A Trip to the Zoo

Seeing Rusty's escape in the news this week reminded me that I haven't been to the National Zoo in almost a year! Before Mike and I moved to Virginia, I would visit all the time. The zoo was incredibly close to Mike's place, and conveniently located between Mike's office and house. Often I would drop in for lunch, then spend a few hours in the zoo on the way home. So yesterday I set out to visit again! Unfortunately, the red pandas were nowhere to be seen (Rusty is being kept inside until they secure the habit, and the female was hiding). I ended up exploring some corners of the zoo that I hadn't seen before, and didn't get sunburnt. Success!

Sloth Bear and her 6 month old cub. We weren't allowed up to the glass, since the cub has only been outside for a week or so. Sorry about the stupid frosted glass design...

New elephant (I think his name was Bozie?).

Obligatory panda shot. This reminds me of the way my sister's cat sleeps...

The beavers were really active, and it was fun to watch them drag branches around!

I love that the National Zoo is free! I'll definitely have to go back again soon so I can creep on the red pandas... Also, remind me to NEVER chaperone a field trip to the zoo. There were about 5000 camps there, and none of the chaperones were having fun keeping the kids together and engaged!

A Visit from Australia!

In case you didn't know, I spent spring of 2009 studying abroad in Brisbane, Australia. When I got back, I kind of talked about it ALL OF THE TIME. Because it was amazing.  I made some incredible friends, had a lot of fun, saw some amazing things, and even went to my college classes (mostly). I'm pretty crappy at keeping in touch with people, but I've managed to keep up with one friend, who stopped by during his month-long visit to the States.  Duncan was nice enough to come to school with me and answer all kinds of weird questions about Australia. We hit up the Pennsylvania Farm Show on one day, and then drove down to Washington D.C. and went sightseeing.  Ohmygosh, it's exhausting to be a tourist! Walking around for hours in sub-freezing temperatures counts as a workout, right?

Hyperbolic Coral Reef

Over spring break, I went to D.C.  Partially to visit my boyfriend, but partially to see a knit/crocheted coral reef in the Natural History Smithsonian.  I didn't know anything about the project, just that my sister had seen it a few weeks before.  But I wondered why people would spend hours upon hours creating such a thing!  It actually is a quite interesting project, and I invite you to read more later at their website.

My first view of the reef! Delightfully chaotic.

Close up of the main display: Many kinds of coral, starfish, etc.

Two sisters from Queensland, Australia started the project in 2005.  It is based on a special kind of crochet discovered by a mathematician that involves doing variations of a simple pattern in order to produce endless new shapes.

My favorite picture. I love how the jellyfish hangs down.

There were several parts to the display.  One was a bleached reef, and one was a "toxic reef," made from trash.  Both demonstrated the damage being done to coral reefs.

You're not seeing monochromatic pictures! This is the bleached reef.  I loved the silver tubes in the middle.

Another close-up of the bleached reef.

For information on how to make your own coral reefs (i.e. buy their book), click here.
If you'd like to start a satellite reef to the project, look here.

Washed out picture of me in front of the reef.

I'll share the rest of my spring break adventures (and a knitting update) in my next post.