playgroup outings

Summer and Rosemary have been very busy with playgroup outings - we've had 3 in a row.

2 weeks ago, we went to the Natural History museum and saw the mammals and the dinosaurs. We were going to go up to the insects, but the kids were getting bored trapped in the strollers. We weren't letting them run around because it was too crowded due to spring break tourists. So we went out on the Mall and had a picnic lunch, and let them run around outside for awhile before we headed home.

Last week, we went to Hains Point to see the cherry blossoms. The point is where the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers join, so it's really windy there. It was cold, but we let the kids play on the playground for awhile anyway. There was a free shuttle bus from Hains Point, where all the parking is, over to the Jefferson Memorial, where they are not allowing parking during the Cherry Blossom Festival. The Jefferson Memorial is where the main cherry trees are and the big thing to do is to walk all the way around the Tidal Basin in the trees. It's fine to do once, or during the week. If you go on a weekend during the peak blossom time, it's so crowded that you literally have to push your way through the people. There are plenty of blossoming trees to see elsewhere, like, oh, Hains Point! Anyway, we rode the shuttle bus in a circle and didn't get off it until we got back to where we started. It was nice and warm in the bus, out of the wind, and we could see the blossoms just fine.

Today we went to the zoo. It was overcast and rather chilly but the animals were out and moving. The kids thought that was great. Summer is getting a lot more excited about the zoo now that she's a little older. She loved watching the "panna bear!" (pandas) and the tiger, which she kept calling a lion ("ly-lin") and saying "Raarrr!" It was really cute. We also saw lots of monkeys. There's a toddler play area that we discovered by the children's petting zoo - no one knew it was there, but we do now! It was great - it was blocked off enough that the kids were pretty well contained, so we let them run and run and run for over an hour just right there. While we were at the toddler area, the clouds finally cleared out and it warmed up quite nicely. We had lunch there, and then everyone headed home. We were gone for quite awhile - we left this morning around 9:30 and didn't get home until 3. Summer slept pretty much the entire way home in the stroller and Rosemary slept a lot of it as well. I'm beat because I just walked close to 4 miles - to the Metro and back at both ends, and the zoo itself is about a mile from one end to the other. Of course the petting zoo, where we headed, is at the opposite end of the zoo from the entrance so I walked the WHOLE THING. Summer gets to watch a couple of movies this afternoon while I recover enough to make dinner. I didn't get any pictures because the battery on the camera died right when we got there, of course. But the zoo is close and free, so we'll be back again in the next few weeks before the weather really gets hot.

Next week for playgroup, we're just going to the park. Three outings in a row is plenty.