The weather was perfect for a stroll in the Woodland Park Zoo last night during their Neighborhood Appreciation Event. Though they had 235 RSVP’s for the event, I’d say about 100-125 people attended; and out of those, I noticed a bunch sporting name tags with “Wallingford” written on them.
We were treated to some light fare of fruit, veggies, cheese and crackers, and yummy lemonade while all the kids got to romp on the wide lawn adjacent to the ZooTunes stage. Guests were free to visit the Penguin and Jaguar exhibits, along with their fun new Dinosaurs: Real Close exhibit–complete with Animatronic dinos that roared—and sometimes spit—at passersby. If you haven’t yet seen the dinosaur exhibit, I highly recommend it, but you’d better hurry since it closes on September 5. It’s an extra $3 per person (and free for those 2 and under).
I took a couple of girls from Chengdu, China, to the zoo last weekend. It was my first time there since they opened the new gate location near the penguins. The dino exhibit was really cool….especially when one spit water at the girls when they weren’t suspecting it…too funny! Also, the new group of teen wolves they got are a lot more visible than the older ones. First time I was able to actually get a good photo of them (it helped that brush had also been cleared away). The part that thrilled me the most was when Wilbur (the pig) came out of his shelter and grunted a hello when he heard me call his name (I used to volunteer there and can’t believe he still knows my voice).
Hi Anita,
I’m so glad to hear you had such a positive experience with the exchange students from China!
It was very nice! Thank you WPZ for a lovely evening with very nice hosts who all introduced themselves and talked about the zoo. The dinosaurs are definitely worth a visit!
Hello all! I’m Roxanne Murphy, Woodland Park Zoo’s Community Relations and Outreach Liaison. Thank you so much for this write up, especially for encouraging people to get real close to our dinosaurs! We actually had 200 attendees at the Neighborhood Appreciation event and it was great to see so many of our neighbors mixing, mingling and enjoying the penguin, jaguar and dinosaur exhibits. We’re glad you all had such a nice time, and thank you for being our neighbor!