The Bronx Zoo

That's right, another zoo. I promise, one of these days, I will blog about something else besides a visit to a zoo.  We have a list of things we want to see before we move back to Iowa (in 1 month, 1 week, and 4 days, but who's counting?), since we may never be in the Northeast again. Marty had worked extra hours so we could get an extra long weekend, and we were going to spend it in NYC for one last trip. Alas, work didn't care, and he ended up having to go in for meetings anyway. But he ended up getting out on Friday, the only decent weather day in the forecast, so we decided to just go and spend the day at the Bronx Zoo. It's only about an hour away by car, so an easy day trip, or so we thought.

As we are now zoo-going experts, I would say this one ranks right up there, but still not as great as the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo or the Lincoln Zoo in Chicago. Up next on our list is the St. Louis Zoo, which we've heard is wonderful. The thing about the Bronx Zoo is that some parts were great, and others were blech, and not much in between. Our favorite parts were the gorillas, the monorail through "Wild Asia", and the African Plains, all of which seemed newer. The older part, with the monkey house, was not very exciting, and more depressing. While the building exteriors were beautiful, I like seeing animals in nature, even fake zoo nature, not in cages. Oliver loved the Bug Carousel, the gorillas, and the monorail, but was not a fan of the Children's Zoo, surprisingly. He rushed us out of there before seeing most of it.

The pics...

 Oliver outside the monkey house, dancing like a monkey, a la The Wiggles.

 Leading the way.

 Marty got some beautiful shots of the flamingos.

 Riding the Bug Carousel. I think he was on a fruit fly. Ick.

 Watching the gorillas. Oliver was a little scared, because it's just a big sheet of glass between you and them, and they were just a few feet away, especially this big guy. But when I asked what his favorite part of the zoo was, he said the gorillas.

 Oliver climbing a rock.

 Again and again.

 Rock climbing was definitely a theme of this trip. He refused to get off of this one to go see the lions, his favorite animals from our last zoo trip, where he got his face painted like one.

We finally got Oliver to come look at the big lion, the only other thing he was really scared of, especially when he started roaring very loudly at his lady friends!

Rhino mother and son, as seen from the monorail.

Overall, it was a nice day, and we spent a long time at the zoo. Too long, apparently, because when we left, the highways we take home were parking lots. Our one hour trip took three. Thankfully, Oliver was on his best behavior, and didn't complain until we were about 10 minutes from our house when he suddenly exclaimed, "Daddy, stop driving!!"

We still plan to make one last trip to NYC, but we'll be taking the train!