Fort Worth Zoo

FORT WORTH ZOO Lions and tigers and FLAMINGOS, oh my!!!!  I love those guys, and gals!  We ventured out to the Fort Worth Zoo on a Tuesday summer morning right when it opened. There was not much of a crowd to contend with which was nice, Wednesdays are half price tickets so maybe they were all waiting for the following day! I am definately a bargin shopper but it may be worth the extra money to have a low volume zoo day. It also wasn’t overbearingly hot so we lucked out.  I must say, one reason I love this zoo so much is that it is really well designed and very shaded! There are plenty of spots to stop and rest along the way as well.  It's always a bummer when you are at a big venue and all you want to do is find a place to rest and you have to keep going. That is definately not the case here. The array of animals does not disappoint either!

ABOUT THE ZOO: The Fort worth zoo is currently ranked the #4 zoo in the nation by USA Today!  In addition, the African Savanna was ranked #6 in best zoo exhibits!  

PARKING AND ENTERING THE ZOO:

There are plenty of accessible parking spots near the entrance and the entry gates are nice and wide.  The ticket counters are a little high so someone else may need to grab the tickets. Bathrooms are located right inside the entrance but there is an abundance of bathrooms throughout the zoo.  There are motorized scooter rentals for $30 per day and free wheelchair rentals but they are limited and first come first serve.  Those are also located right inside the gate. My photography is not very skilled, the enterance is so much closer than it appears in these pictures, but you can see that there are numerous accessible parking spots available right near the entry gates.  In the worse case senario of no accessible parking, one could easily be dropped off by the entry while someone parks the car.

FEEDING TIME (FOR YOU NOT THE ANIMALS):

This is probably my favorite part of any venue;)  Many of the smaller snack shacks were not open early Tuesday morning, but I am sure they are on more high volume days like the weekends.  The restaurants open around 11 so if you are needing something before that, there are vending machines available.  The other nice thing is you can bring your own food and drinks into the zoo.  How great is that!  You can see the restaurant options listed in the map below.

ZOO LAYOUT AND GETTING AROUND:   (Photo credit, Fort Worth Zoo website) I do like the layout of the zoo, the entrance is in a central location and the different exhibit areas spike off from there.  It's nice that after exploring one section, it's not a far distance to get back to the central area to go onto explore another area.  The walkways are wide, the inclines are not too steep and many parts even have railings. The longest section is the MOLA to Australian Outback to the Texas Wild section.  Near the Texas Wild area there are shops, eating areas, and a playground for the kids. This is a great place to rest before heading back to the main area.  Asian Falls, African Savanna and the World of Primates areas are not as lengthy.  Some exciting news to mention here is in 2020 Elephant Springs will open! Maybe Dumbo will make a cameo:)

SHOWS:

There are daily animal shows, you can refer to the webite to see times, locations and which animal they will chatting about.

So grab those fellow animal lovers and get ready for a Grrrrreat time (sorry, had to do it)!

For further information or if you have additional questions that I did not address call guest services at 817.759.7555 or email at info@fortworthzoo.org www.fortworthzoo.org 1989 Colonial Parkway Fort Worth, TX 76110 And of course, there's an app for that!

Toyota Stadium

FC DALLAS at Toyota Stadium

Olé Olé Olé:

We love to cheer on our favorite soccer team here!  Home to FC Dallas and the National Soccer Hall of Fame, Toyota Stadium and Toyota Soccer Center is host to many concerts, tournaments (there are 17 soccer fields) and events. It opened in 2005 and in 2018 the National Soccer Hall of Fame was completed.  We even had pictures with Santa one year, who knew Santa was such a soccer fan?!?  

Parking/Tailgating:

What I love about this venue is on game day you can park for free in the Sienna South Blue Lot when you drive your TOYOTA,  how cool is that.

If driving a Toyota is not your jam, there is plenty of additional free parking in the Sienna North Blue Lot, Corolla Red Lot and the Highlander Green Lots and the RAV4 White Lot.  There is also accessible parking in each parking lot.  

 The gates open 2.5 hours prior to the game, a couple of times we have arrived about 2 hours before kick off and both times we were able to get front row parking next to a little green space where we set up a nice tailgate.  I think you could even get there a little later and still get close parking to the entry.  There are numerous accessible parking spots as well along the front row.

Seating:

There is easy access to from the parking lot, to the entry gate, to the seats.  We parked in the Sienna South Blue lot by the East gate and made our way to section 131.  There was literally not one step.  Conveniently, there were 3 snack bars right near our seats and the bathrooms were directly behind us.  Also, right by our seats was a merch shop and drink stand.  

This stadium is bowl shaped so the accessible seating is level with the parking lot and entry gates. If you are attending an event like a concert, you can consider lawn seats too.  An attendant will take you to the elevator to access the lawn, and again, there are no steps.

So grab a soda and a salted pretzel and lets go Dallas!

For further information or if you have additional questions that I did not address call guest services at 214.705.6700 or email at customerservice@FCDallas.com

https://www.fcdallas.com/

http://toyota.stadiumfrisco.org/page/about

https://www.fcdallas.com/stadium