Bronx Zoo Holiday Lights

 The New York Wildlife Conservation Society operates five parks within the City of New York.  The largest and most famous of these is The Bronx Zoo , a 265 acre park filled with wildlife from all over the world.  Our membership in the  Wildlife Conservation Society  gives us unlimited admission into the Bronx Zoo, the Central Park Zoo, the Queens Zoo, the Prospect Park Zoo and the New York Aquarium.  Every year the zoo presents Holiday Lights, an after-dark special event,  As members, we take full advantage of this event.  Here’s what I wrote last year, with links to our prior visits.

The zoo is turned into a Festival of Lights, There are lanterns, representing the animals and plants preserved at the zoo.  There’s ice carving, a carousel, puppet show and train ride for the children.  Costumed characters, of course.  And, as always, there’s a Christmas tree display.  

This year we didn’t get to the zoo early enough to see any animals —too much traffic on the Cross Bronx Expressway and a wrong turn coming off the Bronx River Parkway killed that.  But we will go back in good weather to see the animals.

We went on a weeknight, so the park was a lot less crowded.  Which made for a much more relaxed experience. 

We always grab a bite at the Dancing Crane Cafe.  Drew had a cheeseburger and fries, I had a rice bowl with pulled chicken.

The joke if the evening .., in the souvenir shop we saw a t shirt that referred to a rhino as “a chubby unicorn”.  So whenever we spotted a rhino, we’d say “there’s another unicorn!”

We always get the “refillable mug” — it’s really a thermos.

They give you a wristband so you can get free refills of hot chocolate or coffee the day you purchase the mug. 

We saw a lot of lantern animals on the various trails through the park.

I made a collage of photos and video from this year’s visit,

As always, a fun evening.