2016-06-03 – Panorama of the Mountains

It was supposed to rain on Memorial Day, so we were heading to a museum. Walking through Central Park, we noticed the sun was shining, and we just decided to stay. It helped that this northeastern part of the park surrounds the beautiful Harlem Meer and has two excellent playgrounds and the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center. The kids had fun on the playgrounds and borrowing discovery kits with two sets of binoculars. There were lots of fish in the Meer, my friend says they’re deadly. We also learned about the area’s geological history and how it was fortified for the War of 1812.

The Harlem Meer

War of 1812 soldier

View from the Dana center

Studying a school of fish

Explorer at work

Since my mother’s recent move back to New York, we’ve become Bronx Zoo members and now will be visiting one of our favorite places frequently. On a crowded Memorial Day weekend, I went to the zoo with my mother, my kids, and for the first time ever, my wife. We visited the World of Birds, Tiger Mountain, the Bengali Express, Jungle World, and the new Children’s Zoo. We also waited a long time for the Zoo Shuttle to ride from one side of the zoo to the other. It was a good day.