Family Reunion: Day 2

On Monday morning we went to the National Zoo.  The kids did great until around noon when everyone was ready to go home and take a nap. 

Huge male tortoise

 The gorilla family gave us quite a show -- right in front of the glass, and even making us jump by pounding on it once.

Following the elephant tracks down the elephant trail. For some reason, there was no elephant show that day, so we just looked at him and ate some lunch in the elephant exploration zone.

Getting up close to watch the Sea Lions do their tricks.

Monday night we took everyone who wanted to go on a night tour of the monuments. It is a great time to go because it is not too hot, there are plenty of free parking spots, and not too many other people.

We started off walking through the Korean War Memorial and on to the Lincoln Memorial.

Then we walked past the Vietnam Memorial where Uncle C demonstrated how to make a rubbing of one of the names.

Next we walked down to the WWII memorial.

Then we walked through the new Martin Luther King Memorial and along the tidal basin until we got to my favorite memorial, the FDR Memorial. I love all the quotes about self reliance (during the depression) and peace (during/post WWII).  The way the waterfalls and rock formations are lit is beautiful.

We were all good and tired by the end of running around all the monuments.