John Ball Zoo

So as we waited for some minor warranty to be done on Howard the RV in the tourist destination of Grand Rapids, Michigan, what is a family of seven to do without their home?? We bought the RV in Grand Rapids, but did not think through a situation like this.

We had been to several beaches over the past week, and we did want to pack a bunch of stuff in our van, so we looked for interesting options in Grand Rapids.We lucked out when I discovered the local zoo, John Ball Zoological Gardens, was on our reciprocal list! So we were in for a fun and free day! The John Ball Zoo is small, but just the right size for us and the weather was nice with a decent amount of clouds but no rain.

Our favorite exhibits were the parakeet (there were a ton of them) where we got to feed the little birdies and several of them landed on us, the baboon who was in a playful mood and the petting zoo where a goat kept trying to eat my zoo map and some pigs kept trying to eat Patsy's shoelaces.

We always learn some new animal facts with each zoo we visit. On this one we learned that elephants can't jump, kangaroos grow to be over six feet tall, and wallabys nurse their young even after they leave the pouch.