One of the best—and most overlooked—deals going is the annual pass.  Parks, zoos, museums etc…generally offer annual passes, and in many cases they’re quite reasonably priced.  Often, for the cost of three or four individual visits, you can have an annual pass that lets you in the gate anytime you want.

Your Correspondent* hereby begins a regular series on The Great Annual Passes of Tucson.  Our first installment: Reid Park Zoo.

The zoo (http://www.tucsonzoo.org/) is one of the coziest I’ve ever visited.  If you want to get close to the animals, this is the place for you.  HOW close?  Check out the slideshow.

From the zoo’s website:

Reid Park Zoo’s mission is “to encourage human commitment to the conservation of biological diversity and to provide educational and fun experiences for visitors of all ages.  The Zoo, founded in 1965 with a collection of birds, prairie dogs, farm animals, and a few squirrel monkeys, has expanded to a 17-acre campus that houses hundreds of animals in naturalistic exhibits and annually hosts nearly 500,000 visitors. Reid Park Zoo is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).

A typical family (two parents plus ALL your kids under 18) can enter the zoo on a Family membership, which costs…$50.  I.e., for less than the cost of dinner for two at a typical Tucson restaurant, you and yours can have the run of a fine, family-focused zoo every day of the year except Christmas. 

Household 6 signed us up as Family members as soon as the Little Gunner could toddle more than six feet without falling.  Now he’s a zoo regular.  One of his favorites is the otter pond.  While trying to restrain him from joining the otters in their morning swim, I was reminded how entertaining they can be.  While one otter swam around and around the pool, the other stayed close by clamping down on his partner’s leg.  (The first otter seemed fine with it…so hey, who am I to say anything?)

I do feel sorry for the polar bear, though.  Stuck in Tucson, of all places!  Every time I’ve been there he’s looked miserable.  Has anyone seen him at times when he’s seemed happy?  (Admittedly, I have no idea how one tells if a polar bear is happy, but I’ll bet someone in Tucson knows).

The more we support our local attractions, the more they can do for us.  So, consider joining the Reid Park Zoo.  They’ve come a long way from their humble beginnings of prairie dogs and squirrel monkeys.

* This is my hat-tip to one of my favorite magazines, which doesn’t give its writers bylines.  Instead, it refers to them in the text as “Your Correspondent.”

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