Zoo and another birthday
Yes, it's that time again... another year, another few gray hairs.
Originally we had planned on going to the Winefest here in town. But I don't drink wine and Lizzy isn't old enough. Then I got to checking the prices for tickets - even for non-drinkers. 20 dollars each to wander through a large merchant area, needing to spend more money for food, items, temptations. Bands might be cool but might not and I didn't recognize any of their names. So, since it's my birthday I made executive decision that I didn't want to spend that kind of money just to walk and covet stuff I neither needed or could afford. If money grew on trees that would be one thing.
I've been wanting to go to National Zoo for a while so I said, "Let's go." Liz said sure.
We headed out. Caught the Metro at this end of line and rode in 45min (and it took an hour to get to Metro!) Then we walked the ten blocks uphill to entrance. Oh, by then my feet were aching already.
The first few exhibits were a bust. No pandas. No red pandas. Liz and I started joking about this being like Jurassic Park - visitors show up for the tour and no animals show.
The clouded cats, fishing cats and otters were all sleeping but I'm hoping the pictures turn out decent, even though they were taken through wire cages. The elephant was happily doing the cha-cha along the edge of his pool which was cool. No trainers or people were in his enclosure but he was going back and forth, very carefully balancing and going backwards then forwards. It was awesome and cute!
It was Latino-American Month celebration day so it was crowded. People of all ages everywhere, with lots and lots of very energetic kids darting about underfoot! There were a bunch of shows and music down at bottom of Zoo's main walkway. We caught music off and on but did not settle in for show. Of course there were lots of booths with things for sale from Peru, Guatemala, and El Salvador (those were the ones I saw that were clearly labeled but there were easily a dozen merchants).
The line to the reptile house had a wait of over 30 minutes and since we didn't get there until 2pm and the houses close at 6pm we skipped it. And I usually love the Reptile House. The elephant house is currently closed for renovation. Half the Small Mammal House's exhibits were empty due to renovation/animal being elsewhere. The Great Ape House was packed to point of a line running out the door so we skipped it too. The Big Cats area was past the celebration and by the time we reached it - well we were tired and skipped it. Liz wanted to see the lemurs so we hit Lemur Island. Pretty little lagoon with a gorgeous waterfall and lots of turtles but no lemurs.
The Small Mammal House did a decent job of making up for the many disappointments we had hit during the long walk down the hill. There were beautiful tamarinds and marmosets. Brilliant colored critters that I can't name at moment (my notes are too far from the comp). And mice. Every other cage had mice running around it, which was creepy and kinda gross. But then again, I despise mice/rats.
Amazona is a fairly interesting building down at the bottom of the hill at the Natl Zoo. It's rather hard to get to, due to construction the only access is through the Children's Farm Area. Piranha, huge catfish, tiny tetras, big bubble eyed fishes. Sloths. Lizards. Birds. Bright colored monkeys. A large portion of the building is an indoor, free animal area. Two monkeys were visible. All the others in the listing were hidden from people. Which was disappointing. Wildlife parks have that problem though - if the animals are not caged so people can see them, the animals very intelligently hide.
It was after 4 by then so we headed back up the hill since I wanted to see the Aviary. We weren't sure if we'd make it before the building closed at 6 or if we'd be too tired. Unfortunately, as with every other exhibit there are no easy access or cross paths between them. Due to construction of new exhibit that won't be done until 2012, most of the cross paths are blocked. So for any exhibit you have to go down the Olmstead Path (just under a mile along the hillside where Zoo is situated) and then over to that exhibit. To go to next, it's back to Olmstead Path and then over to that exhibit. The walking is good for us, yeah, but darn it's annoying when you're already tired or when you only want to go to a few things but they're literally on opposite ends of park if you go by path even though they back up on each other.
The Aviary and Free-Flying bird area was however worth the forty-five minutes we spent there. Yes, a bunch of the exhibits are covered over due to more renovations. Yes, there were some cool owls that were so new you could not get anywhere close to their cage habitats. It was still worth the total exhaustion of climbing back up the hill, then going past the elephant again (he was now trying to move the wall), over the evil bridge (I seriously hate heights of any kind, thank you kindly), and down along side of hill to dead end at Bird House.
And the Aviary... we got there in time for the night feeding before closing. At that point we'd seen and adored the awesome birds in their exhibit/habitats and in the big internal free roaming room. We'd gone out to aviary and sat down inside the wire netting to watch the birds and just rest a bit before heading back toward exit and the Metro. A bunch of chickadees popped into holly bush next to us. Then when the volunteer put out food, peacocks, chickadees, cardinals, robins all walked, hopped, and swooped past our bench as calmly as can be. It was so cool. And yes, it made up for all the hidden animals earlier. I mean, come on, the darn peacock, walked under me! It was neat.
The Metro (both directions) was interesting. I recognized several languages being spoke around us but did not recognize easily twice that. There was a tall man with hair halfway down his back walking with his hands folded at chest level and the most serene expression on his face as he said hello and passed us. The Indian gentleman who argued football(American) with anyone who sat near him. The students from CUA who were discussing theology vs. politics. The woman whose very loud cell phone conversation went from English to Portuguese to French and back - who I seriously doubt realized that other people understood what she was saying or she would have not been saying it. The very elderly man who dropped his quarter and the lady who set down her nail polish to get it for him, even though she mussed her nails. The woman who grinned and nodded at us as Liz and I fought not to fall asleep on the way back.
All and all, it was a very good birthday even if my feet are sore, I'm slightly sunburned, and I didn't get to see the big cats.
