Free Day at the Bronx Zoo

So last week my friend Lindsey invited us to go to the Bronx Zoo with her and her 2 kids. It was our 2nd attempt to go to the zoo, last summer we went with Danette and Hailey and when we got there the zoo was closed because of a power outage........ whatever...... So this time I felt confident that not only did I know how to get there but that it would be so wonderful to actually see the animals this time =)

Let's just say that to start the day I had to wait for the A/C guy who was pretty "chatty" and after I heard his life story and how my boys shouldn't follow in his footsteps and become A/C tech's we headed down to the train station to play the game "trade Mike Cars" (he needed the Yukon to drive to Connecticut for a business meeting) now mind you the parking here in NY is a joke, really you have to pay to park just about everywhere, Mike has a parking sticker for the train station on the Saturn and we have a Recreational parking sticker for the local parks on the Yukon. There is a beautiful park at the train station and a few parking spaces that I can leave the Yukon at for a few hours without getting ticketed... So just my luck Mike parked the Saturn a hop, skip and a jump times 5 from the park area, I pulled up and parked the Yukon and low and behold the MTA police are parked right by me, how on earth was I going to leave my kids to hop, skip and jump down the parking lot to bring the Saturn to the Yukon with the boys in it to trade car seats? What a fun game....... I really have to laugh at myself, I watched the police car pull away and I RAN.... no hopping, no skipping and NO jumping involved... More of a sprint to the Saturn with the boys belted and locked in the Yukon, I get to the Saturn, my key less entry pad is broken so I have to manually unlock the door (what the heck, it's been a long time since I actually unlocked a car door) and then my key is pretty worn so I couldn't get it to turn in the ignition, after what felt like a life time and visions of being arrested and living in a 5 x 5 cell for leaving my kids in a locked car for a time, the car finally started and I made the fun exchange of car seats from one vehicle to the other, headed for the zoo, took the wrong exit (who knew that the "BRONX ZOO PARKING" sign could be so misleading...... well we parked in the wrong parking lot, with all of the school buses that were on field trips (100's of buses), made it into the zoo to find that the other parking (the right one) was on the other side of the zoo, no problem, I started pushing my way through the neatly lined up children and 15 minutes later and many obstacles behind me found the correct parking lot but couldn't find Lindsey (something to do with being 45 minutes late =(

After realizing we were on our own for our first zoo trip we headed out to find some animals to look at.... No exaggeration... I valet parked my stroller, stood in line for the tiger exhibit and after not moving for what felt like an eternity decided that we were going home and not seeing any animals because they were just too hard to find at the zoo..... I witnessed a near fist fight with the stroller parking valet attendant and a Brazilian tourist... grabbed my stroller and started to head for the car when Noah said... "MOM, we have to see the giraffes" . My plans for leaving were put on hold as we found the map and started to make our way to the giraffe exhibit, we saw a very lazy and hot Polar bear, some deer (I think) a leopard, Buffalo and then we like a scene from a movie I heard "WENDY" and there was Lindsey and her kids..... Right as we found the Giraffe's, MIRACLE.... we chatted, saw the giraffes, stood on the path ate lunch... had a mother duckling with her babies cross 2 feet from us to go swimming said our good bye to Lindsey, Lily and Fritz and headed home. Well we headed home right after I got lost in the BRONX (never been so nervous in my life) I couldn't find a friendly face anywhere.... not even at the McDonalds (no one drives in the Bronx so the 3 people I asked how to find the Parkway all replied "I don't drive, I have no idea") So after many silent prayers we finally found our way home.... Oh by the way did I mention it was Free day at the zoo? We will be buying a family pass and avoid going on Free day in the future.

I love the Zoo!!!!!