Friday, June 27, 2008

The National Zoo

A couple weekends ago, Nic and I ventured out in the heat/humidity to check out the National Zoo, which like most of the DC attractions is FREE!! We're both easily entertained by animals, and it proved to be a great day! Here are some pictures from our little adventure.


The lions and tigers didn't seem to mind the heat.




Our favorites were the monkeys. They're so much like people that it's fun to sit and watch them.



The hungry elephant standing behind Nic was one stinky lady.

America's Pastime

Nic LOVES baseball. Lucky for him, I love going to baseball games. Although I am definitely a sports fan, it's not the actual game of baseball that I think is the most fun. I grew up outside of Milwaukee, and as a kid our family would go to Brewers games every once in awhile. I recall loving the tailgating part before (and sometimes after) the games, but not really liking the baseball part at all. I'm sure people who call other states home will disagree with me, but I really must say Wisconsinites are the best tailgaters. The food is often much more than just hot dogs and burgers, and the atmosphere is even better. I'd be content to go just to tailgate and not even make it to the actual game. 


The fun is not limited to the tailgating at Brewers games. First, there's Bernie the Brewer.  At the old County Stadium, whenever the Brewers got a home run, he'd slide down from his little house into a mug of beer.  At the new stadium, he has a dugout and a slide, but sadly, no mug of beer.


What I used to think was the best thing in baseball is the Sausage Races.  As you can see below, guys dressed up as various types of sausage [Brat, Polish, Italian, Hot Dog, (Chorizo is new, and not pictured below as I've never seen him either)] race around the field at the bottom of the sixth inning.  The sausage races make me so happy!!!
You may wonder how this relates to my life now. Well...the Washington Nationals have something similar that I think is even better than the sausages....the Presidents Race!!!  
Your favorite faces from Mount Rushmore run from center field down the first base line  every home game.   Silly antics occur with each running of the presidents.   On Sunday, we saw George hip-check Teddy into the wall...hilarious.  Also, in the 2+ years of these races, Teddy has never won.  He appears to be the laziest and most easily distracted, but entertaining all around.   Even though the Nationals are TERRIBLE, the games are always fun.  

Here are some pics from our latest trip to Nationals Park:





No more excuses from me!!

The other day Nic and I were talking about blogs, and he seemed genuinely surprised to hear that I had one. I swear I must have mentioned it at one point, and his memory must be wrong, but it got me thinking that I REALLY needed to add something. I can make lots of excuses for not posting, the biggest two of which are (1) my life is just not that interesting to write about—it’s a fairly standard combo of work/play/sleep, but I don’t have kids who do silly/cute things or other such interesting topics for blogging and (2) I just don’t take lots of pictures to make what I do more appealing for other people.

Luckily, Nicholas is [finally] here and, as he is an artist, he quite enjoys taking photographs...so that negates my second excuse. I also realized we do lots of fun stuff. We live in Maryland just outside D.C. and visit cool places at least once a week. I have new goal to post at least once a week to share all the fun we’re having in our nation’s capital. Enjoy!