Bronx Zoo

After we dropped my parents off at the Laguardia Airport we opted to go to the Bronx zoo for the day.  It was a spur of the moment decision we had not planned on going at all during our east coast adventures and we had actually left our camera at home to charge for this "quick" trip into New York to see Grandma and Grandpa off... So we bought a one time use camera for our visit... it really made us realize how our picture taking has changed with technology!

On this trip is when I wonder how people found places before GPS!  My phone directed us to the nearest entrance... turns out there are like 3 or 4 entrances... we were guided to the entrance without a visible parking lot so we opted for the street... assuming that since it is a city zoo there isn't a parking lot or 3.  We parked hid our electronics and anything of value under the seats or in the glove box and were on our way.  The area we parked in was a bit shady and not because of all the trees...  The homes on the street were barricaded in behind tall fences with barbed wire on top and bars on the windows, many of the walls were decorated with graffiti and you just didn't feel secure.  If it were dark out or I were alone I would not have gotten out of the car much less walk several blocks down the street.  You get the idea.

On to the ZOO!  This thing is big I mean it is GINORMOUS! (as Buddy the elf would say)  We had to refer to the map quite a bit to figure out where we were and where we wanted to go!  They had several great exhibits, and I really loved how much space the animals had available to them as well as how well landscaped each was.  They seem to put consideration for the animal into how they built their "cages".  As you will see in the pictures, it looks like we are walking through a park that has a lot of wildlife in it instead of a Zoo in the middle of a huge city.

Maggie & Seana posing in front of a fountain we thought was pretty, uhh... hmmm it looks like they are posing in front of a parking lot....

 Self Portrait Time!

 Me posing in the Congo exhibit with an Okapi... It is there you just have to hunt for it!  They are very interesting animals they look like a mix between a zebra and a moose with no antlers.

 The Gorillas!  This is a fantastic exhibit!  The camera we purchases was an outdoors camera with no flash... This shot was done indoors... You can see the shadows of Maggie and Seana posing...surprisingly the Gorilla shows up pretty good!

 Lego Flamingos!! We are on this boardwalk bridge one side had Lego Flamingos the other side had real flamingos... apparantly the Lego Flamingos were more interesting!

 Seana and Maggie with some sort of African Antelope in the back ground.....

 Me and a Giraffe attempting to hide behind the tree... He would definitely lose if we were playing hide n seek!

I would love to say that we wandered through all the exhibits and saw all the animals... but we didn't in fact near the end we bypassed several because our feet were feeling it and we were done for the day and still had a long walk ahead of us to get out of the zoo and back to our car.

There was still quite a bit of daylight left in the day when we got back to our car... but as we approached we noticed the car that had parked behind us after we arrived didn't fair well.  The passenger window was shattered, and I am pretty sure whatever was in their car was now stolen.  We can thankfully report that our car was untouched... I would like to think that it was the lack of any electronic upgrades to the vehicle as well as our decision to hide any devices we had before locking up and heading out that saved us from theft.