot of hands on areas which i think is important to learning and since ro can't touch much yet, jan stepped in so we would get our moneys worth.  the la zoo isn't too impressive but we really recommend this. if you buy tickets online before you go, you save $5/ticket. 

{all photos via my iphone}

los angeles zoo

i have been wanting to go to the zoo for almost 3 years. any zoo, really. we finally went, and while we were so grateful for the free passes our friends gave us, i don't think we'll be buying the yearly pass when mango arrives. we'll stick with the san diego zoo. some of the attractions were great, (gorillas & sea otters) while others looked just sad - the hippo, black bears, and lions. smaller roaming areas, fake rocks for the hippo..while the gorillas lived with custom caves, a waterfall and real trees galore. sorry about cutting off my face. that's me 37 weeks pregnant, and after walking in 85 deg. weather for over 2 hrs, i just looked really tired pregnant, not happy pregnant. next time we'll shoot us at the beginning, not the end.