One of the better small decisions that I’ve made in the course of this trip was to use my MP3 player during my tour of the National zoo. Mojave 3, Hammock, and Sigur Ros provided the perfect soundtrack to wandering bemused amongst the animals and the humans and their young, undisturbed by the constant and annoying chatter around me.

Lion statue from the bridge near the zoo

Misanthropic, perhaps, but listening to grade-school field trip explanations of taxonomy gets old after, well, grade school. Instead, I got a few hours of the beauty of nature, accompanied by beautiful music.

Given the opportunity and the means, I will one day acquire a red panda. Just so you know.

I didn’t expect to meet an old friend when I got to the zoo, but there he was. Uncle Beazeley, the triceratops, hanging out in a patch of foliage by the reptile house.

Surprise brontosaurus

I used to play on him when he made his home on the Mall by the Natural History Museum, when I was really, really much smaller than I am today. He still looks huge, though. He was apparently moved to the zoo in 1994, and they don’t let people play on him anymore.

The zoo is magnificent, of course, even though a lot of it is under construction and a lot of exhibits are empty. It occurred to met that an unscrupulous parent might easily convince their child that certain animals were invisible to them, leaving the child with a lifelong phobia of unseen predators that everyone else is aware of.

I found myself fascinated by textures throughout my tour. The star-shelled tortoise, snakeskin, the feathers of the kori. I was able to get a few close-up shots, thanks to how the zoo is laid out. Unbelievable how beautiful and complex the patterns can get. I’m hoping to use them as drawing inspiration.

I’m experiencing my usual post-zoo fugue, though. After spending hours wandering amongst animals, admiring their pelts and their musuclature, their feathers and their mannerisms, I can’t help but look at human beings in the same detached way for a while. We’re a strange species. Fun to watch, though.

I find myself drawn back to the National Gallery again and again. I’ve been here for a couple of hours almost every day I’ve been here, and I keep happening upon more exhibits that I never knew existed. The museum is open late, so I tend to wander over here at about the time the other museums close. I grab a drink and a snack, hang out in the courtyard and blog for a while, and then wander through the exhibits, taking my time and marveling at the marvelous.

Which is where I’m posting this from now.