National Zoo

Yesterday we drove down to DC and met friends at the National Zoo. It was so great to see our friends and to see Maya's reactions as she saw different animals!

 As we drove into DC, I was reminded of how cool and hip DC is, and how very much I miss it.   Dave and I both do, we miss it dearly.  The parking meters in DC can now be paid for with your phone- how awesome is that?  The parking meters in our local town still ask you to crank the handle to accept the coin- the handle that doesn't even exist (I'm a little bitter as one ate one of my quarters on Saturday night). Also, the friends we met previously told us that now at most of the grocery stores down there you can bring your own reusable shopping bags, get a scanner when you walk into the store, scan each item as you shop and place it in a bag, and then just pay for everything that way.  They do spot checks to keep stealing down.  Seriously- why isn't that up here yet?  It was an adjustment when we moved back up here.  We felt like everything was soooooo slow and behind the times.  Anyway, I digress...

So Maya had her 2nd zoo experience- her first large zoo experience.

Dave's favorite zoo animal is the sloth bear- unfortunately, the sloth bear wasn't out, so we got a family photo at the sloth bear statue instead.

She seemed to enjoy seeing the owls and the cows the most.  She was funny and starting hooting like an owl as soon as we pointed one out to her.  She then continued to hoot during our whole tour of the bird exhibit.

"Hoot, hoot"

 I couldn't wait to show her a cow up close because she LOVES cows in her books and loves to "MOO." She was so excited.  I held her up the gate and she looked at it and then looked at me all excited almost as if she was saying "Oh my gosh Mom, these things exist in real life!" and of course she started mooing.  She grabbed onto the fence real tight as if to say "Park it right here Mom, I found COWS!"

Maya "mooing" at the sight of a cow!

I personally liked seeing the elephants and the pandas the most as you can't see those around Philly.  However, the National Zoo doesn't have giraffes or polar bears (which are my favorite zoo animal) so I guess they're about equal- oh wait, the National Zoo is FREE- so there you go- the National Zoo wins.  See we miss DC.