Cockadoodle Zoo

There is a pretty cool perk to being a member of FONZ (Friends of the National Zoo) - you get to visit the zoo when it's closed to the general public. The drawback - that time is 7:30 to 10 on a Saturday morning. Still, we made the trip from Bristow this morning to check it out. There are two types of people that attend this event - parents w/ their kids, and photographers. Oddly enough, I fit both categories. The photographers, though, put me to shame. Any of you who have looked at me funny, or though, my gosh, why is he carrying that gigantic thing with him - wouldn't believe the gear that folks had in there today. I was jealous. Still, we had a great time. The most active animals, and most interesting to Ryan were the Gibbons. Ryan got a kick out of watching them swing around.
As you can see, the bucket hat has become a summer fixture. It's almost too small though so we're going to be on the lookout for a new one. There were also free snacks - coffee, juice and Krispy Kremes...yum...Of course, no zoo trip would have been complete without a visit to my buddies. I actually got Lisa to agree to give me 5 minutes w/ them just for pictures. Not bad when you consider that Ryan had been up for almost 5 hours without a nap...