Snakes and Lizards and Cockroaches, Oh My!

This past Saturday, we braved heavy crowds and insane parking to attend the Hannaford Kidz Expo in the Empire State Plaza.  There were many interesting booths with various fun options for the kids.  I couldn’t possibly blog about them all, so I wanted to focus on one of them today: Reptile Adventure.

B wrote about them previously when they stopped by a local library.  That time, NHL went with B to see the various creatures that Reptile Adventure had to show.  This time, however, NHL was a bit overwhelmed.  Perhaps it was the crowds or the anticipation of seeing the Radio Disney booth.  In any event, he didn’t want to be anywhere near snakes or lizards.

Thankfully, JSL didn’t seem to mind much.  So while B took NHL out of the room to calm down, JSL and I marveled at the various creatures they had.  I’ll admit that I didn’t get as good a look as I would have liked.  There were a lot of people walking through and I wanted to make sure that JSL stuck by me.  Still, JSL and I each got to touch a snake and we each loved seeing the turtles, lizards, snakes and even the hissing cockroaches.

Yeah, about those cockroaches.  When we first walked in, we saw a Reptile Adventure employee sitting down with a big snake around her neck and a hissing cockroach walking up one arm.  This was easily the biggest bug I’ve ever seen.  It was at least four inches long.  To be perfectly honest, I just looked them up on Wikipedia for that length.  My eyeball estimate was going to be 8 inches but Wikipedia says they grow to 2 to 4 inches.  Perhaps my estimating skills can be forgiven seeing as they are HUGE!

Moving on from the cockroaches, we saw this turtle and a buddy of his relaxing near the entrance.  It looks like someone got him some reading material.  I’m not sure if it’s ironic or not for a turtle to be reading the "Race Day" section.

This fella (or ma’am… I really couldn’t tell) was on top of his cage.  I had to lift JSL up so he could see him.  I couldn’t tell if we were more fascinated by this spiky lizard or if he was more fascinated by us.

Then, there were the snakes.  They had small snakes and large snakes.  Each of these, at some point, was able to be touched by kids (and grown ups) to see how they feel.  By the way, I assumed that snakes would feel slimy, though in hindsight I’m not sure why.  They don’t.  Smooth, yes, but not slimy.

JSL was hesitant at first, but finally decided to try petting the small one in the photo to the left.  I didn’t get a good photo of that, but, luckily, JSL decided to pet this larger snake as well.  He did a great job on both.  (And, yes, Reptile Adventure provided a station for you to clean your hands afterwards.)

All in all, my only gripe about the Reptile Adventure room is that I couldn’t spend more time there taking photos of every creature they have.  The nature photographer in me can get frustrated by the lack of wildlife in my day-to-day life.  (Though the boys can be wild enough.)  We left wanting more (and JSL left wanting a stuffed snake).  Hopefully, we can see more of Reptile Adventure soon.

More about the Kidz Expo in general and the Radio Disney book specifically in the coming days.