See those monkeys up there? Yeah, real monkeys!

Yesterday, Rick and I went to the DC Zoo (National Zoological Park), which is a Smithsonion so it was FREE!

I’m always game for free and after living here for 6 years, I figured it was past time I visited the zoo.

Though I have a reputation as not being an “animal person,” I still had a lot of fun. Its been years since I visited a zoo and there are some crazy little creatures there. Of course I enjoyed checking out the animals from Africa most of all 🙂

It was a beautiful day and finally, not super hot — though with the sun it got pretty toasty. I’m pretty sure I’ve not been around that many children — ever, as well. But, it was cute seeing their looks of wonder at so many animals.

My favorite part was seeing the lions. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a lion before now that I’m thinking about it. The male lion was just absolutely gorgeous and I seriously wanted to go watch “The Lion King.” (Of course that’s my favorite Disney movie!)

I made a little collage of some of the fun animals I saw, including flamingos, jumbo turtles, howler monkeys, massive iguanas and elephants:

I love the little day trips you can take in the DC area. Rick and I have done quite a few things around here…hiking Billy Goat, spending the day in Annapolis and Baltimore, going to Luray Caverns. I need to make  list of all the places we’ve yet to visit. It’s kind of our thing and I love it.

Oh yeah and this is like his signature pic of the day 🙂

Weekends are kind of the best thing ever. I remember when I had jobs at restaurants and hotels and I just longed for a job with regular hours. I can tell you what, I have never taken that for granted! In the back of my mind, I always have a small fear that someday I’ll have to go back to working odd hours. Fingers crossed I don’t!

After the zoo, we stopped by a little tiny ice cream store called Sugar Magnolia. It caught my eye because they advertised int he window that they’d been featured on “O” Magazine. Well, I had to see what this was all about.

Apparently, their specialty item was the maple bacon ice cream waffle sandwich. That sounded good but not what I was looking for at the time…I opted for salted caramel ice cream. 

It was….so good. If Sugar Magnolia wasn’t in such an inconvenient spot from where I live, I’d definitely go there all of the time. If you are looking for something new to try in the area, though, I highly recommend making the trek to Cleveland Park, you will not be disappointed!