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I love Central Park. I spend a lot of time in there. I try and get in there whenever I can.

I may be a lifelong 'downtowner,' but Central Park really is the most amazing and the most beautiful part of New York City.

And the most unusual and surrealistic place in New York City is Central Park.

I love Central Park. I feel like I am somewhere else.

Zoo: An excellent place to study the habits of human beings.

For better or worse, zoos are how most people come to know big or exotic animals. Few will ever see wild penguins sledding downhill to sea on their bellies, giant pandas holding bamboo lollipops in China or tree porcupines in the Canadian Rockies, balled up like giant pine cones.

Zoos are becoming facsimiles - or perhaps caricatures - of how animals once were in their natural habitat. If the right policies toward nature were pursued, we would need no zoos at all.

More than just a zoo, the Animal Kingdom is an extraordinary experience of animals, rides and performances. The exhibits have the scale and creativity you associate with Disney. The African safari ride is terrific and worth riding several times.

What's the reality of being inside a zoo, for the animals and for the people who love and care for those animals? There's a lot of joy, and there's a lot of loss.

I got access to a private tour of the zoo. I got to go in a cage with a koala, which I highly recommend.