Day One: Europe or Bust
I woke up this morning with a suburban landscape out my window and the smell of coffee in the air. I remembered the long drive to Stanford, Virginia we had suffered the day before and was suddenly filled with excietment. The vacation I had spent so much time anticipating was finally underway! Final exams were over, passports were in our pockets and the song of the road was calling to us all. Our first night was spent in a small but gorgeous AirBnB house complete with snacks, soft beds and a real live KEUREG COFFEEMAKER!!!!!!!!! Needless to say, I was absolutely and utterly thrilled.
After a breakfast of granola bars, hazelnut coffee and doritos we hit the road headed toward Washington DC. The capitol city offered us beautiful sights and more than a little trauma as we navigated the packed streets. It took blood, sweat and tears, but we finally arrived at the Smithsonian Zoo where we practically exploded from the car. Morgen was so excited and full of energy that she jumped off the sidewalk curb and scraped her knee. Lunging to help her up I tripped and fell into Dad, affectively twisting my ankle and nearly knocking him over. Mom made us promise that we would try and approach the Zoo like civilized human beings, which was no easy task. The first animals we saw were the Griffon Vulture and the Cheetah. Unfortunately the Cheetah was feeling a bit introverted so he was really more a mound of spots than an actual animal, but we and the zoo workers all got a kick out of Morgen shouting, "Look at the polka dot cat! Look at the polka dot cat!"
While looking at the map we all had opinions on what we should see first. Arwen of course wanted to see the "small mammals", Morgen rooted for the sloths and snakes, while I was just holding out for the Lions and Tigers. Finally Dad just made the decision to walk around and see what we saw. And we saw some pretty interesting things...
Morgen and the Piggyback-Sloth-Bear ( I honestly wasn't 100% what it was...).
Oliphaunts, Mr. Frodo!
We're pretty sure that this Panda Bear won for Model of the Year.
Can we talk about how adorable this mama Gorilla and her baby are?? She was totally chill with hundreds of tourists crowding around and taking her picture, but everytime the daddy Gorilla walked into the room she would snatch up as much food as she could hold and dash to the corner to stuff her face with it.
So many beautiful creatures!
It took my family members a really long time to convince me that this thing was real.
This, folks, is a very hungry, very grumpy Sand Cat. Everytime someone tried to get close to the glass or take a picture he would turn and walk the other direction. Finally he just laid down and went to sleep until one of the workers came and fed him. I'm pretty sure he was my spirit animal...
After spending over three hours at the Zoo we all piled back into the mini van that was starting to feel like our actual home and began the long drive to NYC. By the time we arrived it was dark out and the skyline was absolutely breathtaking.
The apartment that is to be my home until Thursday makes me feel like I might just be claustrophobic after all, but there’s a cute, little coffee table against one wall under a lovely picture of Marilyn Monroe that’s almost as big as me, and if I can ignore the fact that I’m sharing the bathroom with who-knows-how-many other people I can admit that I really like where I am. It’s NYC, after all! We’ll I’d better shut the lights off since it’s almost not today anymore and I’ve got a big day in a big city waiting for me. I’m so excited to explore New York City!
Much love,
Lorien C.
Comentários