One of our family trips this year was to Michigan to see family and friends. One thing on our to do list was visit the Detroit Zoo. It’s one of the largest zoo’s I have ever been to, I think it’s 1.7 miles long or something along those lines.

If you are ever in the area, please make sure to visit! It was $12 per standard ticket, but we opt’ed to get the premium tickets that included the train ride to the end of the zoo so you can walk up from the back, Admission to all shows 3D and 4D, and Penguin exhibit early access.

The first thing we did is check out the brand new Penguin exhibit. It was so amazing to see how great they have it there! Usually it upsets me to see animals in cages because they’re usually sub-par to whet they have in the wild. Seeing the Penguins in such an amazing new habitat made me feel happy that they have the best life there. A large exhibit, and many, many places to swim and walk around. The exhibit was 3 stories high, and you walk like you’re on a ship. Pretty cool to see the walls move and simulate being on a large boat in the ocean, complete with storms an all. There are tunnels to walk under and see the penguins interact with you. It was great.

The coolest part of the visit was an unexpected treat. We were walking following the path in the seal exhibit where you walk under a tunnel and see the seals under water, and all of a sudden, the 11 year old female Polar Bear swam over on top of us and sat on the glass above! The zoo worker said in his 5 years there he has never seen her do this. It was such a special site, I’ve never been that close to a polar bear and they’re one of my favorites. She stayed there for about 5 minutes or so an was looking at everyone below her. She was huge!

The next cool thing that separates this zoo from any I’ve ever been to is the Australian Outback. They have a setup that you actually walk right through, with no gates, no bars, nothing, through the path with wild Kangeroos and Wallabes. They’re very lazy, so they’re off in the distance, but just knowing that there is nothing between you and them, feels very “outback” like and it was really really cool.

Check out the other photo’s of the zoo;