There are many of you that have already read about my upcoming summer road trip under the thread "Plans for the year", but I've been finalizing the itinerary and now feel compelled to share it with others in order to obtain feedback. For those that don't wish to read the preamble, you can simply scroll down to the bottom of this message and there is the list of zoos and aquariums that I'll be visiting this July and August. I am aware of all the potential omissions from the list, but there has been a deliberate attempt to choose highly-rated establishments. Overall I feel as if it contains a magnificent set of animal collections. Feedback is appreciated though!!!
The road trip was originally scheduled to be about 6 weeks in length, but currently is maxed out to a full 8 weeks. My wife and I will leave on June 27th (exactly six weeks from today) and will arrive back home around August 22nd. Road trips are funny things, as they can change as the time flies by. As long as nothing catastrophic occurs, we plan to be gone for the entire 8 weeks, give or take a few days. There will obviously be a tremendous amount of driving during this holiday, but I'm sure that it will be worth it in the end.
The ambitious plan is to visit 9 Canadian Provinces and 35 U.S. States. We will leave the Vancouver region of British Columbia and first drive across 4 Provinces before heading south into North Dakota. The first 4 days will be all driving, until we hit the Minnesota Zoo and check out the brand new "Russian Grizzly Coast" set of exhibits. Then it's on to Chicago for 3 nights, then Detroit, back into Canada for visits to Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec and a quick jaunt through the Maritime Provinces. We will drive through the New England area of the U.S. and head to New York City, where we plan to spend 6-7 nights and see all the major sights. It's not only zoos that we'll visit, although it seems like that at times...lol
From New York it's south through Baltimore, with 3 nights in Washington, D.C. Then a sweep through Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cincinnati and Louisville, before a long drive south to Atlanta, Georgia. Then it's a big stretch across the southern U.S., with Memphis, Fort Worth, Tucson and Phoenix on the agenda. Following that will be two nights in San Diego, and then north through Monterey, Portland and home. Whew!!
The list of zoos and aquariums below has been established after many hours of research by myself. There are only 2 in Canada and the rest are American collections, and only the last 4 are ones that we've visited before. Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo and Aquarium are both absent from the list as we plan to visit them in the next month or so, or if we don't then maybe we'll tack them on at the end of the two months. As I said before, road trips are fluid vacations that can alter slightly week-to-week. We won't book a single accommodation, as we'll drive all day and stop when we're tired. We also are prepared (we've done this before) to drive an hour out of our way if it's possible to add another State to our itinerary of places that we've visited. The more the merrier!
Over the past couple of months I have privately emailed 8 different members of ZooBeat who had visited a large number of North American zoos, and took the advice of many of those people. After this jaunt across the continent I will have visited close to 60 different zoos, aquariums and wildlife parks around the world, which is a healthy total but also a far cry from countless hardcore fans here at ZooBeat.
I feel confident that 90% of this list will be seen by my wife and I. There is the chance that 1-2 might be skipped (the National Aquarium in Baltimore could be a potential casualty) and there also might be 1-2 that will then take the place of others. But overall I'd be shocked if we didn't go to every single one of these establishments.
In visiting order:
1- Minnesota Zoo
2- Brookfield Zoo
3- Lincoln Park Zoo
4- John G. Shedd Aquarium
5- Detroit Zoo
6- Toronto Zoo
7- Montreal Biodome + Insectarium
8- Bronx Zoo
9- Central Park Wildlife Center
10- National Aquarium in Baltimore
11- National Zoo in Washington, D.C.
12- Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium
13- Columbus Zoo
14- Cincinnati Zoo
15- Louisville Zoo
16- Georgia Aquarium
17- Zoo Atlanta
18- Memphis Zoo
19- Fort Worth Zoo
20- Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
21- Phoenix Zoo
22- San Diego Zoo
23- San Diego Seaworld
24- Monterey Bay Aquarium
25- Oregon Zoo
Two years ago my wife (then my girlfriend) and I drove through 13 U.S. States in 15 days, and saw 6 zoos and aquariums in the process. Therefore we've already driven up and down the west coast of the U.S., and that's why this time we're concentrating our efforts in mainly eastern and southern States.
