McKinstry Moments: The National Zoo

Another trip we started planning several months ago was a visit to The National Zoo. Dave and I decided not to go during the spring months because the animals are shedding their coats and look pretty scruffy - a lesson we learned on a date to the zoo before we were married. After visiting the St. Louis Zoo in the ridiculous heat this past July, we decided summer wasn't the best option either. Finally, the cooler weather arrived so yesterday was set aside for some long awaited animal fun.

Caleb played with his toy tiger on the way to the zoo.
He also took a good nap on our hour and a half drive,
so he was raring to go once we got there.

The weather was perfect and we were thankful we'd waited. After eating a quick bite, we headed to see the tigers and lions. I read on the zoo website that some cubs had been born recently but we never saw them. Caleb actually had a hard time seeing the tiger at all because it was tucked away in a cave relaxing. The lions were a bit difficult to see as well but some of them did get up to shift positions which helped us point them out. On the other hand, he did notice the wooden tiger cut-outs and growled at them several times. (He must get his love of statues, animal pictures, and wooden cut-outs from his cousins Luke and Lydia who are always infatuated with the animal statues at their zoo.)

The next stop on the tour after looking at the wild cats was the invertebrate house. Outside of this building was a komodo dragon Caleb found entertaining. Inside, he found sea anemones, a lobster, crabs, jellyfish, an octopus, and all kinds of bugs. This seemed to be his favorite place out of all we saw that day which may be in part to his love of bugs. Because he could easily see most of the animals and they were active, I think it held his attention more.

Next were the orangutans and the ape house, which I was disappoint didn't have any of the giant gorillas anymore. We did get to see some smaller gorillas though including a baby with its mother.

I was also let down to find out that the giraffes, hippos, and rhinos that used to be near or in the elephant house (if I remember correctly) were no longer there and the elephant house was being renovated. Luckily, there was one elephant out and about that we watched quite a bit from different lookout points around the zoo.

I'm not sure what happened to most of the bears that I remember seeing before either. However, The National Zoo definitely kept their claim to fame - the pandas! They were inside eating bamboo when we toured the exhibit so we found a spot to watch for a bit. Caleb seemed more interested though with an interactive panda thingamajig and the large rocks for people to sit on than the bears.