A's four-day birthday celebrations - Thursday
On Thursday it was A's fourteenth birthday. He and I awokened at 7 a.m., when SR and LR called him from Israel on Skype to wish him happy birthday. After waiting an hour or so for S to wake up (I used the time to make brown sugar cupcakes for our breakfast), I gave A the present I had made him: hand warmers for next winter. S gave A a birthday card. Much to A's disgust, ADC was away in Kansas at a conference. This often happens; very unfortunately for A, he was born at the height of conference season, and one of his parents is almost always away on his actual birthday. This was the the reason for the four-day birthday celebrations, and why he only got his real present on the solstice.
Next stop in the birthday celebrations was spending the day at the National Zoo. Both boys were very excited to go, but at the end, as we were walking back to the Metro, in a burst of local patriotism, both declared that the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem was better. Actually, they may be right - ADC says that the Biblical Zoo is in fact considered one of the best zoos in the world, and it certainly seemed to be bigger than the National Zoo. We began with the cheetahs, who are much smaller than one would think in real life. There was a volunteer docent there, who talked to us about the cheetahs for a bit. S asked her if there was a Noah's Ark at the zoo like there is at the Biblical Zoo; she was rather confused until I explained that Noah's Ark is the name of the visitor centre there! She laughed and told S that there were several visitor centres.
It was very hot and humid in the Zoo, and I felt sorry for all the animals that had adapted to cooler climes. It turned out that many of them had strategies for copying with the weather: for example, the pandas. The pandas are undoubtedly the Zoo's strongest point, and the boys were very disappointed not to see them in the outside enclosures. I suggested that we might see them in the indoor viewing section, and indeed, each (air-conditioned) room there held a larger or smaller panda lying on the floor, clearly seeking relief from the heat. There was a lot of educational/informational material on the corridor wall that ran parallel to the pandas' rooms, and eventually we reached the behavioural observation station: two people in white coats behind a glass wall, looking at a wall full of screens showing the pandas from various angles. S asked why they were watching the pandas so closely, since they weren't doing anything, and had difficulty accepting my explanation that they were watching closely so as not to miss it if they did do something!
We continued after the pandas to the bird house, which was a little underwhelming. I guess that seeing birds at Kruger Park spoils you for life. Or else the various birds - mostly South and North American - were just not that interesting, compared to birdwatching in nature anywhere. The latter was definitely A's opinion.
The Zoo has a main drag, and after the bird house we went back to it, and basically walked along to to great cats. On the way estopped to look at the American bison. The Zoo has a female, and she is immense. The mind boggles at the idea of the male being almost double in size! She was sitting in the shade looking shaggy and miserable, and I was glad to see that the elephant - next on our path - were Asian, i.e. used to humid climates. Only one of them was outside when we were at the enclosure and she was doing all the things that elephants are supposed to do: eating hay, brushing herself down with hay, squirting water on herself. The other elephants could be seen from inside the former Elephant House, now the Elephant Community Center. No wonder A loves elephants, they always look like they are smiling! He bought another elephant for his collection at the Zoo store: a turquoise soapstone one made in Kenya.
We continued past the seals and sea lions, the otters and the grey wolves to the great cat display. Like the grey wolves, the Sumatran tiger was pacing - but he spent some of the time swimming back and forth in the moat that surrounded the enclosure. I think everyone who saw that envied the tiger in that moment, as it gradually became hotter and more oppressive. The lions and lionesses (in sex-segregated enclosures) were gnawing on bones at that time. One of the lions had an extremely impressive mane, and sat facing the lionesses and growling. I wonder what he was thinking. By that time we were starting to get a bit tired, so we went quickly to see the orangoutangs and gorillas. I always find great apes in zoos very sad, and this was no exception. At least they seem to be kept stimulated with daily visits to the Think Tank where they can play computer games, among other things.
Rain had been forecast for most of the day, so we took raincoats to the zoo as a successful prophylactic measure. It began raining just before we reached the Takoma metro station on the way back, and there was a break while were walking homewards. No sooner had I closed the front door behind us and the heavens opened. It rained very very hard for nearly two hours, stopping just in time for us to eat the first birthday meal, pizza at Roscoe's, followed by gelato at Dolci. At Roscoes we sat viewing the street, and saw the cook go out to pick herbs from the boxes outside. A and S found this very exciting.
