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Saturday was expected to be rainy, but it looked like the worst was supposed to be later in the day. So we pressed on with our initial plan, which was to head to the National Zoo to meet up with

liquidmistletoe. But first I had a stop in mind...

In looking around for interesting little spots to visit, I came across Jones Point Park. It's literally at the very southern tip of the original diamond of Washington, D.C., and still contains one of the original boundary stones placed by Maj. Andrew Ellicott's survey team in 1791--in fact, it's the very southernmost stone, marking the southern corner of the D.C. diamond. I thought that was fascinating. It was a very neat little park, with a playground and riverfront--the girls liked it a lot, and would have liked it even more on a nicer day!

The parking lot for the park was right along this overpass--the girls love playing on big rocks, so this patch of stones held their interest for a bit.

It was a VERY foggy morning along the Potomac.

Here you can vaguely see a structure through the fog. That would be...

This! It's a lighthouse, one of the few remaining riverine lighthouses in the US, and the only remaining riverine lighthouse in the Chesapeake Bay region. It was originally built in 1855, and decommissioned in 1926. It suffered severe neglect and vandalism in the subsequent years, even being used for target practice during WWII. Thankfully it was restored in the 60s and looks pretty darn good today.

Only 36 of the original DC boundary stones remain, but others have been replaced with modern versions. We had fun hopping back and forth between Maryland and Virginia and DC. :)

But the girls really liked the Potomac riverfront, because look, more big rocks! Did I mention it was foggy?

The aforementioned original southernmost boundary stone is protected under this cap--I wish you could see the stone through the glass in the photo, but it was definitely down there!

The silver lining about the dismal weather and gloomy forecast, I presumed, was that the Zoo should be fairly deserted, and parking there should be no problem. And indeed both turned out to be the case, which was nice. But it was already raining a bit when we got there, which wasn't a good sign.

At least one of the cheetahs didn't mind the rain too much.

We loved the clawed otters, they didn't mind the weather a bit!

But really we came for the pandas, since not many zoos have them. The baby was sleeping when we arrived, but we hung out for a bit (during which time

liquidmistletoe arrived!) and the baby made an appearance.

Though I didn't get a very good shot of the baby since it was a little crowded after she showed up.

The girls played around while we had a quick lunch.

I liked this curvy bench!

Lots of neat critters in the Small Animal House!

I dig the various poison dart frogs!

Another carousel? Yes, please!

The girls took a restroom break and I spotted these lovely rainy-day flowers.

The barn in the farmyard area.

From the Zoo, it was a rainy (and somewhat long!) walk to the Metro--I'm glad Robin knew where she was going! We took the Metro back to the Smithsonian station, and headed across the extremely soggy National Mall to the American History museum. Thanks to the weather the place was PACKED, so unfortunately we sorta rushed through it all. It's also under renovation--pretty much one whole wing of the building was closed off and expected to reopen next year, which was a bit of a bummer. I guess we'll just have to go back!

I was not expecting a portrait opportunity with Miss Piggy!

Microphone used by FDR for his famous Fireside Chat broadcasts.

Neat old typewriter.

The girls had fun with this cool touchscreen table that gave more details about the items in the exhibit. Nice use of tech, I must say.

I've always dug the transportation part of the museum, all the trains and trolleys and old vehicles.

I rather liked the use of these monochrome figures contrasting with the colorful vehicles. Reminded me of those then-and-now photo composites you see, black-and-white people in color surroundings.

Heather and I watched the Ken Burns documentary film about the first automobile to cross the US, so it was very cool to see the real deal!

Old cars are fun to shoot. :)

This was supposed to be an old-timey auto dealership showroom, with the sailor peeking in at the car.

liquidmistletoe! I only snuck this one shot of her, I shoulda got more. :) It was awesome to meet her and fun to have her along. I just wish the weather had been better, I'm sure we would have taken more time and roamed a bit more otherwise!

Back to the Metro, where we parted ways with Robin since we were Metro'ing in different directions.

The girls were pretty worn out from a long and busy Friday, plus LOTS of walking since we arrived (Robin said her pedometer registered 6 miles Saturday alone!), and had been very much looking forward to taking a dip in the hotel pool. So we decided to call it a day. We headed back to the Zoo to pick up the car, and then set off for the hotel with dinner along the way (and now I can't even remember where we ate.. oh yeah, Panda Express). Rested for a little bit at the hotel (with a slight scare when I feared I'd dropped the car keys--found em, crisis averted!), and then went down to the pool for a while. After that we channel surfed on television for a little while and turned in. And that was Saturday!