At the Zoo :)

As if it wasn't sweet enough to have my long-time friend Keith over for the weekend he came up with a few terrific ideas for "things to do" while he was in town. One was going to the National Zoo. What a great idea! I planned to go last month but after hearing from a close colleague that the animals weren't out yet I decided to wait. Good thing I did because we were EXTREMELY lucky! We saw the Giant pandas - my first time seeing pandas EVER - and of course the elephants!!! We also got to see a feeding for the sloth bear. Note: the sloth bear is not related to the sloth the animal although it does share some mechanical and physical attributes.

Below are some photos of the trip to the Zoo all taken by my semi-professional friend Keith Hobin. Be sure to check out his flickr account (link:www.flickr.com/photos/kjhobin/)

By Keith Hobin

By Keith Hobin

By Keith Hobin

By Keith Hobin

By Keith Hobin

By Keith Hobin

By Keith Hobin

By Keith Hobin

By Keith Hobin

By Keith Hobin

 Look closely. Who do you see?

By Keith Hobin

 By Keith Hobin

By Keith Hobin

Of course my favorite - and I know my Mom would just love me saying this - was the bird section. They are the animals that can do the one thing we as humans never will be able to do on our own: fly. Not to mention the beautiful feathers and designs of their beaks, etc. All so different and so many of them. Take a look for yourself below, some of my favorite picks from Keith's bird photos: 

 By Keith Hobin

  By Keith Hobin

 By Keith Hobin

 By Keith Hobin

  By Keith Hobin

By Keith Hobin

A stop at FroYo for "lunch" and off to MLK and FDR memorials. Funny thing was its been awhile since I've been around my guy friends and I forget their stomachs. So what I considered lunch was a snack in Keith's eyes. It was an on-going joke between him and I especially when he used the phrase 'you eat like a bird' which always brings a smile to my face. My Mom always says that not to be mean but to say its amazing that I can keep going and going and going with barely enough energy in me. However, I am a very healthy person and in order to stay that way I traditionally only eat healthy foods - not greasy, fatty foods - and exercise a lot! But to be honest I do forget to eat sometimes because I'm so absorbed in the activities I do throughout the day. 

We tried to go to the Botanic Gardens but I failed us. Instead we went to the Castle Smithsonian that did have gardens but not the Botanic Gardens. We killed some time going into the African Art and Asian Art Galleries nearby which were very well done. Some photos are below:

By Keith Hobin

  

At the end of the day we managed to get to The Kennedy Center to see Ten-Chi-Jin, a rockish Japanese band, in celebration of the Japanese Sakuri Maturi Festival taken place in Federal Triangle early on Saturday. It started out slow and painfully quiet. The dancer was beautifully wrapped in a kimono and it was lovely to see her move in traditional Japanese dance, however, we were very tired and that wasn't the kind of music to keep our attention - hence Keith almost tipping over and a gentleman in the row behind us started to snore loudly. The performance did get more exciting once the rest of the assemble came onto the stage and the female drummer, Shinobu Osawa, started to jump around with her drum and run through the audience thanking them for the support. What a great performer!

The night ended with a few Dubliner beers, London Broil and Cornbeef and cabbage at the Dubliner Pub. It was definitely a good night for the Capitals fans hanging out at Kelly's Irish Pub right down the street which was very entertaining. I would go as far to say it was like dinner and a movie only it was real and live right in front of me. Shuttle back to the RAF and sleep.... 

Will be writing up Part 2 of our adventures soon. Stay tuned!