Brooklyn Botanic Garden & Prospect Park Zoo @ Brooklyn, NY – 4.6.12

I took off on Good Friday to spend the day with Kristen. We decided to venture over to Brooklyn to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Prospect Park Zoo, which the area was just so “lovely.” It’s a nice feeling to get when you feel like you could get robbed or stabbed in any minute, even in the daytime haha. I think I’ll stick with Jersey City from now on. The garden and zoo were nice, it’s just getting there that’s a problem.

After taking the 5 train, we walked for a few minutes to one of the entrances to the BBG, Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Not everything was bloomed yet but it was still a great day to walk around and shoot some photos. There were a couple of Cherry Blossom trees that were beyond peak, but that didn’t stop people surrounding the trees with tripods, cameras and yes even reflectors. People get serious when it comes to flower photography I guess. Inside the conservatory was cool to see as well; its nice seeing all the different types of flowers and plants.

We walked around the garden for an hour and half/two hours and then made our way across the street to Prospect Park Zoo. I didn’t even know that existed until yesterday. The zoo was a little bit smaller than Central Park zoo but you can tell it was designed the same. The zoo was nice but a lot of the animals were sleeping at this point in the day. I honestly have never seen a Red Panda awake though. They are always friggin’ sleeping! Kristen and I enjoyed watching the sea lions, prairie dogs and the otter. The monkeys from Brazil(?) were really adorable as well, especially since there was a baby one too.

At this point in the day is where things get, um adventurous and beyond frustrating. We wanted to get something to eat at Grimaldi’s and figured since it was around 3pm, there wouldn’t be that crazy of line. We must have walked a good half hour from shitty Prospect Park area to the A,C train. We didn’t know it would take that long to walk that far. It wasn’t a pleasant walk either. We finally got to Grimaldi’s near the Brooklyn Bridge and there was a huge line that stretched the entire street! Screw that! What a fucking bummer that was. I didn’t even care if that was the original site or not, I just wanted some good pizza. Apparently that’s what everyone else had in mind too.

Kristen decided we should take the East River Ferry across, and just made it on the ferry before it headed up the river. Where the ferry ended, we didn’t know. Stop after stop along Brooklyn and LIC, it finally stopped at 34st in Manhattan. So beside walking for half hour or so in Brooklyn to get to a pizza place that was ridiculously crowded, we now had to walk 6 Avenues to get to the PATH to go home. I guess we could have just hailed a cab at this point but I didn’t really have any money. This wasn’t the way I wanted to end this day trip that was suppose to be relaxing haha. I passed out as soon as I got home, but not until I grabbed some delicious Paulus Hook Brick Oven Pizza! A place that has no stupid line and the pizza is just as good. So in a nutshell, Fuck Brooklyn haha. Next time I want Grimadli’s, I’ll just go to Hoboken or in Manhattan where we won’t have to wait for hour and half to get a slice.

The Entire Gallery

Buy Prints/ License Photos

Prints in this set are available for purchase! Just email which photo(s) you’re interested in (please provide alt tag or #) and I’ll give you a quote. Photos are also available for licensing to your website, magazine, Facebook page, etc. as well.

Tags: 24-70mm f2.8, 70-200mm f2.8, BBG, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, flower photography, flowers, new york, nikon d300, nyc, Prospect Park, Prospect Park Zoo