We arrived a short while before noon, pulled into the OKC Zoo parking lot which shares with the Science Museum Oklahoma (formerly known as the Omniplex) and thought we’d try to beat the sweltering OK summer heat by visiting the museum first and then make our visit to the zoo once the sun had started setting.

The SMO (Omniplex) has lots of cool hands-on science exhibits that both kids and adults can enjoy:

And as if that weren’t enough to provide hours worth of fun for the family, they’ve also got a sizable play area for children:

We also watched a science show and ate in their cafeteria, then headed to the OKC Zoo in the hopes that after spending a full day at the museum, we could beat the worst of the heat by visiting the zoo near dusk (the entrance was really nice):

I liked how the pathways were laced with bamboo walls:

The first building we stopped in was the tropical bird building - they had small variety of birds, but the cages seemed a bit small:

The next building we visited served as an indoor respite for the young hippos and rhinos.  Sadly, the indoor cages were extremely small, the water was very murky, and the the building didn’t look very tidy in general:

Fortunately, they had a decent outdoor area:

The highlight of this zoo for me was the gorillas, because they don’t have them at my home zoo, The Tulsa Zoo, and I hadn’t even ever seen them in person before.  They had a nice, large area to roam in:

We saw a few other sections of the zoo, including where the elephants would have been were it not for the fact that they were ‘visiting’ the Tulsa Zoo at the time (and we all sighed a sigh of relief because we knew which place had the better living space). 

At this point we were all dying from the heat so we headed out before seeing all of the zoo, so in all fairness, I can’t do a complete zoo review.  However - and I may be spoiled by living in a hometown whose zoo has massive, well-kept natural habitats - from what I did see, I can now understand why OKC natives The Flaming Lips sang about freeing the animals at the zoo in “Christmas at the Zoo:”

(Incidentally, they also played a show at the OKC zoo):

After our full day we opted to stay at one of the finest hotels in OKC, The Renaissance; where, from our full window view, we could see that we just missed the rain:

The next day we visited a couple of other OKC attractions including the Oklahoma City Museum of Art which had a Roman art exhibit from the Louvre.  That was cool, but our family enjoyed the Dale Chihuly blown art glass exhibit which the museum is famous for.  I got a lot of great photos of the blown glass art, but had to sign a form for the museum saying I wouldn’t publish the photos anywhere :( 

But trust me, Chihuly’s work is absolutely gorgeous and it’s well worh a visit if you’re near the area!

We ended our mini vacation with a trip to the OKC botanical gardens, where we feasted our eyes upon a number of tropical plants:

All in all, we thought the zoo was OK - but the trip in general was a great one, so if you head to OKC with plans of visiting the zoo, make sure you check out all of the other attractions as well!

But they had a lot of extra features on Earth Day as well, including booths with earth-friendly messages and products.  They were even giving beautiful pine trees away to zoo guests! 

Not only that - but they had crafts for the kids, too.  My daughter loves arts & crafts so she had a great time at this butterfly craft table:

Between the crafts, the festive earth-friendly spirit in the air, and the pure pleasure of visiting this zoo - it was truly a great Earth Day for our whole family.