We also had an amazing honeymoon in Australia, where we spent 6 weeks in May and June of 2007. We saw a ton of attractions, and there were 14 zoos, aquariums and wildlife parks included in that list. In a couple of years we'll go broke with all of our travelling...
The road trip was originally scheduled to be about 6 weeks in length, but currently is maxed out to a full 8 weeks. My wife and I will leave on June 27th (exactly six weeks from today) and will arrive back home around August 22nd. Road trips are funny things, as they can change as the time flies by. As long as nothing catastrophic occurs, we plan to be gone for the entire 8 weeks, give or take a few days. There will obviously be a tremendous amount of driving during this holiday, but I'm sure that it will be worth it in the end.
The ambitious plan is to visit 9 Canadian Provinces and 35 U.S. States. We will leave the Vancouver region of British Columbia and first drive across 4 Provinces before heading south into North Dakota. The first 4 days will be all driving, until we hit the Minnesota Zoo and check out the brand new "Russian Grizzly Coast" set of exhibits. Then it's on to Chicago for 3 nights, then Detroit, back into Canada for visits to Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec and a quick jaunt through the Maritime Provinces. We will drive through the New England area of the U.S. and head to New York City, where we plan to spend 6-7 nights and see all the major sights. It's not only zoos that we'll visit, although it seems like that at times...lol
From New York it's south through Baltimore, with 3 nights in Washington, D.C. Then a sweep through Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cincinnati and Louisville, before a long drive south to Atlanta, Georgia. Then it's a big stretch across the southern U.S., with Memphis, Fort Worth, Tucson and Phoenix on the agenda. Following that will be two nights in San Diego, and then north through Monterey, Portland and home. Whew!!
The list of zoos and aquariums below has been established after many hours of research by myself. There are only 2 in Canada and the rest are American collections, and only the last 4 are ones that we've visited before. Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo and Aquarium are both absent from the list as we plan to visit them in the next month or so, or if we don't then maybe we'll tack them on at the end of the two months. As I said before, road trips are fluid vacations that can alter slightly week-to-week. We won't book a single accommodation, as we'll drive all day and stop when we're tired. We also are prepared (we've done this before) to drive an hour out of our way if it's possible to add another State to our itinerary of places that we've visited. The more the merrier!
Over the past couple of months I have privately emailed 8 different members of ZooBeat who had visited a large number of North American zoos, and took the advice of many of those people. After this jaunt across the continent I will have visited close to 60 different zoos, aquariums and wildlife parks around the world, which is a healthy total but also a far cry from countless hardcore fans here at ZooBeat.
I feel confident that 90% of this list will be seen by my wife and I. There is the chance that 1-2 might be skipped (the National Aquarium in Baltimore could be a potential casualty) and there also might be 1-2 that will then take the place of others. But overall I'd be shocked if we didn't go to every single one of these establishments.
In visiting order:
1- Minnesota Zoo
2- Brookfield Zoo
3- Lincoln Park Zoo
4- John G. Shedd Aquarium
5- Detroit Zoo
6- Toronto Zoo
7- Montreal Biodome + Insectarium
8- Bronx Zoo
9- Central Park Wildlife Center
10- National Aquarium in Baltimore
11- National Zoo in Washington, D.C.
12- Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium
13- Columbus Zoo
14- Cincinnati Zoo
15- Louisville Zoo
16- Georgia Aquarium
17- Zoo Atlanta
18- Memphis Zoo
19- Fort Worth Zoo
20- Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
21- Phoenix Zoo
22- San Diego Zoo
23- San Diego Seaworld
24- Monterey Bay Aquarium
25- Oregon Zoo
Two years ago my wife (then my girlfriend) and I drove through 13 U.S. States in 15 days, and saw 6 zoos and aquariums in the process. Therefore we've already driven up and down the west coast of the U.S., and that's why this time we're concentrating our efforts in mainly eastern and southern States.
We also had an amazing honeymoon in Australia, where we spent 6 weeks in May and June of 2007. We saw a ton of attractions, and there were 14 zoos, aquariums and wildlife parks included in that list. In a couple of years we'll go broke with all of our travelling...
jk
Luckily for me I don't require such a facility as I've been married to a zoo-tolerant (if not zoo-freak) for years.