Our first day of adventures was too the National Zoo.
Its a free zoo, known for having pandas. After we all got up and ready we headed to Starbucks to get me a chai tea and everyone a little breakfast. Big mistake, HUGE. Well that may be a little dramatic but Starbucks, two blocks from Capitol Hill on the morning of the State of the Union Address was very, very, very packed and not stroller friendly. However, we made it out alive and I had my chai tea in hand which always makes for a good day!
We hopped onto our trolley shuttle to the transfer stop. We were the only ones on the trolley and had a VERY talkative driver who gave us the inside scoop on many things. He gave me a heads up that the trolley stop was a bit of a walk up to the zoo. Good to know! We transfered trolleys and off we went! Went made it to our zoo stop and started the walk up to the zoo. The previous driver said about 5 blocks uphill. I would say closer to a MILE UPHILL, but we made it!
PANDA!!!
We caught the zookeeper talk about elephants! He is only a 4 year old elephant and did lots of tricks for us! The girls loved that he danced!
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| (I have no idea what Georgie is eating) |
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| GIANT ANACONDA. He was eating an rabbit whole! Matt is not a fan of snakes so we had to take a picture and send it to him. |
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| Henry stealing a few minutes in the stroller while Maise was happy to run! |
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| The girls were being very sweet all day so they were rewarded with a carousel ride! I was happy to sit on the bench for a few minutes!! |
After our carousel ride we grabbed some lunch, then went back up the Great Apes. The orangutans have this giant rope systems that they can swing on to go between their habitat and the think tank (school) as they please. Pretty incredible to see orangutans swinging above you with no net! We also saw crocodiles, seals, beavers, bald eagle, and more.
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| Finished our full day at the zoo! |
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| This picture cracks me up because like I said it is about a mile uphill to the zoo, then once in the zoo in's about a mile downhill and back around! We made it to this stoplight and Georgie asked if she could rest! So, here they are resting! |
We made it back to our trolley stop and the kids all chowed on crackers and oreos. Then once we got back to the transfer stop we found a Qdoba to go in and get a drink and they girls all rested in the booths. I was planning on having Matt meet us there to go on our night tour together. However, at 4:55 I just double checked our depature location......and it was at Union Station, so we quickly packed up and ran out the door only to have missed the last bus for the day. However, since Trolley Tours is the absolute best sightseeing company the bus driver turned around and picked us up. So, we made it to Union Station and had some dinner and ice cream while waiting for our evening tour.
While we were waiting, Elsie was lying on this bench fluttering her arms about towards the ceiling. I actually kind of got after of her to be still and relax a bit. Little did I know that the next day at the hotel she would see a picture and she instantly knew it was the ceiling of the train station that we were at. It was a very gracious reminder of how her mind words differently than mine, and that often in her fluttering she is learning and discovering and incorporating information in her own way. When I thought about the night before I realized she was counting the pattern of the ceiling. No one but her would have even know that the picture was of Union Station.
I'll try and post again soon about our night tour! That was quite a little adventure itself!
