Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo

If you've never been to Omaha, you must come to visit. Omaha is noted for: The College World Series, Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, the Old Market, and Saddle Creek Records.

Today, Omaha is the home to five Fortune 500 companies: ConAgra Foods, Union Pacific Corporation, Mutual of Omaha, Peter Kiewit and Sons, Inc. and Berkshire Hathaway. Omaha is also the home to four Fortune 1000 headquarters: TD Ameritrade, West Corporation, Valmont Industries, and Werner Enterprises.

I visited the Henry Doorly Zoo on Friday with Carolyn and Eden. I had been over two years since I last went and, although cold, I had a great time!

Inside the Lied Jungle, the world's largest indoor rain forest.

Covering 1.5 acres directly inside the main gate, the Lied Jungle has 123,000 square feet of floor space with 61,000 square feet of planted exhibit space, 35,000 square feet of display management area and 11,000 square feet of education space. The Lied Jungle is 80 feet tall about the same as an eight-story building.

Took this photo for Anne

[wink, wink]

For Natalia

The Scott Aquarium is one of my favorite places

The Antarctic penguins can be seen through a 60-foot long, 25-foot high window extending both above and below water. The exhibit includes Antarctic rock, water and man-made snow, all kept at a temperature between 30 - 35 degrees Fahrenheit. This exhibit is capable of producing 20 tons of man-made snow per day using four snow machines. Penguins, ranging from king penguins (as tall as a five-year-old child) and gentoo penguins, to little rockhopper penguins, inhabit this frigid environment.

This part is amazingly scary and awesome all at once

One highlight of the Scott Aquarium is an underwater stroll on the ocean floor. Visitors will wind their way through an oval-shaped, 70-foot long, zig-zag acrylic tunnel that takes them past coral heads, canyons and caves. This tunnel, at the bottom of a 17 foot deep exhibit, allows visitors the experience of being on the ocean floor with large sharks and rays swimming past them on two sides and overhead. This system contains over 900,000 gallons of circulating salt water (half is on display, the other half is within the filtration and support systems). The temperature of the water is 77 degrees Fahrenheit. The exhibit can also be seen through a large flat viewing window and a six-foot diameter acrylic bubble inside an underwater cave.

Baby tiger!

Mutual of Omaha's Exploration Station was pretty awesome too. Haven't been in there since I was a kid and it looks completely different!

The Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Pavilion has been transformed into a state of the art exhibit, Exploration Station. The Station serves as a safari-themed "Trail Head" where visitors begin their "wild" adventure at Omaha's Zoo. The Exploration Station includes a detailed interactive map of the Zoo and video previews of major attraction such as the Scott Aquarium, Lied Jungle, Desert Dome and Hubbard Gorilla Valley and Orangutan Forest. The Exploration Station also features the History of the Zoo, Explorer Zone Classroom, Discover Biodiversity area, a 312 seat auditorium, numerous animal displays and interactive animal demonstration stage.