On a beautiful April morning, we decided to head to the National Zoo.  While the grounds open at 6:00 am, the rest of the buildings open at 10:00 am.  Chris thought that if we arrived around 10:30 am that we could find a place to park on the street and that the zoo wouldn’t be too crowded - oops.  All street parking was completely gone, and the zoo was packed.  However, because the area was so large, the crowds didn’t seem to matter so much.  Chris said that he had never seen so many strollers in one spot before.  I guess that lots of people decided that going to the zoo on a sunny Saturday morning made lots of sense. 

We had a good visit, even though we only saw about 25% of the park. The restaurant was pretty good and very inexpensive for a zoo. 

Erik and Chris petting a pony

On our way up to DC, we stopped by the Natural Bridge (http://www.naturalbridgeva.com/), which was pretty cool to see.  Thomas Jefferson purchased this site from King George III in order to preserve it for all to see. 

We had the chance to visit an interactive railroad museum in Chattanooga, which Erik and Joseph both enjoyed (http://www.tvrail.com/).

They have a pretty good museum, and then they let you take a six mile trip to their repair shop and back.

This is the locomotive we rode on

A very excited Erik reboards the train

Joseph and Grandma getting off the train with the Engineer and Conductor’s help

You ever use a variable speed leaf blower to get a fire going.