Asian in a Strange Land

Elephant--one of the favorites

Actual date: August 13, 2009

Sorry for the lack of D.C. updates.  This is the problem with photo blogging–you actually have to work on the pictures, then you have to do something with them.  Who knew, right?  A friend and I talked about how cool it would be to autoblog, but that’s a pipe dream for now.

Anyway, Day 2 of our trip was Zoo Day!  We got a later start than we thought (a theme for the whole trip; we should probably just give up on the idea of starting early) although Sofia woke up way earlier than she should have, so by the time we got to walking around the zoo Sofia was worn out and had dozed off.  That’s ok.  The first few animals were escaping the heat by hiding in their caves or whatever, so there wasn’t much to see.  We saw a black bear and that’s about it until we came to the otters.

Otters at play

A whole family of otters had decided to play on dry land, and we got to watch them do their thing for quite a while.  The otter in the back is playing with a rock, bouncing and rubbing it on his neck and upper chest area.  Denise says this is practice for when they catch prey so they can manipulate their catch while lying on their backs in the water.  Thanks to my Olympus E-P1, I got some awesome footage of one otter balancing and twirling (I kid you not) a couple of shells in its paws for a few seconds.  Unfortunately I don’t upload my personal stuff to YouTube, Vimeo, etc., so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

Getting a closer look

Denise didn’t bring her binoculars, but thankfully we brought Sofia’s.  She got lots of mileage out of those things.

Petting the otters

This is as close as we came to petting any animals.  The National Zoo has a petting farm, but it’s at the very end of the zoo, and we didn’t have the time or the energy to make it that far.  Next time.

"Where you at, pandas?"

The National Zoo is really proud of their giant pandas.  It’s their marquee attraction and is plastered all over their website and promotional material.  So of course when we go the pandas are having a siesta in the shade away from where anybody can see them.  This was a recurring theme throughout the zoo.  There were quite a few signs up that asked the question, “Can’t see the animals?”  Said signs proceeded to explain why they might not be out in the open at that time.  I should’ve taken a picture of one of those signs.  We saw more of those than we did animals!  Ok, it wasn’t really that bad, but we missed out on quite a few.

BSOD

Time to go to the visitors center to take a bathroom break and get some AC relief before heading back out.  Let’s see what the helpful info terminal has to say about… whaaaat?  Blue Screen Of Death–priceless.

Shake it like a Polaroid picture

These oryx were wagging their tails around, so Sofia decided to mimic them by shaking her bottom, all the while complaining that, “No, I can’t do that.  I don’t have a tail!”  I also got awesome video footage of her tail-wagging shenanigans, but again you’ll just have to trust me.

Gazelle up close

I like how they have some of their animal areas designed, like this one for the oryx and gazelle.  You can get quite close without being in danger and without an ugly cage or chain-link fence in your way.

Komodo dragon

Even the Komodo dragon was trying to hide from the sweltering sun, but we still got a good look at him.  We’re never going to be those crazies who go to the island of Komodo, risking life and limb to get a better look at them in the wild, so this was good enough for us.

Aquarium

One thing we didn’t expect was an invertebrate exhibit with all sorts of sea creatures and insects.  The aquarium stuff in particular was a pleasant surprise, and we probably spent the longest time in this area.  I believe this was Denise’s favorite area.  Sofia was kind of going nuts from lack-of-sleep giddiness at this point, but she enjoyed it too.

Crab

Mmm… crab.  A tasty foreshadowing of the delicious dinner to come afterward.

Jellies

Jellyfish.  Sofia referred to them as “bad squishies” in honor of the jellyfish scene in Finding Nemo.  Or was that just my imagination?  She’s always appropriating lines from movies and applying them to her experiences.  Chip off the old block, that.

Covered in bees!

At the exit of the invertebrate exhibit they had an enclosed outdoor area (is there a better/more accurate term for that?) with butterflies flying around freely.  They also had this beehive.  And a giant bee tried to burrow its way into Denise’s shoulder, as you can see in the pic.

Sharing a laugh

The National Zoo was a blast.  I suppose it’s a given, but the Jackson Zoo isn’t a patch on it.  Even without the giant pandas (which frankly I didn’t really care about) it was a great trip.  They’re currently working on a new, huge elephant trail, which I think they’re scheduled to finish in 2012.  If life goes as planned we’ll be back before then, but we definitely want to see it when it’s done as well.

Oh, and the National Zoo is free.  Yes–free.  We left to grab lunch nearby and brought it back to the zoo to eat on a bench, which we were able to do because there’s no admission fee.  Awesome place.  We stayed for a good part of the day, and started on our way back out of the zoo at about 4:30 tired but happy.  Friendly tip: the going is easy since it’s downhill, which means the coming back is rougher since it’s uphill.  Don’t wear yourself out too much looking around the zoo, because you have a long uphill trek when you’re heading back out to the front gate.

Maybe next time the giant pandas will get their lazy selves out of bed and entertain us like they’re supposed to.

The National Zoo
3001 Connecticut Avenue NW,
Washington, DC 20008

April–October: Animal exhibits are open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day.
November–March: Animal exhibits are open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day.

Go to their excellent website for news, more info, directions, etc.