National Zoo

For the record, I'd like to say that it was Josh's idea to go to the zoo yesterday. I was shocked he would ever want to set foot in D.C. again after the whole cherry blossom fiasco, but he wanted to take the baby up--she loves looking at animals. Everyone told us to just drive into the zoo because the Metro stop was about 6 blocks away so off we went. We got to the zoo and found thep arking lot---with a big sign that said Parking Lots Are Full. Hmmm. So we drove through hoping that someone would leave....nope. Josh is freaking out, the baby is awake and happily watching Mickey on the portable DVD player, and I'm thinking that Josh is never going to take us anywhere again. The parking on the side streets were 1 hour limits and there were NO parking garages anywhere near the place. Finally we drove up a side street and found a poilice officer who told us to park, ignore the time limits, and enjoy the day because the worst ticket we would get would cost 30 bucks which is what it cost to park in the zoo anyway. We ended up about 7 blocks away from the zoo anyway so it would have just been better to take the metro. Juliette's favorites were the little mokeys, the meerkats, and the armadillo. She tried to grab it through the glass! She didn't want to leave the meerkat part and kept straining her head to see them as we walked away. I really wanted her to see the water animals, but we wanted to get out of there before the traffic hit so we left around 3....and hit traffic. We got home around 6:30 and the last hour Juliette was not a happy camper. So now we know for next time to go earlier and Josh wants to go in the cold weather to see the animals...a lot of them were in their little houses to escape the heat, but we did get to see the panda which was pretty cool.

We made it!! You had to stand in a line to get a picture here!

Our first animals of the day- the gazelles.

Checking out the elephants with Daddy- their house is being rebuilt, so they were outside.

In the small mammal house, mesmorized by the meerkats.

Of all the animals for her to like- the armadillo! They really are ugly little things!

Giant anaconda--the head is up front on the rocks.

A mommy and her baby :)

She did not appreciate having people look at her baby.

an annoying group of kids was trying to get the tiger to roar. I was hoping it would jump the fence and take a few out as appetizers.