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!

St. Patrick's Day

Passing by Ted Bulletin

Daddio came to visit on Saturday, March 17th! He had been informed that there was going to be a marathon throughout the city and planned to get to the apartment early (6am) before streets started to get roadblocked. Luckily he found a perfect space right outside my apartment building! YAY! Wash up and out the door to the Eastern Market off the Blue/Orange Metro lines. It was a beautiful Saturday morning. Instead of going to Ted Bulletin's (packed at 9am) we went across the street to a Belgian Waffle place. It was okay food, service sucked and I'm pretty sure that they gave me a cup with eye makeup smeared on the side in addition to leaving two fried eggs off of Daddio's plate which he ordered. No biggy since we were outside. 

 Moment of Truth: Frizzy fries OR onions???

The Belgian waffle place

The market was fun. I knew Tom (Daddio) would love it! I mean there's antiques, art, and fresh produce! What's not to love? Especially with the beautiful weather it was perfect. He seemed really engaged when we went through the produce aisle. There were a bunch of stuff to taste including a green very very VERY hot salsa that I ate as we moved to a PA Amish farm's produce hut. I quickly scanned the area for something diary, bingo! Cheese! and then some pears to smooth the bite of the heat still in my mouth. WOW! I love it! Oh and we did go to Curbside Cupcakes to get a taste (six-pack) of a few types: Chocolate Irish Cream, Red Velvet and the newbie Snickerdoodle. Yum yum, yumm!

 Antiques

 The street...Daddio is in the gray sweatshirt with light wash jeans...hehe gotcha!

 Everything...wood

I LOVE THESE THINGS!!!!!

yummy yummy yummy I've got yummy in my tummy!

After lounging a bit back at the apartment we took a taxi to the Kennedy Center (gorgeous) and walk around. We even caught one of the free 6pm shows Kristi has told me about. It was a trio (oboe, clarinet, piano) of guys playing classical. Love! Later we ate up at the roof top restaurant. It was okay but like Tom said the food came out a little too quickly (I agree). He also wasn't feeling so well so...yea. The whole reason we were there was to see Shear Madness. It was like a murder mystery "Broadway"like show set in a barber shop in Georgetown. A lot of international kids were in the audience most from the same place: Russia. WOW that's odd but cool! Hunk on stage (one of the detectives) wasn't keeping it together. He laughed so much at the jokes. It was awesome. I highly recommend because apparently the ending changes every night according to what the audience choice of the murderer.

Check it out: shearmadness.com/