One of the things on my summer bucket list was to go to the zoo. I probably had not been to the zoo in over 10 years. The problem is that during the summer, on the weekends, it is so crowded!

I had a week off work in the middle of May and my twin brother was home from Tennessee and he had stayed the night at my place. I woke up that morning and was thinking to myself “Ok, I have one more day off work and nothing to do…what are we going to do today?” and then it came to me…”We are going to the zoo!” So I ran downstairs and woke my brother up. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Wake up! We are going to the zoo today!

Brother: The zoo?

Me: Yep! The zoo!

Brother: (looks outside). It’s raining…

Me: It’s sprinkling… (P.S. I am the optimistic twin)

Brother: We are not going to the zoo in the rain.

Me: It is SPRINKLING and we ARE going to the zoo. Get dressed!

My brother will love me for posting this picture, but I wanted to show everyone that I even gave him my rain jacket for the trip =)

So we set off for the zoo and had the most amazing time! St. Louis has many free attractions and one of the best ones is the zoo! They do accept donations via the clever monkey statue below.

The zoo opened around 1914 and is located in the beautiful Forest Park. This was actually the perfect day to visit since it was sprinkling which made the animals more active.

There have been a lot of upgrades since I had last been there. The sea lion display was amazing and even had an underwater tunnel to walk through.

The newest addition to the zoo is the bear enclosure which was really cool.

The penguin and puffin house is also really neat since you can get an up close view of these little guys.

I love seeing all of the animals, but one of my favorite parts of the zoo is the architecture. Statues and works of art are hidden throughout the zoo making every path you take a new adventure.

This elephant statue and huge vase on the side of this building were amazing.

St. Louis has a lot to offer so if you are ever traveling through, I highly recommend you take a break and stop at the zoo!