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One nice day in late spring we got in the car and went down the road and ended up in Washington D.C. We had no actual plans for visiting the Capitol of the United States, it just happened to be not too far down the road. I had been to Washington D.C. on several other occasions but never before as an accidental tourist. When we left our house, I grabbed the only camera that had film in it which happened to be an ancient Voigtlander Rangefinder. I later discovered that there were only a few un-exposed frames left in the camera. After arriving in Washington D.C. we drove around for a while before finally finding a place to park near the Capitol Building. It was the weekend and Congress was not in session, so we didn't feel bad about parking in some senator's parking space. Besides, all the other tourists apparently had already thought of this. We just happened to get lucky and caught one of them leaving and was able to get the parking spot before someone else. We walked up the back steps of the Capitol Building amongst several armed security people, some of whom were apparently enjoying the day by casually walking their German shepherd dogs.

Washington Monument from the Capitol Building - Washington D.C.

After enjoying the scenery for a while, we proceeded around to the front of the building and through the tourist's entrance, which of course included a walk through a metal detector machine and the camera's trip through an X-ray machine. We spent several hours touring the various rooms and soaking up the nation's history. I had shot the remaining few exposures on the back steps so was unable to get any pictures inside. We did find a souvenir shop on the lower floor, but the film, like the souvenirs, was priced extremely high so I decided to wait until we returned some day with the proper equipment and an adequate amount of film.

Camera: Voigtlander Vito II 35mm Folding
Lens: Voigtlander Color-Skopar 50mm f/3.5
Film: Unknown 400
Photographer: Jim
Story: Jim

It's the middle of winter and it's 70 degrees F outside. Looks like the perfect day for visiting the National Zoological Park in Washington D.C. Since it's winter, there shouldn't be too many people there. Well, it was a nice day anyways. Apparently everyone else also decided that it would be a nice day to visit the zoo. When we arrived we found a sign in front of the entrance to the zoo parking lot indicating that the lot was full. Not only was the lot full, but every street parking spot was taken within a four block radius of the zoo. After driving around for awhile searching for a place to park, we finally found a spot in a residential neighborhood about four blocks away. After parking and walking the four blocks to the zoo entrance we discovered that the "lot full" sign was removed and they were now letting cars into the zoo parking lot. Oh well, at least we wouldn't have to pay to park and since admission to the zoo is free, it looked like it was going to be a fairly cheap visit.

Once inside, there are two trails available; the Olmsted Walk, and the Valley Trail. Since I was interested in seeing the big African animals, we decided to take the Olmsted Walk first. One of the first stops on the Olmsted Walk is to view the cheetahs and zebras. We found it interesting that the cheetahs and zebras were placed in adjacent areas with a wire fence separating them. The cheetahs were lounging near the fence that separated them from the zebras and the zebras didn't appear to be bothered by this. After a few moments of thought, we concluded that cheetahs, being a small cat and usually hunting alone, would not normally go after a full grown zebra in the wild. Anyways, both the cheetahs and the zebras looked unexcited. The next stop was the camel compound. Nothing unusual here, although Janet didn't realize how big camels are. The Panda was next. The zoo used to have two Pandas, but one of them died not too long ago. When we stopped by, the remaining Panda was asleep on the floor of its indoor area.

Unhappy looking Elephants - National Zoological Park, Washington D.C.

We proceeded on, passing by some kangaroos and a singing dog that was not singing and in fact looked more like someones house pet than an animal you would normally see in a zoo. Finally we reached the elephants. They were generally standing around watching the people watch them. One of the elephants apparently wanted to get back into the building that was in their compound since it was banging its head on the door of the building. Of course, I've done the same thing at various times for different reasons. Those of you that work on UNIX based computer systems know what I'm talking about.

Elephant - National Zoological Park, Washington D.C.

In general the elephants didn't look too happy. I suppose that having been taken out of a seemingly endless wilderness and placed in a confined area with people watching you all day could certainly have this affect. Maybe thats what we should do with human prisoners. Then again, maybe elephants are naturally unhappy looking creatures.

Extra-tall Giraffe - National Zoological Park, Washington D.C.

The giraffes, on the other hand, seemed quite happy to prance around the grounds. One of the tallest ones kept looking up as if to say "Look up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane......Well, you know the rest." It really is amazing how tall these animals are.

Furball American Bison - National Zoological Park, Washington D.C.

The American Bison looked like a huge fur ball the way it was laying in the field, except for the prominently displayed horns, of course. We did not find this to be a particularly attractive animal, although I've been told that they are much more appreciated when they are eaten than when they are observed.

