While we were visiting the Washington DC area we visited the zoo, which was suprisingly free. I love DC for all the free museums and places of interest. Henry had to take his long morning nap, so we got to the zoo a lot later than I expected, so we had to rush around to see all the things that we wanted to see. We had fun in the small mammals house as the meerkats followed the movement of my cowboy hat up and down. We got to see many of the animals get their dinner, including the pandas, which was a treat. Henry saw the pandas and signed "bear". I couldnt' believe he knew exactly what they were. He's so smart. We also had fun playing with the large ape. I didn't look to see exactly what kind she was, but there was a little girl putting on make-up in front of her at the request of the trainer. I guess she loves to watch people put on make-up.
Henry also had fun in the reptile house. He was making the snake sound when he saw every snake, lizzard, toad and crocodile. We have to teach him the difference between them one of these days. The Hippo made a splashdown in the pool after his meal which put a big smile on Henry's face. He also learned the sign for elephant and did it often as we watched them roam their territory. The last place we visited was the invertibrates house which housed a really cool octipus, some clear jellyfish, many bugs, a beehive, and a japanese orb weaver spider that was hanging from the ceiling without glass around it. It freaked many people out, but I knew they weren't dangerous and so I let Henry get pretty close. Near the end of our day, we were joined by Tracie and Justin B to walk the grounds after the houses had closed and then we ate some Thai food and coldstone. That was really fun to see them twice on my short trip. I missed Meghan though, although she was pretty busy preparing for her upcomming nuptuals. Here are some photos of Hen at the Zoo
