While we were visiting my parents in Northern Virginia, we had an opportunity to visit the Reston Zoo. I haven’t spent a lot of time in Fairfax County since I graduated high school a dozen years ago so I had no idea it was even there until I read about the zoo on my friend Emily’s blog back in May. Then I had the good fortune a winning an admission in her giveaway so we had no excuse not to go!

It was seriously cool. Two thumbs up. Here’s a zillion photos.

The petting zoo was full of gentle sheep and goats. They were awesome at getting the food out of the kids’ hands without biting at all.

There were a couple of school trips and a lots of moms with kids around Evan and Caroline’s age but the zoo never felt crowded (even though it was small enough to do without a stroller)

Medium sized ginger with a tiny baby goat

I WANT ONE

Pushy but gentle

You can buy bottles for $1.50 to feed the babies

YES OF COURSE YOU CAN HAVE YOUR OWN BABY LAMB

Curly sheep, I want to knit you

No I absolutely did NOT consider stuffing a tiny pig in my purse

 And that was just the official petting zoo barn. There were plenty of other animals to see outside.

Some sort of grouse or partridge with omg fluffy chicks

Adorable little foxy thing that Caroline was dying to cuddle

Tortoise

Parrot

Caroline REALLY like the monkeys. I suspect she thought they were little hairy babies.

Prairie Dog

Evan and MorMor. Don’t worry, that’s not a real lion.

Llama llama was very friendly to Mama

Man, I have seen WAY too many alligators in the past week

Tiny adorable deer who was in with the geese and ducks

Budgie enclosure – just like at the Mystic Aquarium except that the sticks only cost $1 and the birds were SUPER friendly.

Even Caroline could feed the birds. Although she also kept trying to pet them.

And then there was the wagon ride to see the bigger animals, including a camel, antelope, deer, zebras, buffalo, and wildebeest (I cannot hear the word wildebeest without thinking of The Lion King) . Evan was probably more excited about the tractor than about any of the animals, but it was REALLY neat.

We weren’t supposed to feed the zebras, but they didn’t come close anyways. I suspect they are not super friendly.

That’s my 3 year old feeling a BUFFALO. A buffalo! I pet him and his wool was just as soft as I imagined based on how expensive buffalo yarn is.

Caroline really liked the animals, as long as someone was holding her.

That’s a watusi. CRAZY huge horns.

I don’t even remember what this thing is called.

Evan feeding a giant beast. He was so brave!

I think this is going to be a regular stop when we visit my parent’s house in Virginia. The kids really enjoyed it and I can only imagine they’d like it MORE as they get older and can really appreciate what a rare experience it is.

(Someone commented on my previous post where I mentioned our plans to visit Reston Zoo to say they had been charged with animal cruelty. Obviously I don’t want to visit somewhere that is mistreating their animals so I looked up the charges online. It appears to be an isolated incident involving one person and one sick animal reported to the police by one source rather than an ongoing investigation into the zoo’s practices. While I was there I saw nothing but well cared for animals and helpful, polite staff. I’m not dismissing anyone’s concerns, I’m just letting you know I made an informed decision to visit despite that news story.)