Saturday, Nov 18, 2017

Off to the National Zoo. The nice lady at the desk downstairs gave us directions and suggestions on how to take the Metro train to the zoo. It’s only a couple blocks from our place and only a few blocks walk once you arrive.

We had breakfast at Pret de Manger, means ready-to-eat in French. Very fresh, organic, fast food – would be a huge hit in Sonoma County. I liked my tuna and cucumber sandwich with honey tangerine juice.

We found the Metro kiosk – it was an elevator sized box sitting on the sidewalk in the middle of the block. It appeared to be an “entry to the Ministry” but the ride down through the sidewalk and concrete tunnel was more “Kingsman-ish”. The elevator opened out into a huge vaulted cavern, with escalators, colored arrows and signs going every which way. Rides are $2 each but you have to by a card, which costs $2, and the card has a minimum of 4 rides so the total is $10 each for us to ride to the zoo and back. Totally worth the price. The train had tons of room, was clean as could be and seemed so much easier than trying to drive and park (parking is $25). We walked through a lovely neighborhood, both coming and going back to the station. The little businesses and apartment building had a sense of community and history.

The zoo is free, lots of entryways and not very crowded. Of course, this is November and it was a little chilly so that may explain the uncrowded conditions. Still, many of the animals were out. The lions, 2 males, and a tiger, all roared for several minutes as they wandered their enclosures. The zoo moves them around to keep them interested but that means they have to re-establish their territory each time, hence the here-I-am roars. A zebra ran in circles, kicking its heels at the cheetah, nonchalantly watching from next door. A zoo keeper fed rats to the Maned Wolves – they mostly eat fruit and grasses in their native Brazil as meat is scarce so rats is good-eats for them. There were several kinds of seals, a grey wolf, beavers, otters, prairie dogs, elephants, lemurs and more to make it interesting.

The Amazon rainforest was fun, too. There was a roseate spoonbill just standing on the railing of the first pool,

which was full of good sized sting rays and turtles. The bird even snapped at one fool who got too close with a camera. All the birds were flying free and the upstairs jungle, looking down on the pools below,

had a monkey and (hidden) sloth roaming about.

 

snacking on carrots and veggies

Gotta admit, all this walking, we hurt. We seem ok in the morning but half way through the day,that slow, museum crawl really catches up with you. So we left the zoo after 3 hours, stopped in a tiny bistro for a coffee, grabbed a bottle of wine from a shop and come back to the room to just chill for the afternoon.

Getting a reservation on a Saturday night in this area is tough. There are no casual eateries. The nearest pizza is miles away. Jim finally found The Grist Mill in a nearby (NO MORE WALKING) Marriot which had space for us. And no wonder… the food was excellent, the ambiance iffy, the service, laughable. We were seated in an off-side area of the hotel lobby, ok but not cozy. The staff had to have been the most unprofessional, gee-everyone, let’s-put-on-a-show, group of lackadaisical people imaginable. Except the manager; she hustled out every dish, brought checks, and swept the floor while her staff wandered about, looking a little lost or bored. In fact, while at the bar, the waiters were making the drinks because the bartender was in a really bad mood and couldn’t find what he needed to make the one drink he was working on. It really was funny.

We had one of the better meals in a long time – spicy fried chicken, pureed potatoes and green beans, all cooked just right.