This has been like the worst summer ever.
First, it took forever to warm up. I still get annoyed when I remember wearing my friggin' winter coat in May. WTF? And since then, it's been one grey and rainy weekend after another. Someone tried to sell me an urban legend that it statistically rains more on weekends than weekdays in cities because there is a buildup of polution in the atmosphere during the week that gets released over the weekends. Load of crap or not? Gotta hit the snopes.
Anyways, we drove down to NYC over the weekend, as is our frequent habit, to visit the various 'rents. We had hoped for a weekend full of pools and BBQs, but we had to settle for lots of (newly purchased and expensive) umbrellas and ponchos, and substituted churrascaria for the backyard grill.
The best part of the weekend was hitting the Bronx Zoo for the fourth. Unusual choice, I know, but quite brill, if I do say so myself. Between the overcast skies and the holiday, the zoo was very pleasantly uncrowed, and we were able to get on the various rides almost immediately. The girls absolutely loved the Skyfari, a cable car that takes you across most of the expanse of the zoo. You can't see much in terms of animals, but what a neat juxtaposition of the green of the preserve with the Bronx skyline. J said it best: it was the perfect way to break the illusion that you were in the midst of a lush forest.
But (OMG) the prices (I'm throwing up in my mouth a little even as I type this). $75 for tix alone (even with Kali free at under 3). Lunch was another $30. And get this, they were charging $5.24 for a bucket of popcorn! Friggin' popcorn! I know this is pretty much the going rate for museums/zoos/etc... these days, but since I'm a member of the museums in Boston that we visit and the last time we did this down in NYC was (I think) in 1995, it's been a while since I've been hit with full fare. And they say inflation has been moderate over these last 10 years.
This makes the economist in me a little sad. For the most part, I don't mind spending oodles and oodles of money on good causes. I know that the money I spent at the zoo (for example) is used to maintain the zoo, and for other conservation projects, which I fully support. On the other hand, these rates must price certain families out. For people living nearby, the membership always makes more sense, and breaks down to a much more reasonable per visit cost. But for out-of-town visitors like us, or even local families that only want to make the trip once or twice a year, these prices really make you think twice.
Loo's favorite exhibit was the reptile house - who would have guessed!? We were there just as they were doing a demonstration so she got to handle a real turtle shell and she saw a snake eating a mouse (eww...).
Kali was really too small to have much opinion about anything, but she was pretty excited about the bug carousel in the middle of the park. (She also had a mini-tantrum in the monorail, much to the chagrin of the other passengers, but let's not dwell on that...)
Saturday was spent with amah, making homemade ice cream (vanilla, we were breaking in a new ice cream making machine) and running around like crazy on her (wet) lawn. Then Loo and I snuck out while Kali took her afternoon nap to see Kung Fu Panda, which we had been promising her for ages. I thought it was actually quite wonderful, and clean (thank GOD, since clean seems to be hard to find these days). Loo was on the edge of her seat the whole time, though she got a little confused about the back story between Shi Fu and Tai Lung.
Sunday, a big churrascaria lunch with family and friends, and then a long tiring drive back to Boston. (Hurrah for the Prius, only $45 for gas on this trip!)