Originally we had planned on going to the Winefest here in town. But I don't drink wine and Lizzy isn't old enough. Then I got to checking the prices for tickets - even for non-drinkers. 20 dollars each to wander through a large merchant area, needing to spend more money for food, items, temptations. Bands might be cool but might not and I didn't recognize any of their names. So, since it's my birthday I made executive decision that I didn't want to spend that kind of money just to walk and covet stuff I neither needed or could afford. If money grew on trees that would be one thing.
I've been wanting to go to National Zoo for a while so I said, "Let's go." Liz said sure.
We headed out. Caught the Metro at this end of line and rode in 45min (and it took an hour to get to Metro!) Then we walked the ten blocks uphill to entrance. Oh, by then my feet were aching already.
The first few exhibits were a bust. No pandas. No red pandas. Liz and I started joking about this being like Jurassic Park - visitors show up for the tour and no animals show.
The clouded cats, fishing cats and otters were all sleeping but I'm hoping the pictures turn out decent, even though they were taken through wire cages. The elephant was happily doing the cha-cha along the edge of his pool which was cool. No trainers or people were in his enclosure but he was going back and forth, very carefully balancing and going backwards then forwards. It was awesome and cute!
It was Latino-American Month celebration day so it was crowded. People of all ages everywhere, with lots and lots of very energetic kids darting about underfoot! There were a bunch of shows and music down at bottom of Zoo's main walkway. We caught music off and on but did not settle in for show. Of course there were lots of booths with things for sale from Peru, Guatemala, and El Salvador (those were the ones I saw that were clearly labeled but there were easily a dozen merchants).
The line to the reptile house had a wait of over 30 minutes and since we didn't get there until 2pm and the houses close at 6pm we skipped it. And I usually love the Reptile House. The elephant house is currently closed for renovation. Half the Small Mammal House's exhibits were empty due to renovation/animal being elsewhere. The Great Ape House was packed to point of a line running out the door so we skipped it too. The Big Cats area was past the celebration and by the time we reached it - well we were tired and skipped it. Liz wanted to see the lemurs so we hit Lemur Island. Pretty little lagoon with a gorgeous waterfall and lots of turtles but no lemurs.
The Small Mammal House did a decent job of making up for the many disappointments we had hit during the long walk down the hill. There were beautiful tamarinds and marmosets. Brilliant colored critters that I can't name at moment (my notes are too far from the comp). And mice. Every other cage had mice running around it, which was creepy and kinda gross. But then again, I despise mice/rats.
Amazona is a fairly interesting building down at the bottom of the hill at the Natl Zoo. It's rather hard to get to, due to construction the only access is through the Children's Farm Area. Piranha, huge catfish, tiny tetras, big bubble eyed fishes. Sloths. Lizards. Birds. Bright colored monkeys. A large portion of the building is an indoor, free animal area. Two monkeys were visible. All the others in the listing were hidden from people. Which was disappointing. Wildlife parks have that problem though - if the animals are not caged so people can see them, the animals very intelligently hide.
It was after 4 by then so we headed back up the hill since I wanted to see the Aviary. We weren't sure if we'd make it before the building closed at 6 or if we'd be too tired. Unfortunately, as with every other exhibit there are no easy access or cross paths between them. Due to construction of new exhibit that won't be done until 2012, most of the cross paths are blocked. So for any exhibit you have to go down the Olmstead Path (just under a mile along the hillside where Zoo is situated) and then over to that exhibit. To go to next, it's back to Olmstead Path and then over to that exhibit. The walking is good for us, yeah, but darn it's annoying when you're already tired or when you only want to go to a few things but they're literally on opposite ends of park if you go by path even though they back up on each other.
The Aviary and Free-Flying bird area was however worth the forty-five minutes we spent there. Yes, a bunch of the exhibits are covered over due to more renovations. Yes, there were some cool owls that were so new you could not get anywhere close to their cage habitats. It was still worth the total exhaustion of climbing back up the hill, then going past the elephant again (he was now trying to move the wall), over the evil bridge (I seriously hate heights of any kind, thank you kindly), and down along side of hill to dead end at Bird House.
And the Aviary... we got there in time for the night feeding before closing. At that point we'd seen and adored the awesome birds in their exhibit/habitats and in the big internal free roaming room. We'd gone out to aviary and sat down inside the wire netting to watch the birds and just rest a bit before heading back toward exit and the Metro. A bunch of chickadees popped into holly bush next to us. Then when the volunteer put out food, peacocks, chickadees, cardinals, robins all walked, hopped, and swooped past our bench as calmly as can be. It was so cool. And yes, it made up for all the hidden animals earlier. I mean, come on, the darn peacock, walked under me! It was neat.
The Metro (both directions) was interesting. I recognized several languages being spoke around us but did not recognize easily twice that. There was a tall man with hair halfway down his back walking with his hands folded at chest level and the most serene expression on his face as he said hello and passed us. The Indian gentleman who argued football(American) with anyone who sat near him. The students from CUA who were discussing theology vs. politics. The woman whose very loud cell phone conversation went from English to Portuguese to French and back - who I seriously doubt realized that other people understood what she was saying or she would have not been saying it. The very elderly man who dropped his quarter and the lady who set down her nail polish to get it for him, even though she mussed her nails. The woman who grinned and nodded at us as Liz and I fought not to fall asleep on the way back.
All and all, it was a very good birthday even if my feet are sore, I'm slightly sunburned, and I didn't get to see the big cats.