Bronx Zoo vs. San Diego Zoo vs. Central Park Zoo

The Bronx Zoo is my FAVORITE ZOO! It beats out the San Diego Zoo, in my humble opinion. No offense to San Diego!

Here's my take on the two.
*Kids will love to see the pandas in San Diego, so they have a MAJOR plus right there.
*San Diego Zoo is smaller, although they are building a new section for the elephants soon! I look forward to taking my children there in the future. The smaller size makes it easier if you have small children.
*Kids LOVED the skyfari. But as of this January it's grounded at the Bronx Zoo and still up in San Diego. There is talk of an "amusement park attraction" in the future at the Bronx Zoo. I'm personally hurt by the closing of the skyfari. The zoo said it was a financial decision, and not a safety reason, which gets me more upset. Losing the skyfari almost pushed me over to voting for the San Diego Zoo.
*The Congo Gorilla Forest is a MUST SEE at the Bronx Zoo! As is the Wild Asia Monorail ride.
*Outside of the San Diego Zoo there is a cool little kids train. Nice touch, but it is OUTSIDE of the zoo.
*Bronx Zoo has a great Bug Carousel- what kid doesn't like a carousel?
*San Diego Zoo has awesome flora.

I can't really compare the Bronx and San Diego Zoos to the Central Park Zoo. The Central Park Zoo is MUCH smaller, but is a great way to spend a couple of hours. You'll enjoy the children's zoo here as much as the children's zoo in the other zoos. What's most amazing about the Central Park Zoo is it's location in the heart of Manhattan! Make sure you compare your "paw" to Gus' paw by the polar bear exhibit!

What do you think?

New York Hall of Science

This is a tough review for me to write. I and my son both love going to the Hall of Science; in fact, I'm a member of the Hall! If you are visiting the area or live in the area and have never gone, it's a must see. The indoor activities are great for young and old. My son especially liked the sports section that they have upstairs. They really need to add a few things in this area. If they asked me I'd tell them my ideas. Anyway, back to the point. The outdoor playground is great! If it's a nice day you MUST try it out!

Now to my problem with the Hall. I paid $155 for a 2 year membership. That's a lot for a place I go to maybe three times a year. Now they charge members for kids crafts. It's only a couple of bucks, but it really burns me up after dishing out $155 that they can't afford to "give" us a piece of paper, maybe a rubber band, and some crayons to color with! This is nickel-and-diming at it's worst. My other issue is they now have a video simulator (you sit in a capsule with a video screen in front of you and the capsule moves around)- but they charge members for this 3 minute ride! I believe it's at a small discount to non members, but come on!

All and all it's a great place and my son loves it!
Let me know what you think.

Baltimore - Matthew's Pizza

The pizza is good. But if you're from NY, or maybe even Chicago, you know GREAT pizza. We tried this place, again because it was recommended in Mike Strzelecki's book "Baltimore With Children" and our son's name is Matthew. The place is a hole in the wall as Mike said. But how old are Mike's kids? There's no changing table here and the only other customer close to my childs age was a college kid that was sitting behind us studying! Not a single other family here and we were there for lunch watching customer after customer come in, eat, leave, come in, eat,....
The place has won all kinds of awards which leads me to believe Baltimore is no pizza capital and should stick to crab cakes.

Baltimore - Friendly Farm Resaurant

We read about the Friendly Farm Restaurant in Mike Strzelecki's book "Baltimore with Children." Why he would recommend driving 45 minutes from Downtown Baltimore I'll never know. He made the place sound great for kids, but we were the only young family there! EVERYONE else was older. That's a slight exaggeration, there was a couple that was perhaps in their 40s and a family with a teenager. The place sort of reminded me of a nursing home cafeteria. The farm land area was very pretty, but the signs reading "keep off the grass" kept us away. The food was NOTHING to write home about, I've had better steaks at chain restaurants. The highlight of the meal were the sweet rolls which were ok and the ice cream for desert (no sprinkles or whipped cream for the kids). Also, how many kids do you know that eat the sides the serve: pickled beets, coleslaw, cottage cheese, and apple butter? Mine don't. They are willing to try things, but this was not their cup of tea, or ours. NOT worth the trouble to drive out to nearly the Pennsylvania line! What were you thinking Mike?

