Washington DC in springtime

As I went out on a few shopping errands this morning, I realized that (despite the forecast for rain) it was an unusually nice day at 60*F with the sun shining and little wind. Why not head for the zoo? So I went home and my husband and I unloaded the groceries from the minivan, loaded it back up with the girls, and headed for the National Zoo.

The only problem was that I wasn't the only one with this idea - all the parking lots at the zoo were full. :( So we drove down Rock Creek Parkway, past hillsides of daffodils in bloom, along the Potomac River past the Tidal Basin and parked. Then we strapped the girls into the double babyjogger and went for a nice long walk in the warm spring air.

Unfortunately the cherry blossoms have not quite emerged yet, but it was still a lovely day. We strolled south along the Potomac River. Catherine pointed up at the airplanes taking off and landing at Reagan National across the river and made some sounds like "awa". We came across some ducks in the river to point out to her, and threw crumbs from her cookie to them, and she made her favorite "kak kak kak" quacking imitation.

Then we headed around the Tidal Basin, not yet quite as thronged with tourists as it will be when the cherry blossoms burst open, but still with quite a few people out enjoying the day. We finished our walk by going through the FDR Monument and letting Catherine toddle around there and took the girls' photo with the little bronze dog Fala. Catherine splashed her hands in one of the fountains as she made the sign for "water" and asked for a "bath", but mean Mom said no. She compensated by chasing after another duck. (We tried out our new baby leash on her and it's a godsend). Elisabeth got to crawl around in the grass and practice her walking.

I'll be heading back down there again in two days for the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler on Sunday, one of the biggest races of the year in the local running scene. I hope that the blooms begin to open very quickly with this novel warm weather, they're always lovely!