A Day at the Zoo

 

My first trip to the Bronx Zoo: giraffes and bears and gorillas and…dinosaurs?

Yes, you read that right. Nearly a decade and I finally made my way to the Bronx Zoo. Apparently I’m trying to check a lot of things off that NYC Bucket List this summer. I’ve been to the San Diego Zoo and the St. Louis Zoo, so I guess it was time to tackle the big one in New York. It definitely did not disappoint.

First, this place is huge. You wouldn’t think so because it’s in New York City, but you have to remember there’s quite a bit of land outside of Manhattan. People sometimes forget that the outer boroughs have so much to offer in terms of places to see and things to do.

The polar bear was having a tough day, too.

If you look closely between the branches you can see a bear in the water. He was having a ball cooling down in the water and playing with a stick. It made me forget for a second that these cute little bears were actually big, scary beasts.

A baboon striking a pose. A split second later he started grooming himself for his close-up.

Giraffes enjoying the shade.

I forgot what kind of primates these two were, but I got a kick out of them grooming each other.

I call this gorilla The Thinker.

Kids kept chasing this peacock. I felt bad for the poor thing, but it was really bright and pretty.

We started a little late so we weren’t able to see everything, but we did tackle almost everything I wanted to see. They even had a special dinosaur adventure that we had to check out. It was supposed to be like a Jurassic Park-type of thing, minus living, breathing dinosaurs. The fake ones were still pretty cool and the kids really enjoyed it.

By the end of the day, we were beyond tired. The kids conked out the minute they got in the car and my friend and I were ready for a long nap as well. When I got home that night, I jumped right into the shower then settled in on my couch for an evening with The Killing and Mad Men. I didn’t have any energy to do anything else. After an almost full day of sun, walking from animal to animal, standing in line for the dinosaur adventure, and wrangling three kids, I finally understood how exhausting it is to be parent.