A Visit to the Smithsonian National Zoo

When we first moved to DC sixteen years ago one of the first places we visited was the Smithsonian National Zoo. We returned a year or two later when our friends came for a visit. We have passed by the zoo a few times when we drive along Connecticut Avenue. It’s funny to have such a remarkable place located in the heart of the city. This week I needed to get photos of animals for my weekly challenge, so we thought this might be a good place for some options. So on Monday we headed out to the zoo. It’s only about eight miles away and it didn’t take us long to get there driving through Palisades and towards NW DC. The zoo wasn’t very busy at that time of the morning. Although the zoo is free, the parking on the grounds was thirty dollars. I suppose we could have found metered parking but we were too lazy. Since we didn’t really look at the map before we arrived we just meandered through whatever path came our way. We started out at the monkey house, then the snakes and turtles. A lot of the critters could not be seen on the outside because it was too cold. The snapping turtle was ferocious looking. We were lucky to see the caretakers feed the lemur, giant tortoise and ostrich. We got up close to an elephant and saw the bison in the distance. We passed by a dancing black bear on our way to see the pandas. The pandas were too far away, but at least we had a chance to see them. My husband doesn’t like seeing any animals in captivity but I find it interesting. It’s nice to be able to visit - especially when it’s quiet. I wonder what time of the year the animals prefer?