playing with the monkeys, sleeping like a sloth.

This Saturday, Ryan and I woke up early, packed a lunch and drove to the Omaha Zoo. We couldn't have picked a better day, with a cool morning and just enough sunshine.

 Apparently this zoo is supposed to be ranked pretty high, and at first I wasn't all that impressed. The outside exhibits are pretty much like any zoo: a couple elephants, giraffes and penguins, with a huge pond of koi. But the things that we saved for last, the inside exhibits, are definitely what makes it special. They have an indoor desert (complete with sand dunes, 8 ft cactus and pumas), above a dark nocturnal exhibit (with albino crocodiles and even nutria), and finally, which we almost completely missed: an indoor rainforest. 

The rainforest was definitely the highlight. Even though we were both ready to drop after walking for 5 hours, we felt like we could have spent even more time there. There were several waterfalls, tons of huge trees and vines, a rope bridge, and hippos. Of course, there were monkeys everywhere as well. Lazy monkeys, energetic monkeys (we saw one slap the backside of a swan to get it to go away), one-armed monkeys (he was just as fast as all of the other ones though and happy, don't worry), loose monkeys (which I really wanted to reach out and touch, but I was afraid they'd bite off my finger). And finally, my favorite: the sloth.

Ryan says that I have way too much in common with that one (but I don't sleep that much).