A Day at the Zoo......

Got into Washington DC today after a wild morning. Sometime after 2:00am, the electricity went off in our area and needless to say I overslept because the alarm clock didn't go off. My saving grace was that my flight was delayed by 45 minutes so I still made my flight.

I had the pleasure of sitting next to one of Iowa's Congressmen Leonard Boswell for the flight and when I told him that the only place I hadn't seen in all of my travels to DC was the Capitol, he took my name, pulled out his card, circled a number and wrote the name of one of his staffers on it and told me to call her today or tomorrow and get a private tour set up for Thursday after my meetings end. SCORE!

He told me I could stash my luggage in his office and then after the tour, they would get me a taxi to get me back to the airport for my late afternoon flight home.

He made the mistake of asking me how I thought things were going in Washington, so of course, I couldn't let the opportunity pass on having a captive audience with one of our U.S. House of Representatives and we had 2 hours to kill, so I told him what I agreed with and what I didn't. I think he appreciated my candor.

Situations like this doesn't happen very often and for those that know me well, I'm not one to pass something like that by.

Spent most of the day at the National Zoo which was just a short 3 block walk from my hotel. Here's some photos from today:


The Entrance


Zebra


Tian Tian


Lion


Bald Eagle - can you believe that shot?


Anteater - she was carrying her baby on her back


The O-line


The Orangutans can swing from the eight towers on vine like wires


Capybara


Elephant


Elephants


Prairie Dog - he/she posed for me


Tiger

I also took some photos outside of the hotel I'm staying at. The grounds are gorgeous as you can see from these photos:







And lastly, this is the view from my hotel room. The National Cathedral.


Hope you enjoyed my photo tour!