I LOVE the Zoo!

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Mr. Panda eats

Mr. Panda eats Call me 7 years old, that's fine, but if there was one thing I was really looking forward to in DC it was going to the National Zoo and seeing the panda bears. And it was so much fun! So today, Keith and I woke up and made our way to the train station to go to the zoo. That was a bit complicated, not in getting there but the because of getting tickets. Like New York and Chicago, you buy your tickets from an automated ticket booth, but we also needed a SmarTrip card to also pay for parking at the station. That took a good ten minutes to figure out how to buy one of those (key: find the SmarTrip machine, different from the regular booths...). But once we figured that out we were good to go. I've got to say, the DC area metro may not be the best metro-type transportation system, but man is it clean. I was so impressed with how nice the terminals looked... and I loved how when a train car is approaching, lights illuminating the side of the tracks flash in the color of the train that is coming. And that's very convenient for those of us who strain to hear sounds and signs of trains that we are expecting.

So we eventually got from Alexandria to the Red line stop that took us to the zoo district and had a nice Chipotle breakfast/lunch (yeah, between Wendy's and Chipotle, we really filled up on local DC cuisine). Now, that we were fed, we were ready to see some wildlife. And we did, eventually. But it took an awful long time because... we got lost. We probably should have gotten directions from off the subway and only stepped outside of those directions long enough to backtrack immediately after eating, but I can now say I've gotten to see parts of residential DC that I never would have thought I'd see, at least today. And I can now say how much I love the look of the DC residential life. Yeah, there's a lot of homeless and unemployment in the district... but the homes around the zoo are at least amazing. The streets had both the qualities of city life and a quaint, charming side to them. True, the houses were close together, like any brownstone in Chicago or other residential neighborhood in NYC, but they made beautiful little gardens on the walkways up the door, and there were some with swings on their porches, much unlike the dwellings strung together right off the street in San Francisco. And they were all different in their architecture. It was just lovely. So as much as we didn't know where we were, I thoroughly enjoyed it. We did ask for directions at some bilingual school we passed, which only got us even more lost until we found an old man about to get into his car. Those directions finally led us right around the corner to the "Giant Pandas at the National Zoo," as the entrance flags so proudly boasted.

But first, I wanted to see the sloth bear. He was a funny guy (or maybe she was a funny girl) who kept pacing back and forth on the rim of a stone pool or water and was also an odd looking creature, like a cross between a bear and a sloth (hence the name, I suppose). We stood there and watched him for a few minutes go back and forth, back and forth on the edge of his water hole before going on in search of the pandas. On our way, we encountered a fishing cat (a kind of small wild cat that will go into the water to catch its fish I guess), otters, and a red panda sitting up in his tree.

Except! Oh no! The pandas weren't outside. When we went around the bend, through the fake steam, to where the panda bears were supposed to be sitting cute in their habitats, they were no where to be found. And I was really bummed. We decided to look around a bit more at the Asian animals before moving on, when we stumbled upon a door that led us inside to the pandas! Apparently for one reason or another, they were inside... and they were eating! It's really funny how these huge bears can sit like people, hold bamboo, and eat it. It's really cute too. So we stayed there for about 10 minutes, just watching the pandas (the baby was sleeping, but the two older ones were both eating in their little homes). It was very enjoyable, and removed any disappointment from my mind.

Because we had to be up in Philadelphia that evening, we decided to pick a few spots more to see at the zoo before heading back to Virginia to head north. We were able to see the elephants during feeding time (it was fun seeing them reach out their trunks to the hey), the Great Ape House (which was very worthwhile and humorous as the apes played with each other) and the Reptile House (not my choice, but was actually kind of interesting and informative... I now know which snakes to look out for when in the wild). After that and on our way out, we swung by the cheetah habitat, and were able to spot a napping fast cat at the last moment. It kind of blew to have to leave so fast, and not to really be able to see much more of DC., but when we left the zoo and made a fast stop at the Starbucks across the street, we vowed to be more thorough when we returned to DC next. So with that, we found our way (easily enough) back to the Metro, and made our connections to get back to Alexandria. Since we had already checked out of the hotel, the only thing left to do was to figure out ways to get up to Philly, and away we went... à bientôt, DC!

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