Girl Scouts - Sleeping with the Tigers

Last Friday night, Brielle's Girl Scout troop used their cookie sales money for an overnight trip to the Jacksonville Zoo, sleeping with the tigers! Tigers are still Brielle's favorite animal, so this was perfect. Moms got to go along too.

Only five girls (of 8) from Brielle's troop were able to go, and we were joined by four younger girls from a different troop, so it was a nice, small group. A lot more laid-back than the wonderful, but intense, overnight trip at Sea World last year. We started by learning about and petting various animals in the education center.

Then we headed over to our sleeping quarters for dinner. We were in an enclosed area with windows on each side facing the tiger habitat.

After eating we headed out for a night tour of the zoo. We got to see off-limit areas, like the veterinary center for manatees.

  Then the guides took us around the outside perimeter of the zoo to get an alternate view of the animals. The highlight for me was when we all got to feed a friendly giraffe who reached her long neck over the fence.

We set up our blow-up beds next to the window on one side. Honestly, it was completely dark outside, other than the full moon, and the tigers had retreated to their indoor housing for the night, so we couldn't see anything cool during the evening. However, throughout the night we could hear the tigers roaring in their indoor enclosure, which was right on the other side of the door next to me. It was kind of cool and disconcerting at the same time.

The next morning the guides took us to Stingray Bay to pet and feed the stingrays before the park opened. Brielle didn't want to hold the dead shrimp to feed them, but she loved petting them and looking at the cute baby stingrays.

Being at the zoo early meant we got to see the moment the monkeys and apes were released into their outdoor habitats to discover there were eggs hidden for them. The monkeys didn't seem to notice, but the moment the gorillas came outside, they immediately noticed the colorful eggs and opened them to find peanut butter inside.





















Our overnight package included zoo admission for the following day. It turned out they were having an Easter celebration, so we walked around with all the girls for an Easter "egg" hunt (which involved finding signs that said, "You found an egg!" and marking a piece of paper). Then we turned in our papers at the Easter party, where the girls received a bag of eggs and participated in games and a hula hoop contest to music.

  Daddy and Ronan met us there so we could enjoy the zoo as a family. Luckily we've only been to the Jacksonville Zoo once before (over a year ago) so we were excited to see it again.

 

This was a really nice way for the girls to celebrate with their cookie money. We were proud of Brielle because she was the only girl who actually personally sold every single box of cookies she got credit for. All the other girls had parents sell hundreds of boxes at work, but Brielle attended numerous cookie booths to get hers sold. She did a great job.