I have lived in MN my whole life and had never been to the Como Zoo. For some reason field trips always took me to the Minnesota Zoo. We had a free weekend so we figured we would check it out. They have parking all over the place, along with a free shuttle from the State Fair grounds. If you get there early enough, you can park on the grounds. When I say early, I'm talking within the first hour of it opening.As far as zoo's go, this one was good for it's variety of different animals, but it lacked the space for the animals themselves. The gorilla enclosure seemed spacious and it looked like they did a lot to keep them entertained. Right across from them is a zebra enclosure that was more of a coral. Because the zoo is free to the public, it relies a lot on donations and therefore has limited resources to make it more like home. Keeping this all in mind, my daughter and I still had a great time. We were finally able to see the trifecta (liens and tigers and bears) all in one zoo.
Hyland Park Play area is a grea t place for your kids to let off some steam. I stopped by there after work with my daughter today and she had a great time. I was surprised by the amount of people there on the weekday. They had stuff her her age group all the way up to older kids. The main play structor with all the slides is only accessible through climbing up either a rope ladder or a rock wall. They do have a smaller roped section for littler kids to help get them used to everything. They have a spray/sprinkler section that kids can cool off in. The only thing the play structor is lacking is a traditional swing set. My daughter who is normal obsessed with them, didn't seem to care as soon as she saw the tier swings.
