Rain and Roz go to the Zoo.

We woke up gloriously late after our night of live music and disrupted subways.

I once again headed to Central Park - how can I resist its charm when it's just thirty seconds from my door and the weather is so glorious?! - and sat in the dappled shade listening to the jazz of two buskers. A little girl and her dad danced in front of them.

There is a lot of dancing in this crazy city.

The endless stream of cyclists, runners, skaters and even the occasional horse and cart swept along below me.

I read a book and applied suntan lotion. It was perfect. Again.

And THEN we went to Central Park Zoo. Jump up and down in excitement on my behalf y'all! I certainly know one person who will be very jealous.

There was a bit of a queue, but we were determined to go, so we stuck it out, and it really didn't take very long. Plus, the price of an adult ticket is only $12, which we were very pleasantly surprised by.

It's actually quite small and there are no lions. NO LIONS. However, I got over this when I saw the polar bear. omg excitement. It was huge and much yellower than I expected and very sleepy. The snow leopard turned into The Mysterious Case of the Disappearing Snow Leopard which, don't panic, is a lot less dramatic than it sounds; we couldn't see it, there were some grumpy children and one growling fat man threatening to sue but it hadn't actually escaped. The penguins smelt very fishy but waddle in such self important manner that I just find them hilarious. The red faced and red bottomed baboons were so funny and human like that we watched them for hours, as they fought and played and groomed. The reptile house and bug world was seriously creepy, although the giant green frog and inflated toad made me wish other people were here already and every single furry animal and fluffy face made me miss my dog, despite not actually looking anything like the old fat border terrier he is. The sea lion show was very clever, with Frisbee throwing, ball catching, somersault practising sea lions reigniting my childhood ambition of being a zoo keeper all over again. I thiiink you might need, like, a PHD in biology but a Biology AS Level is basically the same, right...?

After we'd seen all the animals and watched the sea lion show, we sat in front of their pool on the steps in the centre of the zoo, surrounded by the trees of Central Park, the beautiful apartments of Fifth Avenue and the skyscrapers of the city. We could even see Hearst tower, probably my very floor, from where we sat watching the sea lions gracefully swim through the water and emerge, jumping onto the rocks, showing off as they splashed and clapped.

We got really into the sea lions actually, clapping along with the toddlers every time that they leaped out of the water. We learnt all about the difference between them and seals (unlike seals they have external ear flaps and their front flippers can support their body weight. Total fact of the day right there. Aren't you glad you bothered reading this just for that titbit of information?? Impress all your friends with your sea lion knowledge!) and practically started naming them.

At that point we decided to make a move back to the park.

So we returned to our fave place in NYC; Central Park and did some more lounging, people watching, outfit critiquing, polite head shaking when approached by beggars/a man selling his poetry in the afternoon sun.

We made plans for the upcoming week, in order to squeeze the most out of our remaining time in New York.

Oh if you could hear our plans...

I'll fill you in as we do them, don't you worry!