Springtime at the Zoo

It was unbelievably beautiful this weekend, with temperatures in the high 60s and low 70s and in the sky, nothing but sun. I decided that this would be the perfect weekend to take Anastasia to the zoo, and since Myney wanted to go, too, she was our designated photographer for the day. After a short Metro ride, we were ready to dive in.



First up, the relatively new Asian Trail, in which the otters, pandas, and lots of other cool animals live. Mei Xiang, the female panda is in seclusion while everyone in town keeps fingers crossed that she's actually pregnant. We did get to see Tian Tian, but couldn't get a good picture. The zoo is, however, full of wonderful animal sculptures, so after we ate lunch, we got this picture of Anastasia.



The large mammals' new environment is still under construction, so most of the large mammals are not currently at the zoo. No hippos, no giraffes, no rhinos right now. Still, the zoo's three elephants are a huge attraction. Can't wait till the new habitat is open (at least another year). Anastasia really liked watching the elephants, the largest of which seemed to spend a lot of time trying to unlock a massive gate.



When we got to the big cats enclosure, the tigers were sound asleep, but the lionesses were monitoring all that was happening in their area.



On our way to the children's zoo, where petting is allowed, if not always easy, we stopped by the groundhogs to say hi.



At the bottom of the hill, we got to pet a beautiful holstein, and watched the newly shorn llamas wandering around their pen.



The only downside to the National Zoo, it's a long uphill walk back to the street when you're done. After several hours, Anastasia was getting a little tired, so I carried her for most of the hill.



She was eager to get home, so she made careful observations regarding whether the train was coming.



And, as if a wonderful day at the zoo weren't enough, the sunscreen held out and none of us came home with burns. Now that's a great day.