Washington DC Part II

Washington DC Part II: The Zoo, A Museum or Two and a Hypochondriac with a Heat Rash

So on the second day of DC we were lucky because we had an extra person joining us. Our friend Toni who allowed us to crash at her house was off work and joined us for a day of fun. We started out at the National Zoo. I kept hearing from a great deal of people that the animals were really far away and it was hard to take really good pictures. I suppose we were fortunate because the animals decided they wanted to be extremely active while we were there, but it did take them a few minutes to get warmed up. One of the first exhibits you can see is the Asian exhibit where they have the pandas. This was avery popular exhibit since there are very few zoos in the world that actually have them. A large crowd of people were walking the perimeter trying to catch a glimpse, but there were no pandas to be found. Just as we were about to leave, Ricky stops and catches something moving. The panda was all the way in the back of the viewing area and not being very cooperative. I took a few photos from far away, but after he made one laid around the back, he moved his way right up against the railing. If I didnt know any better, you would swear they trained this panda to pose. He went from position to position and would stop so that he wasnt moving. It was great. I have posted just panda pictures as you will probably see in the next blog.

After the great luck we had with the pandas we were hoping that we would luck out with the rest of the animals as well. And wouldn't you know, with the exception of Happy the Hippo, all of the other animal were extremely cooperative. Some were a little too cooperative because they wouldnt stop moving. I took so many zoo pictures its a wonder I didn't fill up the memory card.

After the zoo we figured we were in animal mode so we decided to head to the Natural History Museum. Kenneth and Kristine had done the Natural History Museum while we went to see Star Trek the night before so they headed out to see the Supreme Court Building and the Capitol. After my last trip to DC in 2002 I had gotten a tour of the Capitol Building so I had pretty much seen that particular aspect of DC already. The Natural History Museum was very nice and had a great deal of changes since the last time I was there. The Hope diamond display was a nice display since the last time I saw it, it was in a little hole in the wall. Now it has this nice case in the center of the room. The only problem is that there are so many people that crowd around it. I can only imagine this crowd is what it would have felt like trying to see the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. We took a great deal of pictures and then we met back up with Kenneth and Kristine.

We all decided it was time to go to the Air and Space Museum. We walked across the mall and headed in. They had the usual pieces, but they also had this amazing photography exhibit of images of Saturn. They were absolutely gorgeous. They had one image that was about 2 feet high but the length of an entire wall that broke apart one of the rings by color. It was incredible. Ricky was distraught because apparently the plane that his grandfather had worked on was no longer at the museum. We think it may have been moved to the new museum near Dulles, but we don't know for sure. All we know is that the little model of the plane is in the clearance section of the gift shop.

The day had been gorgeous once again and I remembered to wear sunscreen, BUT I encountered a slightly problem. Since I wore sunscreen, I managed to avoid burning any further, but i also managed to internally overheat causing a major case of heat rash. Now I live in Florida and one would think that this would happen frequently, but it doesn't. The problem that I had was that I was wearing sneakers (normally I wear flip flops to let the heat escape through my feet) and in combination with the thick sunscreen, my body was not having it. From my knees down I was one entire heat rash. i of course being the calm sensible person I am freaked out completely. I was worried that it was something else, and I could not for the life of me calm down. When we got back to Toni's place I took cool towels and placed them on my legs, but it wasn't until i took a shower that things started to get better. It was not the most pleasant experience I will say that. Fortunately, I did wake up the next morning and everything was gone, but I decided to move forth with sunscreen and I wore my flip flops.

...to be continued...