The trip started out fairly well: solid weather, an easy ride, and a small crowd. We checked out the sloth bear, but he was being an uncooperative whiner.
We went over to the infinitely cooler otters. They started play fighting in the water with each other and one father was heard saying "They're like boys fighting, they really are." Something about the zoo brings out the stupid in parents.
They really are.
Speaking of stupid, the signs for the exhibits were often questionable in quality. The one for the red panda was like an advertisement for illegal furs:
RICH SOFT PELTS.
The author of this sign, for the new elephant house, confused being useful with being stupidly poetic. It makes the building sound like it will be constructed by magic:
Maybe some Amish will come raise it in the night
But wait, there's more!
Thanks, sign.
Then we were led to probably the worst part of the entire zoo: the Think Tank. Usually, some gorillas and orangutans are partying on giant towers, swinging from ropes and being generally entertaining. But today, there were no such shenanigans and we were forced to go inside the building. A mistake. There are few animals and way too many signs about how animals learn and have "societies", often comparing them to humans. This sign was my favorite in particular:
The answer is...
...there is no answer! Thanks for wasting my time, Smithsonian. The building just got better, talking about tools humans use. There was... a hammer, a jackhammer, and a device for obliterating kidney stones. Sweet, I love coming to the zoo and not looking at animals. As we were leaving, we saw a tank. Feeling hopeful, we approached, but were quickly disappointed:
Inside was just a plate of food. My god. But fret not, dear reader, the trip was not a waste. I just want you to know what to avoid.
Finally, onto the awesome stuff. Comrade came out to show off:
This is where they keep the raptors
I also spent a lot of time fighting against my mediocre camera abilities so I could show you the awesome small mammal house and invertebrate house. These are the shots I ended up with:
There was an awesome shrimp that would let me take his picture. This is the resultant blur of amazing colors:
In the big cat area, we entered the jungles of Narnia. Aslan meandered over and stared in my direction, clearly hungover from partying too hard.
We found the source of his headache: a kicked-over keg. Jeez, Aslan, you can't just drink away the fact that you put the fate of a kingdom in the hands of children.
No, really. Here's the keg.
The rest of the zoo is well-designed and put together. And the best part? It's free! Definitely worth checking out and it's only a five minute walk from the Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan Metro stop. And last, but not least, two crazy tourists. Because some of the best times seeing it live are spent people watching.
I think the WoW-lover is outshone by the hat lady; her enthusiasm for America started a whole day early. Beautiful.
No comments:
Post a Comment