Spring Break Trip to Washington, DC

Gail and Ben and I went down to Washington, DC last week to celebrate spring vacation, and try to find spring (it's snowing in Lake Clear today as I type this!)...we had a great time, and can't wait to go again!


On our first day, we went to the National Zoo and met my Auntie Ann there...we had fun exploring the "Wild Asia" exhibit...


We were there before the official opening time (since most of the exhibits are outdoors, you can see all but the inside stuff as soon as it's light)...it was much too early for this fishing cat (Vinnie and Thumbelina still don't believe in a cat that swims for its food, they only reluctantly move for their food, and would prefer it if we would deliver it to the couch for them) to be showing off his stuff in the pool in his enclosure, but he did some nice stretching and grooming and nest-tending...

We were lucky to get to the zoo early enough to beat the crowds to the panda viewing locations, and had great luck seeing the pandas engaging in all of the most common panda-esque activities (I tried to use pandemonium in that sentence, but just couldn't manage it...they're too mellow)...in descending order of likelihood:


a) sleeping


b) eating


c) gently ambling a short way in their enclosure before stopping for rest


By the time we were done checking out the pandas, some of the buildings were opening, and we found this room filled with captive scientists and web-geeks who study the pandas and set up (and choose) the shots for their webcam...it was neat to talk with them and see these reclusive creatures in their natural habitat (dimly lit and dank rooms with flickering computer light and caffeinated beverages all around)


We stopped by the elephant house, which is undergoing an extreme makeover...although this may look like cruel overcrowding, the animals had free access of a whole suite of rooms, and chose to hang out together in this tiny one, throwing dirt on themselves and each other...


There was a baby gorilla in the primate house, but it was tough to get a picture of it...I liked this pensive gorilla though...


While visiting the Gibbons, Ben and Ann did some Gibbon impressions...



Ann did some nice ones, including some sound effects...


This caiman never moved (and may, in fact, have been plastic), but we enjoyed the reptile house nonetheless, and I liked the reflected skull and bones in this picture...


We had a super lunch...Ben's came with an awesome panda-tastic lunch bag, which made all of us want to change our orders...


After lunch, we visited the big cats, which were not surprisingly big, languid, and graceful...


It's amazing to see these beasts lounge around and then effortlessly stretch their way up a smooth 9 foot wall...


Ben loved the idea of the tiger tracking collars...


One of his favorite things in the whole zoo were the seals and sea-lions...the seals were playing an awesome game of tag in and out of the water the whole time that we were there...the sea-lions stretched their flippers (once each) in the whole time that we were there...


It was a great visit to the zoo!


There's a Starbucks right across from the main entrance, and we stopped off for a tricky beverage after the zoo-trip to debrief...


Auntie Ann bought Ben this great panda, named Tai-Shan (and nicknamed Winny)...


We rode the metro all over town the whole time that we were in DC...there was a station only a short walk from our hotel...the only downside was the daunting escalator ride down into the depths of the Earth...


The next day, we headed out to the Mall, excited and primed for another fun day...


We got off at the Smithsonian Station, and walked from there to our stops for the day...


The first stop was the International Spy Museum...it was a really great and immersive experience for all of us...there's enough to see and do for a couple more visits...in the picture above, we were crawling through some ductwork over the main floor of the museum, eavesdropping and spying on the people below us...


After the Spy Museum, we headed over to the Air and Space Museum, and had a super time exploring the incredible exhibits and displays...the fact that we could touch a rock from the Moon blew Ben away, and he kept coming back to the moonrock...


We saw 2 Imax movies while in DC...a cool one on a new NASA program doing stereo mapping of the Sun, and the best Imax I have ever seen...a superb movie on the deep ocean...


Back at the hotel that night, Ben got out his spy kit, and showed us some moves...


The next morning, we got to the Natural History Museum a little early, and Ben used the time to write some postcards...


The museum has a great new ocean exhibit, which included some great displays...this huge shark jaw, an intact Architeuthis Dux, and some other truly bizarre examples of deep-sea life...


Back outside, we enjoyed walking around the Mall, taking in the sights and sounds of spring...there were lots of cherry blossoms still in the height of bloom...


We walked down the Mall to the Washington Monument, then down to the WW2 Memorial, along the Reflecting Pool, and to the Lincoln Memorial...after a sitdown on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, we headed down to the Vietnam and Korea memorials...it was beautiful and Ben loved seeing and talking about and touching all of these memorials and monuments...


One of the key criteria in looking for our hotel for the trip to DC was that it had to have a pool...we spent time in the pool every day, and it was a great way to unwind and unkink after all of the walking that we did in DC...


Ben took this cool pitcure in the pool, using my camera...