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I am a retired English teacher and department head, the mother of three grand mother of four, and have been married to the same man for 53 years, two years after we met at college. I taught in both middle and high schools as I really love teens and in-betweens. I was also a certified Lamaze instructor, and for a short time a volunteer chaplain at Howard County General Hospital. I am a two-time cancer survivor, ovarian (2003), and breast (2019) I was born in South Philadelphia and grew up in the 'burbs with great parents, in a bilingual household. I love soft pretzels and cheesesteaks, the Phillies, the Eagles, the Orioles, and sometimes the Ravens. I love being Mom, Aunt Kathy, Nona Kathy (Kath), and Teacher. I spend a lot of time in my gardens in the spring and summer, and in the winter I plan what I'm going to plant. I also am an avid reader, cook, photographer, lover of languages, music, and four-footed furries.

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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

At last! We Needed Sunscreen!!!

It was obvious on Sunday that it had been a long, gray, and raw winter.  The traffic to DC was impossible to navigate through.  Add to the joy of the first predicted warm day of 2013, were the cherry blossoms, ecstatic with the warm sunny weather, and the scheduled Cherry Blossom 10K.

My husband, who had worked in DC for years, and knows the roads well, tried to get into the National Zoo from the back end -- along Rock Creek Park, which was closed.  After making three illegal u-turns, riding across a medial strip ("Hold on and nobody complain") we were the last car allowed in the lot at the bottom of the hill.

We were there to celebrate Ariana's fifth birthday.  So hard to believe.

We had a wonderful day, walked at least six miles around the zoo and Ariana never complained once.  What a trooper!

The lions were happy to be out...




As were the turtles...


This ape enjoyed his hammock


And this one gave a show with his cape...


This big boy enjoyed sunning himself...





9 comments:

Susan @ A Slice of My Life said...

Such fun pictures! I haven't been to the zoo in forever.

A big happy birthday to Ariana!

Linda Reeder said...

That first lion pic is wonderful!
I fear your sun and warmth was short lived. I heard on the national news that another cold front was hitting the northeast again.

Forsythia said...

Lazy time at the zoo. We left MD for the weekend, with buds furled tightly, and came home to a gloriously sprung spring.

Anonymous said...

What great shots! Glad you all had a nice time at the National Zoo! Hope to be there in August.

Kay said...

Happy Birthday, Ariana! What a wonderful day at the zoo!

Gilly said...

Love those photos - that first lion looks as though he is deep in conversation with you!

It is definitely warmer, here though rain threatens and its blowing hard! Don't need sunscreen yet, but its good to abandon thermal vests!

Cheryl said...

Great zoo pictures. I love turtles on logs. Can you get the weather to turn warm again?

PS...I would have been hiding out in the backseat with my eyes closed for the U-turns :-)

Cheryl said...

Great zoo pictures. I love turtles on logs. Can you get the weather to turn warm again?

PS...I would have been hiding out in the backseat with my eyes closed for the U-turns :-)

Cobalt Violet said...

Fantastic pictures Kathy!!!
What a nice day! Don't you love that, when you are doing an outing and it's all gorgeously perfect? That just happened to me at the LA Arboretum a couple of weeks ago.

Happy Birthday, 5 year old! :)