Tuesday, December 26, 2017

A Capital Christmas


We took advantage of the holidays/lack of worker traffic to venture into our nation's capital, which, even when I actually lived here in Northern VA, I rarely did! Iver enjoyed visiting some of the places illustrated in his book Good Night, Washington, DC.

On Christmas Eve morning, we headed to The Smithsonian's National Zoo (which I certainly haven't visited in decades, and didn't remember at all!).  I actually really dislike zoos where animals seem so stressed/sad to be caged up, but Iver certainly enjoyed the animal-viewing (his favorite was the crocodiles).

Pandas













Elephant "Cheese!"


Przewalski's horse, a critically endangered (and the last truly wild) horse found in Mongolia

Indoor mammals-- Fennec Fox


Naked mole rats

The big cats at the end were a hit!
 

 

"I want it to Roar, Papa!"






Touching a lion poop pile
 

Gleeful carousel-riding








On cold, blustery Christmas morning, we joined the mostly Asian tourists on the mall and visited the major memorials.

Lincoln Memorial



 

View of the Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial

















 The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is quite new
 



FDR



 

Fitting words, now more than ever in light of the greedy GOP's tax bill: "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

 

Jefferson Memorial 
 



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