Alex was thrilled to see Grandma McCann waiting for us at the zoo entrance. Then as we paid our entry fee, he was anxious to get to running around. 'Come on Mommeeee!' he shouted. He really wanted to climb on that bronze turtle he saw through the gates.
But first, there were peafowl to chase. Alex thought it was a riot as they would land on their feet after jumping down from a rail. He ran up a ramp to chase a few, including some white peafowl I'd never seen before. Not successful at capturing one, Alex took off to find the bronze turtle. I hoisted him onto the turtle's neck and he laughed a ton.
There were so many animals to see there, because the Staten Island Zoo specializes in small animals that can humanely be kept in small enclosures like reptiles, fish and amphibians. They also have a fantastic children's zoo with lots of domestic animals to feed and a duck pond with many different kinds of water fowl.
Our first stop was in the aquarium, where we even saw a seahorse. It was adjacent to a cool jungle/rainforest exhibit. Alex wasn't too sure about it, since it was a little dark. After some King Vultures tried to peck at him through the glass and, worse so, tried to peck at the new quacking duck Grandma gave him, he'd had it with that exhibit. Soon, he was pushing for the door.
Our next stop was the children's petting corner where Alex just loved the duck pond. He wanted to get more quarters to operate the food machine which, eventually, became his real attraction. We had to keep coaxing him back to the animals to feed them the crackers that Grandma had bought. We had so many left over, we had to decide to come back. Alex just wanted to get going and roam around some more.
Next was the reptile house, which he loved so much he didn't want to leave. We saw many beautiful snakes and tortoises there. Especially gorgeous were the mesmerizing Egyptian cobra and the enormous boa constrictors. Alex was having a ton of fun there, even making a friend who showed him around a bit. (That boy goes there every week). Alex wasn't too thrilled about the rattler exhibit though. On the wall was a large lift-and-read exhibit on the anatomy of a rattlesnake. At the end where the rattle is, one can lift the flap to see a cartiledge fossil of a snake's rattle while a loud rattle-hiss comes over a soundspeaker. "Mama!" Alex cried in that voice that tells me he's really, really scared. Of course, like he does with all things that terrify him, he kept checking it to see if it made the sound. It would and he'd get scared again. It wasn't enough to get him to leave the reptile house, though. We had to bribe him out. (Grandma had a stash of Swedish Fish.)
The stars of our visit were the Red Kangaroos - still there with their new joey and out on exhibit. Grandma and Mommy were thrilled. Alex played with the water fountain. He's soooo seen wallabies before at the Bronx Zoo. Who cares about a bigger version of them when there's cold water to splash around in late-October?
We has some snacks, which, for Alex was a big salty pretzel. He got a new "horseshoe crab" (manta ray) water toy. We walked around a hay stack maze where Mommy found some peacock feathers for her scrapbooks (and even coaxed a bunch of birds to kick her over a white one). We bamboozled Alex into a pony ride that he swore he didn't want to take, but who wanted another as soon as he was finished riding "Apache". He even wanted a new toy horse to name "Apache" after the ride.
It was a full, full day with lots of fun and animals and crackers (which Alex didn't want to share with the animals) and snacks and toys! Alex wasn't too happy to leave. At least Mommy had a boat ride home as a bribe to get him out of there.
He was a tired, tuckered-out little guy when we finally got home. He was still a little traumatized by the rattlesnakes. He slept in Mommy and Daddy's bed that night and seemed to be the better for it. I noticed he didn't wake in the middle of the night while there. Too tired!
Friday, October 22, 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment