Fall Day 11 - Zoo-rific Day!

Today is the last day of our wonderful fall trip (well, not counting tomorrow's travel day). Our hotel, though cute, is not all we hoped it would be. Aside from it being noisy and bright (part of that is being in the city, I know), the heater would not turn off! We eventually had to get someone to come and just turn it off completely, but it was still hot all night. Still, we got up early and headed out. We made good use of the Metro today, as we had many places to go, and didn't want to drive.

First we headed to the National Zoo. It was a beautiful fall day, really perfect. Cool and crisp and sunny.

We went in search of the pandas and found the two adults. Sadly, the baby (toddler now?) was hiding, but we did see him on one of the monitors. Apparently, there are cameras everywhere and you can see the pandas anytime they are in view online on Animal Planet's website!


We also saw an orangutan climbing these ropes high above the zoo. The ropes went right over where we were walking!

We stopped at the visitor's center on the way out, and E decided that it would be a good time to practice some karate. So he proceeded to do his kata in the middle of the zoo. I'm happy he likes it so much :-)

After the zoo we went to China Town for lunch. We went to Tony Chang's for dim sum, where everyone got way too much food (even E, who found plenty this time!). No worries, we took the left-overs back to the hotel and headed out again.

We only had time for one museum, and it was the Air and Space, where we heard there were many activities for kids. This was definitely the case, as E got to fly a plane, play with all sorts of avionics, and hang out with astronauts.

Things were closing up, so we walked down the Mall, to the Washington Monument, the WWII Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial as the sun went down. The WWII Memorial was new to all of us, and it really was beautiful. There were many families out, laying flowers and pictures of their loved ones. The Lincoln Memorial was impressive as ever and our last stop in D.C.

We headed back to the hotel, ate some left overs and organized our stuff to pack. One of E's favorite activities has been to find a Christmas ornament from each place we've visited, and he wanted to see them all together. I think decorating the tree will be particularly fun this year!

And that is it for the Fall 2007 fall trip. We head our early in the morning. Maybe tomorrow I will post some final reflections on what has been the best fall trip to date!