The North Carolina Zoo is the perfect way to spend a day with family!

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2016 started with a bang – at the zoo!

To celebrate our first not-rainy day in more than a week, we met a bunch of family in Asheboro to enjoy the animals.

Visiting zoos and aquariums has to be one of my favorite things to do when traveling. I’m fascinated by animals, and the NC Zoo is probably one of the best ones I’ve seen. The exhibits are spacious (I hate seeing animals in cramped cage-looking enclosures!) and very learning-oriented. Often multiple species share space, which I prefer – that’s how they would be in real life, right? It’s also set up by continent, so all the North American animals have one end of the park  and African animals at the other.

It’s always the best to go to zoos with kids. I love seeing what they love, what excites them. My youngest cousins aren’t that young anymore (careening towards teenagerdom as we speak) but they still get pumped about certain animals, giggling at the gorillas, and climbing on as many statues as possible.

We spent a good five minutes debating if female bison have horns. Turns out, they do.

On the cold day, it was nice to occasionally head inside the aviary or the desert building to warm up!

Flamingoes showing off their colors!

Today the sea lions were particularly playful, wriggling around and flipping over each other.

The lions had cubs last year, but they already look nearly grown!

What a great way to start the new year! We were even grateful for the cold weather simply because it wasn’t raining. This may have been one of my favorite Triangle Bucket List checkoffs. Don’t miss it!