Bronx Zoo

On Tuesday (Dec 20), we went to the zoo. There was a transit strike, so we couldn't take the subway, but we were able to get there by walking to Grand Central and taking Metro North to Fordham Road. It was one of the best possible days to go to the zoo. It was a cold day and all school field trips had been canceled because of the strike, so the zoo was deserted! It was so pleasant! Moreover, nobody was even there to sell tickets, so we just wandered in free of charge. Some of the highlights were:

1) All the different kinds of birds.

2) The tigers. In all zoos I've been to before, the tigers are behind multiple security fences, so you can't end up seeing them that well. At the Bronx Zoo, they were simply behind a glass window:





3) The baboons, energetically throwing themselves against the glass windows:



4) The nocturnal animals, including bats and sand cats:

Mediterranean

Just came back from a week in Southwest France (based in Toulouse). Got a lot of work done, but also had a little bit of fun. One day, we drove to Collioure, a town on the Mediterranean, very near the border with Spain. (Not surprisingly, there were LOTS of Spanish tourists!) It was a cute town:





Gina and I took a hike up to a little castle on the hill. We encountered LOTS of prickly pears, and since that was something I knew for a fact wasn't poisonous, I mentioned to Gina that the pears were edible:





They were very sweet and VERY good. Rumor has it that my uncle makes prickly pear margaritas. I can tell you that if you made a margarita with the prickly pears we ate, it would be a great success. (Isaac, in particular, would like it!)

Unfortunately, I forgot about a couple of drawbacks when you eat a cactus. You may have noticed in the picture where Gina is opening up the pear that there is a cactus spine sticking out of her right index finger. In fact, she ended up with numerous spines on her lips and tongue (we spent about 10 minutes picking them out). Next time, I think we'll use gloves and be more careful about only eating the inside of the fruit...

Santa Claus

This was kind of weird. It's a second-floor balcony, by the way...