Baltimore - National Aquarium

Beautiful. Well run. Clean and friendly! The exhibits were fantastic. Sure I'm partial to the New York Aquarium in Brooklyn, but this was nice. Make sure you check out the Australia exhibit and watch them feed the archer fish. We didn't stay for the dolphin show, but people were saying it was great. Wish they had some out door exhibits, because on a nice day you don't want to be couped up inside. This makes for a great rainy day activity.

Some comparisons:
The shark area is nice, but not as cool as Sea Worlds in San Diego or Orlando.
The NYC Aquarium requires you to be outdoors to get from exhibit to exhibit, like I said this place is totally indoors.
No walrus or seals at the National Aquarium.
Much cleaner facilities than NYC Aquarium or Sea World.

Baltimore's Paddleboats & Chessies

Bottom line, if it's a nice day, rent a boat. We had tons of fun. My son was so excited about "going on the dragon boat." We paddled around and got a great view of the harbor and got nice and close to the Torsk. Great experience. Period.

Baltimore - B and O Railroad Museum

The B & O (Baltimore and Ohio) Railroad Museum was another place we visited this week. Here's the real deal for kids. They have some awesome trains in the Roundhouse which I thought were impressive,as did my son. Don't think you can go on most of them though. Only about 5 train cars or locomotives are you actually allowed on. Our reason for going was the train ride you can take on the "first commercial railroad track in America." Sure the tracks may have been historic, but the train cars we sat in were from the MARC (Maryland's commuter train). There is nothing cool about that. My son was disappointed that the train didn't move faster than about a crawl. He wasn't the only disappointed one, many passengers said the same thing as we S-L-O-W-L-Y moved along. If you are a historic train buff, as many of the OLDER patrons were, it might be great. If not, take the MARC from Baltimore to D.C. and you'll have just as much, or more fun. FYI, we ride the Long Island Railroad and NYC subways somewhat frequently, so maybe that's why it wasn't so cool. On a positive the volunteers there were REALLY helpful and the place was VERY clean.

Baltimore - Port Discovery

Alright, let me start by saying my son had a great time playing in the small indoor soccer field and climbing up and down the large tree house, club house thing that makes up the majority of this glorified indoor playground. Unfortunately there is ZERO supervision. Parents are supposed to supervise their children - yeh right. My 2 year old was sitting and playing with some grocery boxes when she was nearly pummeled by a child 3 times her size and age! Where were his parents? I still don't know. As for security, they have a few kids standing around not saying anything. Upon leaving they are supposed to check your ID bracelet to make sure you have your kids, and only your kids. We walked out through the handicapped/stroller exit without being examined- just a little troubling. Food is not available here, except for a couple of vending machines. There are a ton of restaurants just outside though. We went during the week so we had to pay for parking i a nearby lot- they will apparently validate on weekends, but why would you want to go there? Until they show me that they have a supervision plan, I'm out.
Any questions leave a comment.

Baltimore- Maryland Science Center

I'm glad this is my first review! Why? We all had a great time here. My son is 5 and had a blast "playing" with the science toys and checking out the dinosaur section. We live in NY and have gone to the NY Hall of Science many times (in fact we are members of the NY Hall Of Science, so we got into the MSC for FREE! ) so I would compare it to that museum. The dinosaurs are a nice touch, and they don't nickle and dime you like the Hall of Science does- more on that in a future review! One of the bathrooms was VERY clean and had a changing table , which is important when you need to change a 2 year old (my daughter). The Beaker Cafe has very reasonably priced ($3 kids meals!) and the eating area was very clean. UNFORTUNATELY, the bathroom near the cafe was FILTHY! The floors were disgusting and there was no changing table.
Any questions?