SO, I devised a plan to visit the Naitonal Zoo that involved
trying some new things. First, PARKING: SInce the grounds open at 8 AM (and the
buildings at 9 AM) I would arrive around 8:30 in the hopes of finding easy
parking. I did, BUT there's more! The lot was open. Normally you pay to enter
it, and so while everyone who arrived after say 8:50 AM when the attendant
arrived on duty paid like $23.50--I parked for FREE!
Next, I chose the lot at the BOTTOM of the zoo at the south
entrance. And entrance that I had never entered before. This meant that I
would spend the beginning of my visit climbing up the "mountain," and
the end of my visit walking back down. This proved much more satisfactory to my
feet. While the zoo's amazing initial design comes from the father of landscape
architecture, Frederick Law Olmsted, it is built on a very steep hill! In fact,
when you look at the map of the zoo, it has a section warning you to expect a
steep climb.
Finally, I planned to scope out about half a dozen animals
that the zoo "claims" to have, but which I have never seen! As a
result, after my visit today, my list is smaller, but not eliminated. And this
is an aspect of the National Zoo--and all good zoos--that I do support. The
animals are not forced to be "on" display. They have access to off
sight areas that allow them to just chill if there not feeling up to it. This
leads to one of the exciting things about going to a zoo--you never what you're
going to experience. In fact, no two visits are ever the same. And I have to
say that I had some really great experiences at the Smithsonian National Zoo
today. I took just shy of 350 pics, too!
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