Majestic Lion - National Zoological Park, Washington D.C.

The hippos and rhinos were not around, so we proceeded to the Small Mammal House and then to the Great Ape House. Both of these places were very crowded so it was difficult to see any animals except for the human variety. In the Great Ape House we were able to see two monkeys playing where one of them pushed the other off a small ledge which caused a major gasp to emanate from the human audience. Just when it looked like the monkey was about to be compressed into two dimensions on the floor, it reached out and grabbed a man made branch and swung around. This naturally amazed the humans......including us. It gave new meaning to the often use phrase "monkeying around".

We made our way to the lion compound. The king of the jungle lions were not very active. They seemed content to lay upright in the sun looking very majestic. I guess being king of the jungle is more in how a lion presents itself than what it actually does. Sounds like most politicians.

Teasing Tiger - National Zoological Park, Washington D.C.

Right around the corner were a couple of tigers. One of them seemed intent on climbing over a wall while the other one was enjoying entertaining the audience. The entertaining tiger would walk along the edge of the water filled moat and every time it stopped to turn around it would look at the water and move as if it were going to jump into the water. Then at the last second, it would turn and walk back the other way. This seemed to captivate the human audience as every time the tiger looked like it was about to jump into the water, someone would shout "He's going in, he's going in". He never did go in.

Tiger - National Zoological Park, Washington D.C.

After taking some time to look at some sleeping leopards, we emerged in the third section of the lion and tiger area. Here there was another tiger that was lighter in color than the other two that we saw previously. This one was not quite as entertaining. It would walk along the edge of the water, but also made use of the rest of its compound and generally seemed to ignore the people watching it.

Prairie Dog and visitor- National Zoological Park, Washington D.C.

Leaving the lions and tigers, we proceeded to a small prairie dog town. When we arrived, the prairie dogs had an out of town visitor. A gray squirrel decided to join the prairie dogs for dinner. The prairie dogs didn't seem to minds this, although they kept a watchful eye on the visitor. The human observers were fascinated by the fact that a squirrel was in with the prairie dogs.

Prairie Dog with tasty morsel- National Zoological Park, Washington D.C.

When the squirrel left, the prairie dogs, now having to deal with boredom, decided to watch the people that were watching them.

Bored Prairie Dog - National Zoological Park, Washington D.C.

This apparently was worse than boredom since some of them decided to turn away and continue eating while others, who were apparently more disgusted, decided to retreat to the their underground homes.

We had come to the end of the Olmsted Walk and decided to walk over to the Valley trail and follow it back to the zoo entrance. We stopped by to see the bears, but were only able to actually see the sloth-toed variety. The black bear was home but decided to spend its time pacing around inside. We did not see any sign of the kodiak bear.

Sunbathing Seal - National Zoological Park, Washington D.C.

Now firmly on the Valley Trail we decided to see what the seals were up to. The seals apparently thought that summer was upon us and that tanning conditions were perfect. They were laying on the rocks soaking up the afternoon rays, occasionally looking around to see what the humans were doing. Some of the humans appeared to be laying around the perimeter of the seal compound imitating the seals. We continued on up the trail to briefly watch the beavers who were doing very little.

Playful Otters - National Zoological Park, Washington D.C.

Just beyond the beavers we the otters. Otters always seem like such fun loving little creatures. We've seen them in other locations swimming and playing around in the water just having a grand old time. Today, the otters seemed to be having their usual fun, but on land instead of in the water.

We continued up the trail stopping to watch a bongo water the grass for what seemed like at least five minutes. Definitely a big bladdered animal. The next stop was to watch a very large condor eat something that smelled really bad, even from over twenty feet away. Although we found this bird interesting, we thought that the zoo cleaning crew would be much happier if we moved on since the smell of the birds food was starting to make us regurgitate. Our last stop was the bird area which includes a large bald eagle display in which the birds roost way up in the upper corner where you need a telescope to see them. Also in the area are some waterfowl ponds and a building which houses many different species of birds.

We found that several animals were not on display, most likely because of it being the middle of winter. The zoo is located north of downtown Washington D.C. on Connecticut Avenue. It is open every day of the year except December 25. The zoo opens at 9:00 AM and closing times vary; usually 6:00 PM in the winter months and 9:00 PM in the summer months. Naturally, no pets are allowed in the zoo, and feeding of the animals, except the human kind, is prohibited.

Camera: Yashica TL Electro X 35mm SLR
Lens: Soligor 35-200mm f/3.8-5.3 macro
Film: Kodak Gold 400
Photographer: Jim
Story: Jim