Miami MetroZoo has been rated one of the ten top zoos in the United States by Travel and Leisure Magazine, and houses over 1,300 animals in large "cageless" habitats. But I wouldn't know about that.
I can tell you, however, that it's a great place to ride a Safari Cycle. Brooks, Madison and I - along with my step-mother Billie, my step-sister Robynn, and my one-day-younger-than-two-year-old niece Allegra - all fit onto one large Safari Cycle. It's kind of like two bicycles stuck together with benches between (one front, one back), a canopy cover, and a basket in front to hold, in our case, two tote bags and a niece.
After a very short lesson in Safari Cycle safety, some confusion over who should sit where, snapping a couple of pictures of us on the Safari Cycle and stowing the tote bags and niece, we were off. What's neat about Safari Cycles is that four people can pedal at the same time, which makes it surprisingly easy to pedal - even with six people riding. Unless, of course, you leave the hand brake on, which I did, though for much less time than you would think judging by the amount of ribbing I have taken from Robynn and Billie and, subsequently, all the people they have told. Honestly, I just thought we were going uphill against the wind.
You should know that you cannot pedal a Safari Cycle backwards. Well, you CAN pedal backwards, but it doesn't make you GO backwards, it just slams the other riders' pedals into their shins, which is only fun for you. In order to go backwards, someone must get off the Safari Cycle and push it. We used this reversing method often, as the turning radius of a Safari Cycle is approximately 128 feet. Fortunately, the paths at Miami MetroZoo are very wide and we were often able to make a U-turn in less than 6 minutes.
Tip #1 - When visiting Miami MetroZoo during June, one of the hottest months of the year (the other hottest months are March, April, May, July, August, September and October), plan to get there when it opens (9:30) to avoid the hottest part of the day (10:00 until midnight). When the heat becomes oppressive (10:05) you might be tempted to visit Miami MetroZoo's newest attraction: Amazon and Beyond because your step-brother Joe has convinced you that it is like a rainforest with "lots of shade and misters." Do not be fooled. There is only a little bit of shade and not one mister. Note: You should see this attraction anyway, because while you are there, the eldest in your party -who has stayed behind to sit in the shade - might deal with the heat by taking off as much clothing as possible and tucking the rest up into her bra. Amazon and Beyond is by far the wiser choice.
Tip #2 - If you decide to take a toddler with you to Miami MetroZoo, you may want to be sure you speak the same language as that toddler. Hopefully, you have with you an incredibly intelligent toddler (as we did) who can communicate with you using hand gestures, simple words and repetitive whining. You will also want to have with you intelligent adults who do not: point at every bird they see and declare, "Mira avion!" (Look, airplane!) over and over until a slightly more intelligent adult corrects them but then it's too late and the toddler begins to worry over her ability to take care of herself if the morons in whose care she has been placed try to ride home on "un perro" (a bus). I won't embarrass anyone by saying exactly which adult did this*, but I swear to you, it wasn't me.
Tip #3 - In the heat of the day, drink cold water, eat hot food. This wisdom was impressed upon me by Robynn, who noticed the healthier choices (wraps and salads) were not being refrigerated, but were sitting on ice instead. I have spent some time sitting on ice (I am not a good skater) and can tell you that when something rests on ice, only the part touching the ice stays cold. In the case of the wraps and salads, the only thing touching the ice was the plastic container holding the wrap or salad. Perhaps that cold seeps a bit further into the food, but on a 96 degree day, we weren't taking any chances. We all had chicken strips, except Brooks. Brooks does not eat any chicken unless it is Publix rotisserie chicken that is still hot from the store. It must be warm but cannot have been reheated. She will only eat the breast meat and the spice from the skin can not have visibly contaminated said breast meat. So no chicken fingers for Brooks. She ate a hot dog, but only after she peeled the skin off, as she doesn't eat hot dog skin, either.
During our trip to the zoo, we passed about 45 different species of animal and stopped to look at, maybe, 10. We far preferred riding the Safari Cycle to looking at yet another type of African antelope. We did leave the Safari Cycle behind to go to the Aviary, which Robynn really, really wanted to see. I had no interest in the aviary in particular, but it did lead to the whole avion/bird confusion which was absolutely worth the stop.
* It was Robynn.
