ZOO! (Day 2 of my Exploring DC Posts)

Today, we decided to take advantage of one of the lesser rainy days left in the week and go on our major outdoor excursion, the zoo!  Despite a drizzly morning, it was an absolutely gorgeous noon with a bright blue sky.  

 For quite some time, we saw no animals, only birds and homo sapiens,

But then...

We saw the elephants!

Elephas maxima

A trip into the panda house... 

Ailuropoda melanoleuca

 I loved these little guys! They were so expressive and fun to watch.  Here they were cleaning each other.

Golden Lion Tamerins:  Leontopithecus rosalia

Red Ruffled Lemur:  Varecia varigata

 The gorillas had this very humanesque way of acting, almost as if they were mirroring the people watching them.

Orangutan:  Pongo pymeaus

 After we left the zoo, we had to walk through this tunnel to get to the Metro station.  Considering the sidewalk was about half the size of a normal sidewalk and cars zipped by, I will say that this was a relatively unpleasant and slightly frightening experience.

Step total:  About 9000 steps for the zoo and related transportation, but when we returned to Harvey, I went out with Timber and so my total for the day was about 11,711 steps.

I think the Air and Space Museum is on the agenda for tomorrow!

Good Night,
Amy