For hundreds of thousands of North Texans, spring break officially begins this weekend.
One of the most popular destinations over the next nine days will be the Fort Worth Zoo, and it's the zoo's busiest week of the year.
"We're ready for it. We're staffed up, we've got extra concession stands, merchandise stands, even extra restrooms that will be open and ready for all of our visitors," zoo spokeswoman Alexis Wilson said.
The busiest day of the week will be half-priced Wednesday. In the last two years, more than 25,000 people have been at the zoo, and similar numbers are expected again this year.
"We set a record in 2009, broke that record in 2010 and, according to attendance records from February of this year, we're look to set records again," Wilson said.
Lines to pet live animals at the Museum of Living Art will be long, and crowds at the zoo's newest exhibit should be just as big.
"We have opened our outdoor penguin exhibit, so our African Penguins who have been indoors have a beautiful outdoor facility and would love everyone to come out and see it," Wilson said.
Getting out to the zoo will as always be a journey in itself with traffic expected to be busy along University Drive at Interstate 30.
"It's a wild adventure out here, and we do encourage people to leave a little early, be prepared to hit a little traffic, deal with a little bit of parking but we have all preparations in place," Wilson said.
The zoo is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. all week. Admission is $9 for children ages 3-12 and seniors. Toddlers get in free, and adults cost $12 to enter.
