This Place Is A Zoo

I spent an evening out with my good friend Chris last night. We decided to go to the National Zoo for their Zoo Lights event. Basically, it's like those drive through light displays that they have at Bull Run and Merriweather, but you walk through instead. It was quite fun. . . but also, quite miserable.

Unfortunately, it was cold and rainy the whole time. And it seemed that the closer we got to the zoo, the harder it came down. We took the Metro to the zoo and saw this lovely display at the Connecticut Avenue entrance.

Now, I don't know how many of you readers have visited the zoo using the Metro, but the subway stop is about a quarter of a mile down hill from the zoo. Not a big deal. . . unless it's raining. . . and your clothes are soaked.

Once at the zoo, they did keep some of the animal houses open ,so you did have an opportunity to warm up a little. Most of the animals were asleep. Here's a shot I tried to take of a meerkat. The pic is blurry because I tried to take it on my digital camera without the flash, so as not to scare the animal.


Back outside for another light display.

I think they may have had some event earlier in the evening, because we came across this ice sculpture under a tent full of tables and chairs. BTW, the cow is not part of the sculpture.

Now here's the really fun part. Evidently, we got there pretty close to closing. Each time we went into a different animal house, an attendant would let us know that the house would be closing soon. Not a problem, we could still look at the lights outside. Well, we left the last house, walked to the end of the zoo, and then turned back to leave. We were the last ones to leave the park. How do I know this? Well, halfway through our uphill walk back to the exit, they turned out the lights on us. Not just the light displays, but the park lights in the section that we were walking through. Can I tell you that it's a little creepy walking through the zoo at night with no lights on and no one else around.

Well, after we finally made it uphill (the zoo is all hill) to the exit, we were soaked and out of breath. . . OK I was out of breath, Chris is a dancer and much more fit than me.

Despite the weather, a good time was had by all. Oh, and I'll have to let Chris tell you about the reaction he got when he asked if they were selling umbrellas.