I just got back from a great trip to Pittsburgh. It is not a normal destination, but with a 4yr and 5yr old, long drives and height requirements to parks limits you a bit. We love animals and Zoo's and usually make a trip to Toronto. This year we decided to go to Pittsburgh. With a Buffalo Zoo membership, you get in free (bonus). Pittsburgh also has a Children's Museum and a family amusement park called IdleWild. So we drove down to Pittsburgh on Monday and went to the Children's Museum and Station Square. Again, with a Strong Museum membership, entrance to the Children's Museum is free. It is not as big as Strong, but has many nice exhibits. Station Square is a converted train station which has restaurants and other attractions.
The next day we went to the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium. It was a great zoo that rivals and surpasses Toronto's Zoo. It winded through the hills and was nicely laid out. You could get very close to some animals and their exhibits were very natural. They had the usual Elephants, Tigers, Lions, Giraffes, and some unusual animals like a Komodo Dragon. What made the Zoo much nicer than TO's is the PPG Aquarium. The building was beautiful and had tons of tanks. The exhibits ranged from penguins to sea dragons to reefs to sharks to pacu to rays. They also had jellyfish, octopus and cuddlefish. The zoo was well worth the trip.
The next day we went to IdleWild which was a perfect park for my kids. They could get on most of the rides. It was like Centerville Island or Fantasy Island, just a bit bigger. They also had a nice water park both both big kids and little kids.
It was a great time at a non-standard vacation destination. Oh yeah, and we avoided the rain. It poured everyday as we were leaving the zoo and park.
I have posted most of my aquarium pictures: http://s614.photobucket.com/albums/tt227/mikerads17/PPG Aquarium/
If you want to see the other Zoo picks, let me know and I will post them as well.
The next day we went to the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium. It was a great zoo that rivals and surpasses Toronto's Zoo. It winded through the hills and was nicely laid out. You could get very close to some animals and their exhibits were very natural. They had the usual Elephants, Tigers, Lions, Giraffes, and some unusual animals like a Komodo Dragon. What made the Zoo much nicer than TO's is the PPG Aquarium. The building was beautiful and had tons of tanks. The exhibits ranged from penguins to sea dragons to reefs to sharks to pacu to rays. They also had jellyfish, octopus and cuddlefish. The zoo was well worth the trip.
The next day we went to IdleWild which was a perfect park for my kids. They could get on most of the rides. It was like Centerville Island or Fantasy Island, just a bit bigger. They also had a nice water park both both big kids and little kids.
It was a great time at a non-standard vacation destination. Oh yeah, and we avoided the rain. It poured everyday as we were leaving the zoo and park.
I have posted most of my aquarium pictures: http://s614.photobucket.com/albums/tt227/mikerads17/PPG Aquarium/
If you want to see the other Zoo picks, let me know and I will post them as well.
