The Hardys: Bronx Zoo

When Chase was still very little we took him to the Bronx Zoo with my family in early spring. We haven't been back since.

The zoo is really nice, but it's also really hard to get to on public transit from Queens. But today (Labor Day) we decided we'd go for it. We all have had really busy times and work, school living room destruction, etc. and just needed a day out. Plus - Erica and I both have "IDNYC" cards, and if you present one at the Bronx Zoo, you get a pass that you can use to get access to all 5 NYC zoos for a year. It's kind of a gimmick to get you to sign up for the card in a way, but not a bad thing to get to take advantage of.

Chase, per usual set the agenda for the outing: Elephants and flamingos. We went out there on the 7 / 2 train. It's a bit of a hike, to say the least. The 2 runs express through Manhattan, but hits a stop every few blocks after it reaches the Bronx. Our train was actually running behind so we skipped a bunch of stops and got to the Zoo a bit quicker than we might have otherwise - the one time that scenario has ever played out in someone's favor.

Getting the IDNYC membership was smooth as could be - so we now have zoos for a year and 10 percent off most things at the zoos. Yay!

The first animal of the day wound up being the most exciting: the Tigers. They had just been fed, so they were active. Very un-zoo-tiger like. Our best encounter was this this fine, striped gentleman:

He started off behind some bushes; you could just barely make him out...

We then witnessed some very housecat-like behavior: eating the houseplants. #allkitties

Then, to our surprise as we were at the front of the crowd for once, he came out!

And he looked at us for a bit.

And ate some more plants.

And kinda...looked cute and catish? It was actually interesting; I was looking through the viewfinder on the camera and was zoomed in; you almost lose perspective of what a huge, powerful animal this is when you're tunnel visioned like that.

I mean seriously, this was a big 'ol kitty...

The Lion(s) were much less exciting...

Chase found a "mountain" to climb on by the Tiger paddock.

Ty was fantastic the whole time; he slept like a champ in his carrier, even though he was probably a bit warm. This is at lunch when he finally got some good air on his body. It was about 90 degrees today, but the Zoo was very shaded, and there was a near-constant breeze.

We brought lunch to save some money...and to order in for Labor Day dinner. Kind of a nice setting for it, with critters in the background.

Proof that I went too...even though this isn't the best picture...

There was a family of peacocks at lunch; Chase liked to follow them around like a baby peacock. Which, incidentally, there were several of. Never seen a baby peacock before.

The giraffes were fun; though Chase was running out of steam by the time we got to them...

He did get to see his flamingos (here's looking' at you Stacey...these weren't overly pink though)

Chase was real tired by this point...and insisted that THIS was in fact a flamingo. I had to try real hard to not tell him it was in fact the rare duck's @--...

Chase was good and so he got a souvenir, a 54 inch stuffed coral snake...the snake is in the bag here. We told him it had to stay in the bag so it wouldn't get dirty.

Erica, as you can see, is doing so well post-surgery. She took Ty after lunch. He does have a certain liking for riding around on her in front...(bad pregnancy joke...)

Chase fell completely asleep. Erica went to look at the lemurs and he and I stayed outside in the shade. Found a great tree to sit by...

Of course, we stopped to see Erica's "friends" the sea lions. You could hear them throughout the whole park practically.

They had baby sea lions!!! They were very cute and fun. Sorry about the bad filming; it was crowded and I was hand-held. The odd noise you hear that sounds like a dying zergling - that's a baby sea lion.

Unfortunately, this is as close as Chase got to an Elephant...you have to ride a tram to see them and it, like several other exhibits at the park like the Gorillas and Kids zoo, cost an additional fee, which we weren't prepared to fork over today. Wouldn't be NYC without some sort of hidden fee you weren't expecting...

The trek back from the zoo was different. We decided to walk a mile to take Metro North back to Grand Central rather than dealing with the 2 again. The 2 really wasn't that bad...it just took forever and we weren't in the mood. And Erica loves Metro North; she takes it to CT to teach all the time.

The station was sort of hidden, but we found it eventually. $13 total to get back to Grand Central...money well spent for how easy / nice it was.

They even had vending machines that worked via contactless payments (Google Wallet / Apple Pay) - I was thrilled and got Chase M&Ms. I geek out on stuff like this thanks to one of my clients at work, Fiserv.

Chase woke up and was super excited to ride the "real train."

And real it was - much larger than the 7s Chase is used to.

He loves that he was made keeper of the tickets. Kind of like the Little Critter Book "Just Me and My Mom." Don't worry...he didn't lose the tickets like Little Critter did.