Central Park Zoo

First thing this morning was watching the folks going into the city via the Holland Tunnel. The lanes were clogged when I looked out the window at 6:30am. After my shower I went to the lobby to get croissants and doughnuts...load the kids up with carbs for a great start to the day.

We traipsed to the subway for our foray into NYC. The weather was clear and hot. We got to the zoo shortly after they opened and we went to the penguin and puffin house. We learned about how they take care of the penguins and watched them get hand fed. They received the penguins from Sea World in Florida. One named Scrappy can not digest bones, so they hand feed him filleted fish. Another one named Buzz was being bullied by the other penguins in Florida, but is thriving here.

One of the nicest people you will meet is Tamisha at Central Park Zoo. When she came to feed the frogs in the Rainforest exhibit she answered all of Rachel's questions. She also let Rachel hold the bag of live crickets. She said her favorite snakes in the exhibit are the Rainbow Boa and the Blood Python. She said the Emerald Tree Snakes are cranky. We watched her hand feed a lizard and a frog. We learned that the smallest crickets they feed are to the Poison Dart Frogs and are called "Pin Heads". Rachel was interested in some toads and Tamisha said that the display showed the juvenile toads, but she could show us one of the mothers. Here is the photo:







The zoo is small in scale, but the exhibits are nice and the folks that work with the public do a great job trying to educate the patrons. The kids also liked the adjacent Tisch Children's area where you can pet animals like alpaca and goats.

We then had a mile walk to John's Pizzeria. We had a margherita pizza and Aaron had a personal pan pizza with pepperoni and ham. We were shocked to find that they charged us for refills. I mean this is the first time I've had a refill charge since the 1980s. Oh well, the pizza was yummy! Rachel cried most of the way to the restaurant because her feet hurt. She was happy for the rest.

We walked a few blocks to Serendipity 3, but the placed was packed at 3:00pm, so we just to the train at Lexington and made our way back to New Jersey. The kids ate ice cream at a creamery in the mall and I grabbed a fruit smoothie.

We were able to pick up a cable to upload the photographs at Radio Shack. We went to a bookstore to get Rachel some American Girl books about Felicity that she said she wanted. I found two of those books for her, but she didn't want them. She wanted some fairy books. I was annoyed because I stopped to find the specific books she wanted for her to put them back and get something else. So we put them all back. I think the kids are getting an idea that money grows on trees because we have done so many things. They aren't respecting things or efforts on their behalf. We are now just doing some down time in the motor lodge and bathing.

I think it would serve NYC a great service if they had an intensive ad campaign focused on people throwing gum in the garbage. Just say no to gum would probably to harsh, but the city looks awful with those nasty black blotches all over the sidewalks.

We check out of here tomorrow and begin our trek to Niagara Falls. I need to turn some blog time over to Michael.

Smiles!