As they say at the end of the TV programmes the boys watch on Netflix, to be continued ...
Next stop in the birthday celebrations was spending the day at the National Zoo. Both boys were very excited to go, but at the end, as we were walking back to the Metro, in a burst of local patriotism, both declared that the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem was better. Actually, they may be right - ADC says that the Biblical Zoo is in fact considered one of the best zoos in the world, and it certainly seemed to be bigger than the National Zoo. We began with the cheetahs, who are much smaller than one would think in real life. There was a volunteer docent there, who talked to us about the cheetahs for a bit. S asked her if there was a Noah's Ark at the zoo like there is at the Biblical Zoo; she was rather confused until I explained that Noah's Ark is the name of the visitor centre there! She laughed and told S that there were several visitor centres.
It was very hot and humid in the Zoo, and I felt sorry for all the animals that had adapted to cooler climes. It turned out that many of them had strategies for copying with the weather: for example, the pandas. The pandas are undoubtedly the Zoo's strongest point, and the boys were very disappointed not to see them in the outside enclosures. I suggested that we might see them in the indoor viewing section, and indeed, each (air-conditioned) room there held a larger or smaller panda lying on the floor, clearly seeking relief from the heat. There was a lot of educational/informational material on the corridor wall that ran parallel to the pandas' rooms, and eventually we reached the behavioural observation station: two people in white coats behind a glass wall, looking at a wall full of screens showing the pandas from various angles. S asked why they were watching the pandas so closely, since they weren't doing anything, and had difficulty accepting my explanation that they were watching closely so as not to miss it if they did do something!
We continued after the pandas to the bird house, which was a little underwhelming. I guess that seeing birds at Kruger Park spoils you for life. Or else the various birds - mostly South and North American - were just not that interesting, compared to birdwatching in nature anywhere. The latter was definitely A's opinion.
The Zoo has a main drag, and after the bird house we went back to it, and basically walked along to to great cats. On the way estopped to look at the American bison. The Zoo has a female, and she is immense. The mind boggles at the idea of the male being almost double in size! She was sitting in the shade looking shaggy and miserable, and I was glad to see that the elephant - next on our path - were Asian, i.e. used to humid climates. Only one of them was outside when we were at the enclosure and she was doing all the things that elephants are supposed to do: eating hay, brushing herself down with hay, squirting water on herself. The other elephants could be seen from inside the former Elephant House, now the Elephant Community Center. No wonder A loves elephants, they always look like they are smiling! He bought another elephant for his collection at the Zoo store: a turquoise soapstone one made in Kenya.
We continued past the seals and sea lions, the otters and the grey wolves to the great cat display. Like the grey wolves, the Sumatran tiger was pacing - but he spent some of the time swimming back and forth in the moat that surrounded the enclosure. I think everyone who saw that envied the tiger in that moment, as it gradually became hotter and more oppressive. The lions and lionesses (in sex-segregated enclosures) were gnawing on bones at that time. One of the lions had an extremely impressive mane, and sat facing the lionesses and growling. I wonder what he was thinking. By that time we were starting to get a bit tired, so we went quickly to see the orangoutangs and gorillas. I always find great apes in zoos very sad, and this was no exception. At least they seem to be kept stimulated with daily visits to the Think Tank where they can play computer games, among other things.
Rain had been forecast for most of the day, so we took raincoats to the zoo as a successful prophylactic measure. It began raining just before we reached the Takoma metro station on the way back, and there was a break while were walking homewards. No sooner had I closed the front door behind us and the heavens opened. It rained very very hard for nearly two hours, stopping just in time for us to eat the first birthday meal, pizza at Roscoe's, followed by gelato at Dolci. At Roscoes we sat viewing the street, and saw the cook go out to pick herbs from the boxes outside. A and S found this very exciting.
As they say at the end of the TV programmes the boys watch on Netflix, to be continued ...