Day 2 – Part 3 – The Zoo at last

Having survived the subway adventure and Mad Eddie we had managed to make it to the Zoo and I was most excited. I have always loved zoo's. Getting to see all the cool animals always makes me feelkind of peacefull,. So far the only wildlife we had seen was a couple of birds and some cool black squirels. I was really looking forward to seeing the sand cats and the Gorillas as they were something that I had not seen before.

The Bronx Zoo is catagrised into areas (Jungle World, Congo forest etc) and in each area you can see the animals that you would find in these habitats. I really liked the layout and the animals all had huge enclosures to live in. In Jungle world we saw the coolest animal ever – a tree kangeroo – it rocked (this site has more info on them http://home.iprimus.com.au/readman/lumh.htm).

One of the things you don't always appreciate is how big hunters manage to sneak up on their prey. You can look at a 200lb lion and think – man there is no way that could sneak up on anyone – look at the size of it. Rob found out just how quiet the big cats can be in jungle world. We were looking at an ants nest – having watched some monkeys for a while and I had been looking at 2 black panthers that were behind us. Rob had not seen them and you should have seen him jump when I pointed them out. All you could really see was two pairs of large yellow eyes that staired out at you. Even though they were behind a glass wall and I knew that they were there it is still somewhat daunting to look into the eyes of something that knows it can eat you. While you marvel at their grace and beauty you can see just ho lethal they really are.

There is plenty to see at the zoo – though it is very quiet in the winter months, and we eventually made it to the Congo rain forest where the Gorillas are housed . We took our time wondering through and wondered whether we would see the Gorillas a t all as a lot of the monkeys seemed to be staying inside out of the cold.

I had prepared myself for disappointment – but was overjoyed when we came to the viewing area and realised there had to be gorillas out because of all the people. We made our way up and when we got to the front we were amazed at what we saw. Not one Gorilla – but a whole family group complete with 6 week old baby. It was breathtaking. You could see the intelligence in their eyes as you stood at watched. I was mesmerised. It was like watching any family – the kids were playing and causing havoc. Mum and Dad were looking after the baby and everyone seemed content One of the older siblings came over to play with the very curious baby who was trying to touch everything and held it hand. Once she was sure that there would be no repercussions she picked up baby – hugged it tight and turned her back on everyone to have someone on one sibling time. It was awesome – just like you see on TV and not something that I will ever forget.

We spent the next few hours wondering round the zoo. There were so many cool things to see – not least of which was the small spider monkey hugging a small dear that shared its enclosure. The zoo shuts early in the winter so we headed off at 4.30 to go get the subway home.

Impromptu stops

Having made our way back to the subway station and admired the very urban landscape we had planned to head back to the hotel to warm up but then we noticed that the last stop for the train we had caught was Grand Central Station. We had always planned to go and see the station in real life having seen it in all of the movies and figured this was as good a time as any.

The journey was uneventful and we were quite excited. We talked about what we had seen at the zoo and the untouchables which has a seen in the station.

Coming off the tube we were quite excited – even the shops are quite grand and we made our way to the main concourse looking for the steps where Andy Garcia walked and the large clock he looked at. I had been warned before we left that it was not as big as you would think but even that did not prepare me for how small it was. It is still an amazing train concourse and you are still stunned but I was utterly gutted to see that the stairs and the clock have long since been replaced. You know it is still an impressive building but some of that was lost in the disappointment that is was not the way we had hoped – damn it Hollywood lied!

We took our time wondering back to the hotel – getting our bearings and looking at the sights. One thing that becomes clear very quickly is that New York goes up a long way. You are always surrounded by really high buildings and when ever you look up you feel a bit claustrophobic, as if the buildings are falling in – it is a very odd experience.

Night had fallen by the time we got back to Times Square so we stopped off to take some photos of the amazing lights and then had an amazing diner at La Prima Donna – a lovely Italian restaurant just off the Square. The food was great and we realised that this was the first “Posh� restaurant dinner that we have ever had together. Quite a day of firsts really