The Zoo Life
Plan to spend a day with gorillas, lions, lemurs and more when you visit the zoos across New York. Support the students of Millbrook School when you stop in at the Trevor Zoo, opened in 1936 as the only high school owned and operated zoo in the country. Not a petting zoo, it is home to seven endangered species and houses 180 exotic and indigenous animals. In Syracuse, the Rosamund Gifford Zoo offers special events and daily animal demonstrations. In addition to four-legged zoo inhabitants, the new 180 gallon Coral Reef Exhibit at Binghamton’s Ross Park Zoo is designed to provide a representation of the diversity of life that inhabits the tropical coral reefs specific to the Indo-Pacific regions including Hawaii, Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Fiji, and Micronesia. The Utica Zoo, in Roscoe-Conkling Park, has grown over the past 88 years to its present collection of over 200 animals spread out over 20 acres. The Buffalo Zoo is open daily and boasts a 2008 Amphibian exhibit, along with their newest family member - Clover, a baby rhino born in March. At the Bronx Zoo; ride the Skyfari over the African Savanna; go nose-to-nose with gorillas in the Congo Rainforest; visit the Asian JungleWorld, meet one-of-a-kind wildlife at Madagascar and visit the Russian Far East at Tiger Mountain. Additional attractions include camel rides, a bug carousel and a mouse house to name a few. Central Park Zoo new additions include two Kea parrots and the remodeled rainforest’s new inhabitants is a colony of Leafcutter Ants, working tirelessly to serve their queen. There’s always something hopping at the Long Island Game Farm, open for its 39th season as the largest combined children's zoo and wildlife park. Families can learn about wildlife and animals through education and entertainment while visiting with Gentle Gerry the 18-foot giraffe, watching the hi-jinx of the lemurs and the kinkajous, aka ‘honey bear,’ which is related to the raccoon family and not to Yogi!
Best of the Butterfly
An unforgettable journey awaits you when a delicate, jewel of a butterfly lands upon your shoulder (or head) and hitches a short ride as you tour a butterfly garden or conservatory. When visiting Sweet Briar, you will be aided by both staff and interpretive signs at Long Island’s first living seasonal butterfly display. Experience the wonder of butterflies and other backyard bugs in a lush, wild meadow and spacious greenhouse at the Bronx Zoo. Discover what senses a butterfly has and how they communicate when you visit the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The Adirondack Park Agency Visitor Interpretive Center at Paul Smiths has a Native Species Butterfly House open to tour, where you can view visiting beauties such as the eastern tiger swallowtails. Tucked along the shores of the St. Lawrence River at Wellesley Island State Park, you’ll find the largest camping complex in the Thousand Islands and their seasonal butterfly house. As you enter the lush rain-forest environment of the Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden at Strong Museum, you’ll be enthralled by the array of colors and the aerial ballet performance of butterflies as you stroll along a paved path through tropical foliage and a cascading waterfall. The Joseph L. Popp Butterfly Conservatory in Oneonta (607-435-1147) provides a tropical atmosphere for free-flying butterflies, plants, birds and fish. Stop to smell the flowers and learn how to design a butterfly garden in your own backyard - butterflies make excellent neighbors!
Ice Cream Treats
From New York City to upstate New York, the much sought after ice cream cones and sundaes are available just about everywhere - as well as frozen yogurts, sherbets and sorbets. In New York City
Cold Stone Creamery has been satisfying visitors for almost 20 years or stop at
The Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory in Manhattan, open daily helping you to beat the heat. Cow Licks, at
Brown Cow Dairy in Herkimer, provides all natural homemade ice cream using 100% Guernsey milk available in Peach, Cookie Dough, Maple and more melt-in-your mouth flavors.
Adirondack Creamery ice cream can be tongue-tested at a variety of restaurants throughout the Adirondacks to the Catskills, while
Mercer's Dairy may end up being on your ‘must stop at’ list each summer!
Howe Caverns:
There’s an exciting family fun destination everywhere you look in New York—even underground!
Howe Caverns has been attracting visitors since the massive cave system was discovered more than 160 years ago. Brave weekend warriors can sign up for off-trail adventure tours through parts of the cave that haven’t been open to the public in 125 years. For the rest of us there are elevators, lighting, an elevated walkway over the underground river and a quarter-mile boat ride on the underground Lake of Venus. (518) 296-8900
Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome
Do yourself a favor; don’t buy Dad another tie for Father’s Day. Give him an experience he’ll never forget with a thrilling flight for four over the Hudson Valley in a barnstorming open-cockpit biplane at the
Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome's opening weekend. The aerodrome has an impressive collection of planes from WWI that battle it out in dogfights and bombing runs in the East Coast’s most thrilling live action spectacular. (845) 752-3200
Bethel Woods - Still Rocking!
The historic Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, an award-winning Museum, tells the story of the Sixties and Woodstock, through a state-of-the art interactive experience. Located just 90 miles north of Manhattan, the Museum truly brings the 1960’s to life and presents the key ideals of the era: community, diversity, civil and individual rights, activism and peace – all of which have helped shape our society and continue to have a current and lasting importance today. The Main Exhibition Gallery includes more than 300 photographic murals, 164 artifacts, 70 video testimonials, and 20 different. Highlights include: a psychedelically painted Woodstock bus; The Festival Experience, an award-winning 11-minute surround-sound film; and, an interactive map of the festival grounds. Special events held throughout the summer beginning July 9.