Happy Thursday, friends. Thanks for sticking with kind of a crazy blogging schedule this week. I went to Houston Zoo Lights on Tuesday evening and had the best time. I’ve recapped Zoo Lights before because it’s truly one of my favorite Houston holiday traditions.
Traditions
Speaking of, can I take a second and reflect on traditions, because I’ve got a lot around here? When I first moved to Texas, I didn’t know a single soul. And, during my time at Baylor, and in doing my graduate work at UT, I’ve met some wonderful people here over the years. My friends have become family when my family isn’t always close by (my parents still live in California). And, while I have my traditions with my own family, I often feel so far away – and I don’t make it back for every holiday. Creating my own traditions in early adulthood has been incredibly fulfilling. While my new traditions don’t replace my family traditions, it’s been fun to make new memories over the years. So, if you are in a place where you feel alone – or you feel far away from family, I encourage you to make new traditions that make you happy.
I’ve been going to Zoo Lights on and off since I moved to Houston in 2011. But, my best experiences have always been as a donor. I’m a member of Flock, which is the Houston Zoo’s young professional’s group, and part of that membership means that I have access to Donor Night at the Houston Zoo, which is reserved specifically for their donors.
If you remember last year, Aaron and I went on a really cold night.
But, Zoo Light is really fun to go with girlfriends.
2021 Houston Zoo Lights
So, last night, I set off for my annual Zoo Lights tradition. This year, I was going with two of my girlfriends, and we decided to meet at 6. Bad idea. Houston traffic was terrible, so we all ended up getting there around 6:30. We walked through the doors, and I noticed right away that they switched up several things this year.
The past couple of year’s I’ve gone, I felt like it was kind of the same. Donor Night has an open bar, s’mores stations set up and hot chocolate stations. As soon as you walk in, you walk right by hundreds of light-up flowers. Their lights are timed with the music, and it’s a really creative installation.
This year, they had inflatable zoo creatures scattered everywhere. They had butterflies, tigers, whales, sharks, you name it!
I loved the light-up chimps and gorillas.
You also walk through a tunnel completely done up in butterfly lights.
The light up tunnel was there last year, but it’s great for some of those Instagram-worthy shots.
One of my favorite parts of Zoo Lights this year was the carousel rides. I’m sure they’ve offered them every year, but we just haven’t ever decided to ride it. Well, we gave it a whirl last night, and it was so fun. They had Mariah Carey Christmas blaring and adults were riding! It was a great time.
After the carousel, we decided to head over to the s’more station. They had individually-wrapped s’mores packets that had two marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers. It’s such a fun activity and great if you have kiddos.
That’s a photo from last year because I didn’t take one last night, but s’mores stations were set up so you could socially distance from other zoo-goers.
The purpose of Zoo Lights isn’t really to see the animals, but the rhino happened to be out and about. Now, if you remember the bubbles from last year and in 2019? Well, they weren’t part of Zoo Lights this year, but they had so many different things to look at, that I didn’t really miss them.
COVID Precautions
I think that Zoo Lights can tend to get pretty busy on other nights. But, some people were wearing masks, and they had hand sanitizing stations set up around the zoo. There were plenty of options to spread out and walk around because the exhibits are not all clustered in one spot.
We stayed for about two hours, which was more than enough time to see everything, do the s’mores and grab a hot chocolate. It’s such a fun idea for a date night – or a family friendly activity, and I think this was one of the best years yet. You can buy your tickets here, and the event runs through January 9.
