By George: ZOO FUN!

Carson and Wayne on the VRE this morning.

We have been trying since we moved here to get some time to go to the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington D.C. Today we finally managed to get the trip in. Wayne took the day off from work and all three of us decided to take the Virginia Railway Express into D.C. and transfer to the metro so that we would not have to fight traffic in D.C. We took the last train out in the morning which was the 7:56 train, and we were at the Zoo by 9:45. Carson really enjoyed riding the train this morning and Loved the Zoo. Honestly, the National Zoo is a good Zoo, but I really think that I prefer the Fort Worth Zoo. The habitats and variety of animals at the Fort Worth Zoo was just so much nicer. Most likely my preference is because the Fort Worth Zoo is not smack dab in the middle of a metropolis. It seems larger (of course EVERYTHING in Texas is). The only thing that the National Zoo has on Fort Worth Zoo is the Panda Habitat, the Big Cats and that it is free admission.

We spent about 4.5 hours there and then took the Metro to Union Station (NICE NICE train station) Think the nicest airport, but for trains with fine dining and high end shopping all rolled into one. This is the final station on the VRE and there are one of two runs available, the Fredericksburg line or the Manassas line. Amtrak is also run out of this station and it really seems like a fun way to travel.

We really enjoyed ourselves and came home on the first train out of Union at 3:35. Good thing that we got on at Union station because with it being a Friday, the trains were running quite full, and there was standing room only from Crystal City to about Quantico as people got off the train.

For some reason Blogger is not letting me upload any photos out of photo shop...so these are all straight out of the camera.

Throughout the Park, they had misters to cool you off... Carson thought that these were awesome sprinklers.

The National Zoo Big Cats Habitat is the BEST I have seen, the Cats were visible, and not sleeping.

When we asked Carson what his favorite animal was at the Zoo... he always answered the elephants......could it be because he was fascinated that the elephants had really, really, big poop?

Nahhh, a little boy wouldn't be fascinated with that.............................would he?The American alligator was awake and real closeThe Orangutan's were also pretty eye catching, as they have these high O Wires as they call them that cross over the park, and you can see them climbing and swinging back to their play yard when they finished lunch. You DON'T want to be underneath when they cross over...

Just a Pretty Hibiscus Flower.....

The Invertebrates Collection was nice... they had some really awesome bio luminescent jellyfish. Carson wanted to know where their batteries were...Plus their coral tanks were nice as well.Then there were the Pandas!!! I was a little disappointed, because Tai Shan was asleep outside behind glass and was difficult to see. Mei Xiang on the other hand was awake but she was also inside the Panda house instead of outside. The scientists just recently released that she is not pregnant again. They were hoping that a artificial insemination a few months back had taken, she was acting as if it had, but all tests came back as a false pregnancy. CLICK HERE to see more info along with real time Panda CAM that you can see what is going on at any time in the Panda house. Here are some pictures I scanned of Mei Xiang and her son Tai Shan