A Sunday Trip to the Zoo

Sunday in DC reached up into the 70s, a perfect day for the zoo! Mame and I packed up the almost-two-year-olds and got a coveted parking spot close to...

The Elephants!!! Graham had been talking about elephants all week. Oh, the little man was soooo happy after we watched a 20 minute or so elephant training. Two female elephants lifted their legs, pretended to fall asleep, opened their mouths...and played with Big Balls.

When we left them, Graham said bye bye and waved to them. (Julia kept close to me, and her response to the elephants? "Big." Indeed!)

The sloth bear didn't truly please...living up to his name, it was 10:40 am and he was just waking up...but the Pandas were out, eating Bamboo. As ever, Julia kept pointing to the posters of the Panda...I just think that the reality of the large animals does not live up to the two-year-old image of what a Bear should be like!!! (cuddly and small so she can hold the bear!)

Next up: Graham's close personal friend, Mr. Orangutan, was swinging from the ropes which run, oh, 50 feet or higher off the ground and are called the O Line...the ropes run between the Great Ape House and the Think Tank...it was AMAZING!! And we saw not one, but two orangutans swinging overhead...it was a true traffic stopper!

Julia now says that the Big Monkey was in the "Air. Up. Air."
And Graham?
Elephant
Nose. Elephant Nose.
And Graham squishes his little nose for effect.
Way too cute!

PS: Here is a description from the National Zoo website about the O Line:
"Curators designed the world's first Orangutan Transport System (OTS), a system of towers and cables that allows the animals to move between two buildings. The Orangutan Transport System, or O Line, consists of eight, 50-foot-high (12.2 m) towers connected by plastic-coated, steel cables. At the lowest point, the cables are about 35 feet (10.7 m) off the ground. The entire distance of the O Line is about 490 feet (149.5 m)."