Tracy Aviary with Aunt Sarah

Last year, one of the items on our Utah bucket list was visiting the Tracy Aviary near Aunt Sarah’s house in Salt Lake, but the day we went, we didn’t make it in time for closing. We were so happy we were able to make it this year, and that Aunt Sarah could come with us! It ended up being one of our favorite excursions of the trip. I drove by Jake’s old house across from Liberty Park and showed the girls where he lived while we were dating before we entered the park and met Sarah at the Aviary, which the girls had all sorts of questions about.

I never would have guessed there was such a beautiful nature preserve/ bird sanctuary right in the middle of SLC. With the exception of the very tiny condor habitat (so sad!) everything was well done and it was well worth spending a morning there. The twins loved climbing on fallen logs and rocks, while Meredith pointed and shrieked in delight at every bird we saw. Aunt Sarah attended a bird show with the twins while I hung out with Meredith outside and the girls got to see some large and exotic birds up close when they brought them through the audience and gave a flying demonstration.

We were the only ones inside the rainforest habitat that morning and the volunteer there was a little too excited (starved for human contact?) to point out all the exotic birds to us. They also had bird identification sheets that the twins loved using to go on a scavenger hunt for birds.

We passed by a bunch of groups of kids there for summer camps, so maybe next year!

The girls’ favorite part was feeding the Amazonian Sun Conures. The birds must not have been very hungry that day, because the volunteer really struggled to get them to come to us to eat.

After everyone had had a turn with the birds, poor Samantha still hadn’t any luck!

We were all silently praying the dumb bird would just land on her freaking arm for a second so we could avoid tears and move on.

Finally, the bird complied. Phew! We could see those tears coming any second…

Obstinate birds!

While the abundance of trees and foliage provided a ton of shade, that didn’t keep us from melting by noon, and everyone was in a sun-induced coma by the time we left.

Thanks for coming with us to the Aviary, Aunt Sarah!

Lots of love,