Queens Zoo

Today's forecast looked great 10 days ago, and as we got closer, the weather outlook stayed just as beautiful. So today I decided I was going to explore our new borough and visit the zoo. Every borough has one, just like every borough has a big park area like Manhattan has Central Park (there are so many more parks than I thought there would be, when I imagined living in the city).
I went to hopstop.com and got the public transit directions. Seemed simple enough. Get on the Q23 and take it to van clef then walk north east til wooohoo you're there.
I packed light, using the small stroller and combining my purse with the diaper bag. Still, I am thankful that there were people who helped me carry the folded stroller on the bus (because other wise, you're holding a wiggly toddler, the diaper bag, the folded and threatening to unfold stroller, and trying to insert the metro card).
Here are a few pictures. I got fed up with Blogger so didn't put too many pics in

 Hey mom, can we get one of those?
No Ranger, you can not get a puma.
But it's so Fluffy!

Good buy puma.

He's hugging the baby eagle.
























Hello littlest deer in the whole world. My mom let me out of my stroller for this photo op, but now I'm going to run into the shrubbery. Or try to- mom's quick for someone with a bum ankle.

 This squirrel was really aggressive - it climbed up the apple holder's leg until the boy's mom ran over and shoo'd the squirrel away, but then it followed the little boy up the stairs and cornered him. You can see who won that stand off.

This is one huge playground!

On our way back we rode the Q23, and for some reason the bus got packed. That was ok, I was right upfront with Ranger sitting very nicely between me and the wall behind the driver. Then some guy with a guitar got on. Crazy on the bus. With a guitar. Did I mention the bus was packed? I had the stroller practically in my lap- there wasn't room for mr play his guitar badly. People started to get off even if it wasn't their stop. He wasn't threatening, but he was saying he was Mr. JC himself, and gave some rambling monologue on love while at the same time singling out this one poor lady for direct conversation. She of course responded in true NY fashion, which only egged him on. Ranger took it all in quietly-
his first crazy
sigh.