A day at the zoo...and I don't mean Capitol Hill

So you cannot come to Washington without visiting the zoo or more correctly the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. Since it is part of the Smithsonian, it is free to get in. A very nice zoo too with all the important lions and tigers and bears (oh my). Of course there are also some gorillas and elephants and free ranging monkeys (yeah, free ranging, they just hang out in these trees during the day and then at night they sleep in a box. I guess in the winter the box they sleep in opens up into the monkey house and they don't know the difference. Cute little things though.) Of course I find all little (and sometimes big) furry things cute and fun so here are some pictures.

This is the very active 6 year old elephant who was born at the zoo. I was talking with a Smithsonian employee whose job it is to write down what the elephant does every 4 minutes. He is very predictable and likes to keep her on her toes because everytime he went inside the building he would give her just enough time to run around the building and get inside to observe him, and then he would head back outside.

This is the O-line. Some of the orangutans will use it to get from The Great Ape House to the Think Tank. It actually is quite a distance between the 2 buildings and hopefully I can go back and see them when they are on it.
The beavers were so cute. It was feeding time and they will actually take carrots and stuff right out of your hand. The lady beside me thought they were otters. No, she wasn't Canadian because no self respecting Canadian could ever confuse a beaver for an otter.

This may have been the highlight of my day. Last time I saw a Panda I think was in 1988 or 1989 when there were 2 on loan at the Calgary Zoo. I remeber waiting in line for a long time with Auntie Brenda to get a look at them. The zoo here actually has 3 pandas, including a 2 year old cub that was born here. He is about the same size as the other 2 now but they are all so cute. Makes you want to take one home.

Warning, watch for monkeys. Actually these free ranging monkeys are very territorial so do not stray too far but will ask for hand outs I guess so the other signs around warn everyone to keep thier food and drinks covered.

Check out this video. It is of a cute sloth bear trying to get out of the tree so he can go eat lunch.

Julie