While we were on our Orange Beach vacation, we drove over the bridge to the Gulf Coast Zoo.  The Gulf Coast Zoo, also known as The Little Zoo That Could, made up for all our disappointments over our last zoo trip.  They had so many animals—bears, tigers, lions.  The zoo boasted multiple opportunities to feed and interact with different animals.

We saw so many babies.  If you look really close at the photo below, you’ll see that this little monkey has a baby monkey riding on its back.  

There was one particular monkey who “conversed” with us for almost thirty minutes.  Libby would say something and he would look at her and open his mouth and scream.  I’m not sure if his scream was friendly or sinister, but it entertained us, for sure.

For a small additional fee ($5 or $10, depending on the animal), you could have encounters with some of the animals.  The kids loved playing with these baby kangaroos.  One little kangaroo really took a liking to Kyndall–it stood up and wrapped its front legs around her waist.  I think it was trying to eat her hair, but we really couldn’t be sure!

Jase wasn’t quite sure what to thing about the kangaroos!  They would follow him around the pen and sniff at his shoes and he would just giggle!  He liked their tails the best—thank goodness they were too fast for him to get a good grip!

We also chose to interact with the lemurs.  Apparently, the lemurs really loved my girls too and kept going in for kisses.  (At the Gulf Coast Zoo, the keepers let about five people into the lemur house at a time.  All three of my kids, plus Mallory, Hannah, and Paige were able to go in together.  The keepers really made sure to make the experience enjoyable for everyone.)

If you are ever in the Gulf Shores area, I recommend visiting the Gulf Coast Zoo.  In about three hours, we had made our way through the entire zoo and encountered almost 500 animals.  If you have an animal-loving bunch like I do, a visit to the Gulf Coast Zoo is definitely worth the time on your next beach trip.