June 25, 2013

• Best Ever Zoo Visit (and I never say best ever)

     My boss, one of the ones who is no longer at our company, owed me one, so despite my relative low seniority at our company, he got me a week and a half vacation during the prime June/July window.  Problem is, we have had just shy of $4,000 of unexpected car expenses this spring, so vacation turned to staycation and we're trying to keep the cost low.  That means swimming at the house, fishing and visits to the zoo and Smithsonian.  We had no firm plans except that the two Wednesday nights I was off, I would be able to enjoy the group ride at the local bike shop.   Since the bicycle shops around here have their rides on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays and I work Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, this was a rare opportunity, so you know what happened.  My 19 year old said she had been feeling left out, because she ends up working or going to school every time we do anything, so instead of being around for my ride, we were in DC all day Wednesday. I'm sure I'll live, but as usual...the best laid plans of mice and men...

  

      We got on the road early to get one of the prime parking spots at the bottom of the hill, but needn't have worried, because the crowds were small and parking was plentiful all day.  To top it all off, the weather turned out to be high 70s (25C) all day with a nice cloud cover.  It was so nice, the animals were outside and active at almost every exhibit. The National Zoo is set on the side of a hill, so the optimum plan is to park at the bottom and walk up while you're fresh so the return trip will be downhill. So what did we see?

       Right away, we saw the tiger.  He wasn't very active, but at least he gave us a good yawn.

  

  

       The lion was more cooperative.  I have enough pictures from him for a post of his own, but here are some of the best.  It was almost as if he was showing off for the camera.

  

  

  

       As we were walking toward the big cat exhibits, someone asked what the big cables overhead were for.   I told them that they were for the orangutans, but I had been visiting the zoo my entire life and had only ever seen them use the overhead cables once.  Of course, as we left the big cats, the orangutans made a liar of me.

  

  

  

       They made their way across and down and played for a while, allowing us to get more pictures of them as well.

  

       After the apes, we visited the reptile house.  The false cobra was curious about us, so we got to see him up close.  These snakes can open their ribs into a hood like a cobra.  I don't think I'd stick around to identify whether it was real or false, if I encountered one in the wild!

  

       Then we saw the more common (and very poisonous) water moccasin and some other interesting reptiles like the king cobra and some chameleons.  This is a water moccasin, otherwise known as the cottonmouth.

  

       We saw a snapping turtle with a head almost as big as Isabel's and an even bigger mouth.

  

       I can't remember what this little guy is called.

  

       Farther up the hill were the giant pandas.

  

       ....and then it was down the hill to see the elephants.

  

       Hmm...what shall we visit next?

  

      Wolves...

  

       Seals...

  

  

  don't forget the lemurs!

  

      and all sorts of exhausted kids and parents.

  

  

  

  

  

  We got to the bottom of the hill, ready to get in the car.  The kids were beat, just look at the expression on Isabel's face.

  

  So, what do you guys wanna do?  Think we should go home? "Ooh! Daddy, can we go to the museum?"  and so we made our way downtown and made it a two for one trip, taking advantage of extended hours at the Natural History Museum.  We were almost out of juice in the camera batteries, so not many pictures from there, but as we were leaving, Rebekah asked if I could get a picture of her holding up the Washington Monument while it is closed to repair structural damage caused by last year's earthquake.

  

       It was truly the best trip I've ever had to the National Zoo, and it was a very good and enjoyable day.

  • 10:55 am
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