Going to the Zoo

Now that Jonathan is old enough to understand what is going on and his ability to get into EVERYTHING is here, I've been trying to find activities in the Baltimore/DC area that are toddler friendly and fun for him and I to do!
On Memorial Day, Joe and I decided to venture down to the DC Zoo.  We were originally goilng to park at Joe's work which is a few blocks from the zoo and then take the metro in.  On our way down, Joe mentioned parking was free on holidays and weekends, so I suggested driving a little closer to the zoo to see if there was any parking available.  Sure enough, we found a spot about one block up from the zoo!!  We sunsucreened Jonathan up and I let him walk down the sidewalk.  He was having a blast watching the cars zoom down the street and checking out what was under everyone's hedges.

Strutting his Stuff

 Check out what is under these hedges mom!!

We didn't know where to start, so we decided to see the pandas and elephants first.

Then Jonathan led the way- he wanted to go see the bird house with all the different kinds of birds in them.  He loves watching the birds at Miss Kiki's (his daycare) house.  I think this was his favorite part of the zoo.

Jonathan telling Daddy he wants to go over here.

Excited about the birds.

 Then we left the birdhouse and made our way to all of the outside birds.

Mommy and Jonathan were twins!!

Look at the Birds!!

Checkin out the flamingos.

 After we saw every. single. bird. We went to see the gorillas.  It was cool, because there was a gorilla sitting right in front of us eating... however, Jonathan saw a little brown bird fly into the Gorilla's area- so he was much more excited about that.

With the gorillas

Not sure how he feels about this...

Wanting to touch the gorilla.

 After the gorillas we made our way to the Lions and Tigers.  One was out yawning.

After the Lions we went to the area where they had the sea lions.  We got to get up close to the glass and could see them swimming under water.  Jonathan really enjoyed it when they swam close- and would point and squeal everytime they did.  In the same area there was a little "tidal pool."  There was a little bit of water in the "pool" with a couple of little fountains.  Every few minutes a "wave" would rush in and fill the tidal pool up to Jonathan's knees.  He had soo much fun there.  You can even see on the video how excited he gets before the wave comes.

 

This is a video of Jonathan enjoying the Little Tidal Pool

 

After playing in the tidal pool, we passed the carousel- so of course we HAD to go on it!  Jonathan wasn't as thrilled as I was I think...

 

After our adventure at the zoo- Little Man passed out!!  He was sooo exhausted!  The zoo was such a fun adventure and easy (and cheap!) to get to- we'll definitely have to make a trip down to DC more often!!