Brookfield Zoo

In February in Chicago, lots of local attractions, mostly museums, are open for free to Illinois residents. John and I liked going to the Brookfield Zoo so much we went twice. The second time we went we took John's brother Michael along. Besides all of the amazing animals that visitors can view, dotted all around the zoo are vintage novelty machines that create small blow-mold animal figures from a machine called a Mold-a-rama. Recalling my childhood, I really wanted to relive the exciting moment of watch my animal get molded from plastic. I picked out an American bison and John got a polar bear. There are several machines around the Brookfield Zoo, which is rare in comparison nationally.

The zoo had many great animal attractions that were divided by the type of habitat and animal. One of my favorite sections was the primate section, which had a series of large cavernous rooms, that actually "rained" in the rainforest (overhead sprinklers), and featured huge trees with ropes for the monkeys, apes, and chimpanzees to use. We had an excellent time at the Brookfield Zoo and I hope to visit again in the future.