It had been quite some time since I last been to the Bronx Zoo, so one afternoon I wanted to check it out to see if there was anything new. I've been there a countless number of times, and even if I'm familiar with most the animals and exhibits there already, I can never get tired of the zoo.
Instead of driving and worrying about parking or possible break-ins, surrounding neighborhood not all terrific, I decided to take the Bx12 bus which would only be a 15 minute ride. The prices have gone up drastically, I believe it was around $24 for an adult. Granted the zoo does offer entrance for free on Wednesdays, but I had my mind set on it that day and didn't feel like waiting any further. Plus, since its free on Wednesdays, that's when there are the more chances of getting class trips and other large groups which makes for a less enjoyable experience. As soon as I entered there were free roaming peacocks walking around. For whatever reason, the zoo allows them to walk around with all the visitors. A few years I remember I was sitting at an outdoor cafe the zoo has and fed one a piece of pizza crust. More recently I saw in the news that one of the peacocks had left the zoo somehow and had gotten about a half a mile away before being captured.
I made sure to see the seals which occupy the large pool-like structure in the front past the great lawn they have. Afterwards, I visited alot of the usual places; the reptile house, the dark house, the bird house, the rain forest, tiger mountain, the African plains, the mouse house, the monkey house, and a newer one they opened recently for Madagascar. I also tried the Butterfly Garden, which cost an extra $3, and you can walked around inside this greenhouse structure and has butterflies all around. In addition, there's also a room on display in which you can see them being bred and transforming from cocoon to butterfly. In the reptile house I saw Mia the Cobra, who made worldwide headline news earlier in the year of being an escapee, even though she never got outside the reptile house itself and posed no real threat to the public.
The monkey house was humorous, but there's not much lighting and the monkeys never sit still, so it was difficult to take any decent pictures. Same with the mouse house and naturally the dark house. What was lightened up nicely and a good viewing experience was the bird house. There were birds flying around all over which made for excellent picture taking opportunities. It would have been ideal to get some good tiger pictures, but there's always large crowds taking up the good spots and I didn't have the patience to keep waiting. The polar bear was quite underwhelming with his back turned to the crowd and sleeping, but the activity of the brown bears play flighting in the water made up for it. I did a great deal of walking and saw most of the exhibits, but as the afternoon was coming to a close, some of the houses started to close and I wasn't able to visit the gorilla congo or JungleWorld. I probably should've gotten to the zoo in the morning to make sure I would have chance to see everything, but I can always go again some other day.
After the zoo I walked a few blocks away to the Arthur Avenue section, which has become a tourist attraction for its row of Italian resturants and shops like bakeries, butchers, fresh pasta, etc. I was in the mood for clams so I settled upon Umberto's, an extension of the more infamous location in the Little Italy section of Manhattan. I had my clams as an appetizer and moved onto linguine in clam sause as the main dish. For dessert I ventured around the corner to one of the sit-in bakeries and had a slice of strawberry shortcake and a cup of coffee. Usually a slice of cheesecake would be my dessert of choice in that situation, but the presentation of the strawberry shortcake looked too good to pass up.
I wanted to take a picture of my piece of cake, but since alot of mobsters frequent those establishments, and the group of guys in line with the cake shot looked like good candidates, I felt it was best to not use any surveillance equipment...
Instead of driving and worrying about parking or possible break-ins, surrounding neighborhood not all terrific, I decided to take the Bx12 bus which would only be a 15 minute ride. The prices have gone up drastically, I believe it was around $24 for an adult. Granted the zoo does offer entrance for free on Wednesdays, but I had my mind set on it that day and didn't feel like waiting any further. Plus, since its free on Wednesdays, that's when there are the more chances of getting class trips and other large groups which makes for a less enjoyable experience. As soon as I entered there were free roaming peacocks walking around. For whatever reason, the zoo allows them to walk around with all the visitors. A few years I remember I was sitting at an outdoor cafe the zoo has and fed one a piece of pizza crust. More recently I saw in the news that one of the peacocks had left the zoo somehow and had gotten about a half a mile away before being captured.
I made sure to see the seals which occupy the large pool-like structure in the front past the great lawn they have. Afterwards, I visited alot of the usual places; the reptile house, the dark house, the bird house, the rain forest, tiger mountain, the African plains, the mouse house, the monkey house, and a newer one they opened recently for Madagascar. I also tried the Butterfly Garden, which cost an extra $3, and you can walked around inside this greenhouse structure and has butterflies all around. In addition, there's also a room on display in which you can see them being bred and transforming from cocoon to butterfly. In the reptile house I saw Mia the Cobra, who made worldwide headline news earlier in the year of being an escapee, even though she never got outside the reptile house itself and posed no real threat to the public.
The monkey house was humorous, but there's not much lighting and the monkeys never sit still, so it was difficult to take any decent pictures. Same with the mouse house and naturally the dark house. What was lightened up nicely and a good viewing experience was the bird house. There were birds flying around all over which made for excellent picture taking opportunities. It would have been ideal to get some good tiger pictures, but there's always large crowds taking up the good spots and I didn't have the patience to keep waiting. The polar bear was quite underwhelming with his back turned to the crowd and sleeping, but the activity of the brown bears play flighting in the water made up for it. I did a great deal of walking and saw most of the exhibits, but as the afternoon was coming to a close, some of the houses started to close and I wasn't able to visit the gorilla congo or JungleWorld. I probably should've gotten to the zoo in the morning to make sure I would have chance to see everything, but I can always go again some other day.
After the zoo I walked a few blocks away to the Arthur Avenue section, which has become a tourist attraction for its row of Italian resturants and shops like bakeries, butchers, fresh pasta, etc. I was in the mood for clams so I settled upon Umberto's, an extension of the more infamous location in the Little Italy section of Manhattan. I had my clams as an appetizer and moved onto linguine in clam sause as the main dish. For dessert I ventured around the corner to one of the sit-in bakeries and had a slice of strawberry shortcake and a cup of coffee. Usually a slice of cheesecake would be my dessert of choice in that situation, but the presentation of the strawberry shortcake looked too good to pass up.
I wanted to take a picture of my piece of cake, but since alot of mobsters frequent those establishments, and the group of guys in line with the cake shot looked like good candidates, I felt it was best to not use any surveillance equipment...
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