Washington - The Zoo

The third day of our trip was the zoo day! Washington has a zoo (free admission) in the middle of the city, surrounded by residential areas. We we a little slow getting going in the morning, and got a little confused in the maze of one-way streets around the zoo, so when we actually got there we found that the first few parking lots we tried ($20 for parking) were full. On our next attempt to enter the zoo to find an available lot, we passed several street parking spots, so we just parked on the street near the zoo, free! David had to come and move the van a couple of times, as you are limited to parking on the street for 2 hours, but it was not a lot of trouble.

And so we entered the zoo!


The zoo was quite busy with school groups and day-care groups, but it was still easy to see the animals. Some animals that we hadn't seen in a zoo before were cheetahs, and we enjoyed the informative exhibit about them. Some other favourites were,

The pygmy hippo:


Turtles!



The elephants, where we also saw a zoo keeper explaining how to care for them:


And tigers (we saw actual tigers too):


The zoo quieted down a lot after the school groups went home, and we enjoyed
wandering the treed paths and looking at the beaver, wolves and bald eagle. (And otter, anteater, etc. etc.) And the children's farm, Pip especially like the cow!

Nearing suppertime, we left and headed for a restaurant. The one we picked is apparently a Washington landmark and has had celebrities visit (like us of course), it was:

The waitress on hearing we had a Ben with us, kept asking him how he was enjoying his supper, receiving many giggles.

Home to our condo to rest up for the next day!