National Zoo

As you can probably tell from the pictures and the title I went to the zoo yesterday, which was free. It was a pretty decent zoo, not quite as good as OKC or Fort Worth, but still nice. 

The biggest attraction is the Giant Panda, which we almost didn't see. As we were walking out of the Panda House we stopped at the end were they have a research center of sorts. There are a lot of cameras set up throughout the panda habitats to watch them, and we saw one coming out of the back area so we went to find it. 

It sat down right in front of the glass and licked its paw for about five minutes. It wasn't terribly exciting, but they're beautiful even still.

The zoo also has a lot of different monkeys and what is called an "O-line." We didn't get to see it in use, but the Orangutans can use it to move around in the zoo. The lines run all over the zoo over visitors' heads. 

All in all a pretty decent zoo, but going to zoos always makes me a little sad. 

After the zoo we decided to go to the Holocaust Museum (probably not a good way to boast my morale). When we got there we discovered that you had to have timed tickets to see most of the exhibits. They're free, but you have to get them in advance. 

We did walk through the Hall of Remembrance. It has an eternal flame in the middle marking a marble block that holds soil from 38 concentration camps as well as ashes of some of the victims of the Holocaust. The soil and ashes were placed there by survivors. The walls of the hall are marble in places with the names of camps.

We finished off the day with a visit to Honest Abe and dinner at The Tombs. It's the first sit-down restaurant I've really been to since I've been here. It was a lot like a Keller, in that it is in a basement. The food was good, a little pricey, but we probably made up for it with all the water we drank.

I probably got a little over excited about this when I saw it. I thought it was a buddy bear. It's not. I had forgotten what they looked like exactly. It's actually something for the zoo's Giant Panda exhibit. Still it seems like a bit of a stolen idea. That's Matt, by the way.