A Visit to the Washington, D.C. Zoo

This weekend, D and I celebrated our two year dating anniversary (and our negative one year wedding anniversary!) and he surprised me with a day trip to D.C. In about an hour and a half we can be in the middle of Washington- one of the big perks to moving here! We visited D.C last year during the Cherry Blossom Festival (see it here) so we bypassed the monuments and headed straight to the zoo.

I've been longing to go to the National Zoo and it was even better than I expected. First off, it's HUGE! We were exhausted after looping through the whole park- and we didn't even see everything. The paths are very well done, there are plants and trees everywhere making you forget you're in the middle of a big city. And they have a ton of animals, many of which I had never seen, and all those you expect. But the best part- it's FREE! That's the great part about D.C.- almost all of the places you want to visit have free admission.

My favorite part of the zoo was the birds. You can always find the birds in their cages, unlike some of the animals. And even if they're asleep, they sleep where you can see them. There were so many kinds at the National Zoo and D and I had fun deciding what they were saying and/or thinking. That's my favorite thing to do at the zoo!

Not all the birds there were cute and cuddly- this guy looks absolutely prehistoric. I would be freaked out if this wound up in my backyard!

Much prettier were the flamingos, their long necks contorted for sleep. 

By far the best part of the bird exhibit was the outdoor aviary- I've never seen anything like it.You walk into this huge, net-covered structure and there are birds on land and water all around you. Even peacocks. 

We turned the corner at just the right time to see this one showing off it's feathers. Just amazing!

The peacock was gorgeous but my favorite bird was this little duck. This pint-sized guy was just so cute that I wanted to take him home in my purse, especially when he was swimming in circles trying to scratch his tush. 

Darren's favorite part was the orangutans. Their faces are so expressive, we had fun putting words into their mouth. And that hair! Surely they were the inspiration for Chewbacca.

The most surprising animal for me was the Komodo dragon. I knew they were deadly but I didn't realize how HUGE they were. I'd hate to see one of those coming after me!

Over all, it was a great park though we didn't see all of the exhibits. I would suggest skipping the Amazon and Invertebrate exhibit or at least saving them for last. They were a bit of a let down and I wish we would have seen some of the other animals instead.

So next time you visit Washington, D.C., remember that it's not all monuments! There are some great animals waiting to see your happy faces.

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