Family Stay-ca-tion Day 1: Utah's Hogle Zoo

This summer, because of my pregnancy, we planned our family vacation for our home town. Our first ever Family Stay-ca-tion. For our stay-ca-tion I bought the Visit Salt Lake Connect Pass. You can buy a 1, 2, 3, or 365 day pass. It gets you in to 13 different places in Salt Lake. Some have little extras that are included. I bought it for 1/2 price from Groupon.com. Most of the places I had never been and thought it would be a good deal.

With a little one and myself being VERY very pregnant, I figured we couldn't do everything. So, I picked some big attractions that I wanted to go to and planned those around nap times. Here is what we did:

On our first day we went to Utah's Hogle Zoo. My Sweet Pea had never been to the zoo, so she was really excited.


Right when we walked in there is one of those huge balls that spin on water. I didn't get a picture, but it was my Sweet Pea's favorite part of the zoo. There is a train ride right when you walk in as well. ($1.50/person) I believe it goes around the whole zoo, but I don't really know. We didn't go on it.

We saw all sorts of animals. The giraffe.

The Tiger.

Some other cat that I don't remember the name.


A Gorilla.

We also saw lots of snakes, turtles, lizards, birds, squirrels, and so many others. It was fun to walk around and have Sweet Pea make all of the animal sounds.

Near the middle of the zoo there is a carousel. ($2/person) Sweet Pea liked to watch it, but didn't seem interested in riding. Which is fine because the line was FOREVER long. We sat at one of the tables near by and watched while we ate lunch.

We took in our own lunch. No one even asked about the food and drink we took in. There were tons of people that took there lunches in. That was really helpful because of dairy allergy. AND I didn't have to spend the $7/person on lunch. That includes the little kiddies. Ouch!

There is a park for the kids to play at, but we didn't go into it. We wanted to make sure we saw ALL of the animals. And we can go to the park anytime. But it did look really fun. We will have to stop there next time.

There are some "shows" that they put on with the animals throughout the day. I was a little disappointed. Maybe that's because I go to Disneyland and Sea World and places like that. I wanted a bit more of a show. I thought it would be fun for Sweet Pea to see the Elephants spray water or do something fun, but they don't. They just tell about how they take care of the Elephants. This is fine, but not for a one-year-old. Then I thought the animal presentation would be better. I thought there would be more animals and the website even said you get to pet them after.

Again, disappointed. The presenters talked a little too much. Not enough animals. You DO get to touch them afterwards though. That's a good thing. I wouldn't take a kid under 2 to any of the presentations. It's a waste of time for them.

Overall, we had a great time at the zoo. I'm really glad that we took her.

That afternoon, we napped and then planned on going out to eat before we headed to Red Butte Gardens. When we got to the gardens we found it closed. I had checked their website to make sure there wasn't a concert or something planned that night and it said there wasn't. But there absolutely was. So sad. If you go there, make sure you call. Don't just rely on their website. So I've still never been there. Maybe someday.

We played at Sugarhouse Park instead. Sweet Pea LOVEs LoVeS loves the park. So it was a good alternative.

Very fun first day.