Monday was a trip to the National Zoo. And the ape above was continually having fun with the people on the other side of the plexiglass shield. The fellow above would retreat to the back of his "cage" for a while, then run up to the plexiglass, make a loud noise by banging on the plexiglass, then returning to the back of his area. You should have seen the reactions children were making as he rushed up to scare them. He was having fun with us, and we were enjoying it.
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This Zoo visit would be the first one for me in DC. And I was glad that RQS made all the arrangements for us to have times entry passes, as I never would have thought of this.
We took the Metro to the Zoo's neighborhood, then walked the 4 long uphill blocks to the zoo. Once inside, we followed the path downhill to several exhibits including Cheetahs, Pandas, Lions, Elephants, and the Great Apes. Most of apes couldn't give a hoot about the people looking at them. But when one looks at these apes carefully, one can see the thread of common genetic ancestry that binds our species together. (I'd love the word "humanity" here, but it wouldn't be appropriate to use it for another primate. Yet, one can see a certain something in their eyes for which I don't have adequate words to describe.) For me, seeing these apes was the highlight of this visit. Yet, when I think of them, I wonder if they feel "caged" being in this artificial environment.
When we got to the end of the Zoo's downward path, we found out there was no shuttle to bring us back to the top of the hill. Although a shuttle was marked on the zoo's maps, it stopped running because of the pandemic, and no one knew when or if the shuttle would return. So we hoofed it back ip the hill and to the exit, taking breaks along the way to cool off.
After we left the zoo, we went to a restaurant I noticed on the trek to the zoo. If you're ever in DC, go to this restaurant (Hot N Juicy Crawfish) and order the "Get your feet wet" combo. You won't be disappointed. Sadly for us, their Manhattan outpost has closed. So we'll have to revisit this place the next time we're in DC.) Unlike our disappointment with the prior night's Ethiopian restaurant, this restaurant was "Fan F'ing Tastic!" YUM!!!! The two of us chowed down on a bucketful of tasty seafood, and got out of the place for $60. How could you beat that?
On the way out, we found that RQS had lost her cell phone. After she started looking for it inside the restaurant, I decided to ring the phone. After a couple of tries, someone at the zoo answered it. So it was back to the zoo to pick up the phone. Arriving at the gate, we used the intercom to call the park police, and we were driven to the park police station to pick up the phone, then back for us to exit the park. This incident showed us that we could work well together in a moderately stressful time, as we could keep our cool when things could get totally screwed up.
