Bronx Zoo

I've wanted to go to the Bronx Zoo ever since I moved here. I've tried to go a few times, but it's never worked out. Well, despite the craziness that occurred between 7 and 10 AM, today couldn't have worked out more perfectly! Here's the short version (of course, my short versions are most people's long versions!): John had to be in Manhattan at 10:00 AM for a meeting and his mom had to be at the hospital for transfusions, so everyone (Reagan and Avery included) got up early. The plan was to drop off his mom in Hackensack, then drop off John at the train station there, but since Nila was experiencing a lot of pain this morning, it slowed us down and we didn't get out the door until 8:20. By the time John got his mom settled inside the hospital and got back out to the car, is was just after 9AM and he had missed the last train that would get him into midtown before 10. We had no choice but to drive into the city. Had it been any other day, we would have hit tons of traffic at that hour, but it was a Jewish holiday, so we breezed into the city with virtually NO traffic! It was unbelievable how smooth the drive was! I dropped him off near Grand Central Station around 9:40, then headed toward the Bronx. I was able to park on the street for free, just outside of the zoo and we were walking in at 10:05, just after it opened. The best part is that the Bronx Zoo is FREE on Wednesdays, isn't that cool?! The forecast had called for rain, but it turned out to be a gorgeous day.

We met up with Nicole and her mom Robin (in town from Florida) and Nicole's friend Chenin. They have been there many times before, so they were the ultimate guides. We went directly to "The Congo" which is an exhibit that requires you to park your stroller and pay a few dollars to get in (luckily, we were free because Chenin let me be her guest, since she has an annual zoo pass). The Congo was so thick with fog/mist, we could hardly see! Reagan actually got a little scared, due to the low visability.

Reagan and Chenin's daughter Cassie, checking out the monkeys

Chenin was taking a picture of my girls and me when Mia jumped in at the last minute ... still a cute picture of Reagan :)

Avery, Mia, Amanda and Reagan

Mia, Reagan and Cassie, watching the monkeys

Reagan was obviously enjoying herself! I have to mention that she's wearing her new school clothes, size 3T ... yes, they drown her and she'll probably fit in them for the next two years :)

Reagan, Mia, Bennett, and Cassie watching the gorilla

Amanda, Avery and the gorilla

Giraffe exhibit

As I've said before, Reagan doesn't wear sunglasses to be stylish or look "cool" ... sunglasses are purely functional for her. She hates the sun in her eyes!

Nicole with her mom Robin, pushing Bennett in the stroller

Nicole and the beautiful Bronx Zoo

My girls and me ... they were getting worn out!

The girls ~ Cassie, Reagan and Mia

Cassie and Chenin eating lunch

As usual, Reagan had no interest in eating lunch, just collecting leaves

The sea lion was barking at the one in the water

This was probably Reagan's favorite part, watching the sea lions swim around and bark at each other.

When she saw the baby sea lion, she asked to take him home! Listen closely to the video (it's hard to hear her over all the background noise), she said, "Can I have the baby one?"

It was a really fun morning at the zoo. Apparently, the zoo gets very crowded every single day during the school year, due to all the class trips/field trips. Since it was a Jewish holiday, all the schools were closed, therefore no big groups of students. Nicole and Chenin kept saying how dead and empty it was the whole time, so I felt pretty lucky that we went on such a great day! Both girls fell asleep in the car on the way home and we picked up John from the train station in Westwood.