Purpose - air show at Andrews Air Force Base and a quick run into DC
Here's what we did on Sunday morning in Washington DC. (I'll post about the air show later - lots of pictures and videos to sort through!)
Our first order of business was to find a metro stop with parking and take a 35 minute ride in. The first stop on our journey, the National Zoo!
Paul at the main gate
Now Julie with the grand lion!
The first animal we saw - the very serious looking fishing cat (Asia)
Us looking at the cat - the Zoo has a million cameras; some live and some still (can be seen online)
Super cute Asian otters
Otter video - he's "juggling rocks"
Pandas! The National Zoo has 3!
Looks like (s)he had a rough Saturday night
Adult panda playing inside
Watch the pandas live online!
In the bird house...
African bird (with a really cool tail)
Pygmy Falcons
Julie & Red Parrot
Orangutans! One of the best sights of the day!
(can we say buddies!?)
Mmmmm, paper
Check this out - the Orangutan Transport System, or O Line (we saw it in action!)
Here's our view:
2 more videos (listen carefully to the 3rd video) can be found here and here
Paul & and the scary t-rex skull (oddly next to the tiger exhibit)
Ring tailed lemurs
Video of the ring tailed lemurs
Sloth Bear (never knew of such an animal!!)
Elephant
Young elephant ("mmmm, that feels goooood!")
After the Zoo, we took a little walk down the road to the "Woodley Park" area of DC to find lunch. We weren't in the mood for the formal Sunday brunch (and the time and $ it would take), so we hit up Chipotle (mmm! tacos and guacamole!) and watched the Sunday crowd.
After lunch we took the Metro to the Smithsonian station and strolled across the Mall to the Museum of Natural History. It was impressively crowded - one of my least favorite things!
Smithsonian Castle - view near the Metro stop
Museum of Natural Sciences (large columns)
Scary t-rex inside!
Paul & the dinosaur room (too many people in here!)
The Tiffany Diamond (oooo, ahhh) 128.54 carats
The Hope diamond 45.53 carats
(The images are blurry b/c of low light, people pushing me and the exhibits were moving!)
Main entry room (view from the 2nd floor)
Washington Monument
US Capitol Building
Sculpture Garden fountain, National Archives Building
I think there's some important stuff in there... ;)
So true, so true
Sunset at Ikea, Woodbridge VA (after shopping for a few hours, then waiting a few more to pickup our new cabinets, I caught the sun setting)
The truck loaded, waiting for a few more boxes...
Stay tuned - upcoming entries include: the Joint Services Open House Air Show and a weekend in the NC Mountains (mostly the Parkway! and a train!)
1 comment:
What fun pictures!!! I love zoos! I want to go to the one in Knoxville, but in two years Kev and I still haven't gotten down there.
I wonder if the Natural History museum is always crazy busy.. it was the same way when my family and I were there a year ago--packed!!! And too bad really, because I wasn't able to soak up the "museum" atmosphere. I love DC!
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