Pandas, and cheetahs, and owls, oh my

We decided to take a short trip to the National Zoo today. It's only a short metro ride from our neighborhood, and it's free. It was supposed to be a moderately hot, instead of deathly hot, day today, so we took advantage. It was still uncomfortable outside, but good fun nonetheless. The crowds were definitely out, but the zoo is so big that we didn't feel too extremely cramped. We usually avoid tourist attractions on the weekend, but we were fine. We didn't see everything there was to see there, but we made sure to see the famous Panda habitat they have. They have a 3 year old cub that is all the rage, because it was born in the zoo. It was actually conceived artificially and there is this whole exhibit on how they did it. I have to say, it's not unlike the human process. They even track her hormones for all to see. Very interesting. I remember when the cub was born. It was not long after I moved here, and it was all anyone talked about for a while. I guess it's big news since there are not many to go around. But I'm glad everything worked out for the panda family. The ones pictured are the mom and the dad.
I read that they open the grouds at 6 am. That is what I'm talking about. Anyone want to join me for an early stroll through the zoo? I bet a lot of animals are out since it's not as hot. I'm in.Anway, we had other stuff to do today, and since we didn't have to pay a dime to get in, we decided to save the rest of the zoo for another trip. We live so close, why make our feet ache, and stay in the blazing heat (though the mango passion slurpee on the walk home helped with that quite a bit), when we can just make the short ride another time. Maybe sometime in the fall. I'm sure it's a nice thing to do during that time of year. And we know they have Thursday night musical concerts we're going to try to attend one of these days.Sorry, we were too hot to make any of the pictures of us very interesting.