Breakfast with Tortoises at the Phoenix Zoo (Phoenix, AZ)

A couple months ago we received our first issue of “Zootles,” a magazine for 2/3 year olds by Zoobooks.  This issue was all about turtles and we learned some great facts about these reptiles, for instance the sea turtles like the ones we’ve seen in Hawaii have flippers and can’t put their heads in their shell while box turtles can curl up inside their shell like a box-hence their name.

This inspired part of our weekend adventure in Phoenix where we spent some time with tortoises.  To me they are the same thing as turtles, but the guys insisted they are different-I guess they must have learned something from the magazine.(  And here’s where you can find out the actual differences between a turtle and a tortoise if you really want to know.)  The Phoenix Zoo has awesome toddler programs and when I was researching our visit I found out it coincided with their Tortoise Breakfast and I booked it online.  We enjoyed a continental breakfast and learned all about tortoises through some neat hands-on activities.  At the end, we had the most awesome time feeding and meeting the giant Aldabra tortoises.

The boys had fun feeding them carrots and gently stroking their shells.  (Apparently, they can feel their shell-it’s attached to their backbone!) The Bean even got chased around by a very hungry tortoise. I think we could have spent all day in this exhibit.

After the breakfast it was only 9am but super hot (nearly 100 degrees) but the boys insisted on one more activity. I thought the they would be terrified but they were thrilled and it was so fun watching them being so confident riding high on a strange animal.

I wish we could have spent more time at the Phoenix zoo, but we had decided this was a sit-by-the-pool weekend and the hubby’s (not always the biggest zoo fan) birthday, so we ended our zoo visit happily and headed back to the hotel to lounge.

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