Eleven Views of the Smithsonian National Zoo #1

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!