Good-bye to Washington, D.C. & Greenbelt National Park

One final day of bicycling in the city . . .

Another look at the Navy Memorial with
National Archives building in the background

On our way to Union Station, just happened by the
District of Columbia Court of Appeals

Another fine day - the Capitol Building AND
Harold, reflected in the pool at Union Plaza

At the Union Plaza fountain

Fragrant blooms abound right now!

We had our lunch here on the park bench -
and were pestered by these cute little guys!

Picture perfect - so I'm putting it on here again!

And then we came to Union Station - yet another grand edifice!

Inside the cavernous hall - people coming & going by train -
but that's not all!  Lots of shops & eateries as well!!

Next the old post office, now the National Postal Museum . . .

The main hall - elegant and rich!  Imagine taking
care of your postal business in here!

Lots of great displays!  From Pony Express & even before!
Our postal system has an interesting (& lively) history.

If you like stamps (and I do!) you'd love this room!
It's full of stamps from the U.S. and around the world.

See the old "steam engine stamp" engraved on the ceiling?

It was a wonderful day, but a bit sad, too, as we hauled our bikes "home" to the park on the Metro train. We knew this was our last day of our self-guided Metro, bicycling and walking explorations of Washington, D.C., and we'd had such a great time with it all!  Well, we need to be moving on soon . .  .

But not yet!  The next day, we jumped in the truck and drove in to visit the National Zoo. 

We made it!  We're here!

What a zoo it is, too!  One focus of the zoo is to educate about maintaining habitats all over the world for various animals – and they do a lot of research and cooperation with other zoos around the globe to, hopefully, propagate many endangered species.

The Asia Trail is a great area, the highlight of which is the Panda habitat.  We had a perfect view of their Pandas – eating . . . 

. . . and sleeping

That's what Panda's do!!

And we saw lots of lions!  Patriarch “Leo”, two adult females (sisters) and, between them, SEVEN cubs!  About six months old, they’re very active and playful.  We saw them romp and wrestle, pounce and run!  We watched one batting at “Leo’s” leg, but the dad just ignored him . . . too old to play, I guess!! 

 It really was a treat to see all those little lions,
 playing happily in the sun – like kittens!!! 

A few days ago we realized that somehow we had missed Mount Vernon!  So we tacked on an extra day here and yesterday we went to visit the historic home of George Washington - so glad we did!

A lovely mansion befitting a great man in our nation's history!  

The architecture - "understated elegance"

A nice time of year to be here!

Here's Harold on the Potomac side,
looking out over the river.

Final resting place of our first President

At the museum here, Harold was happy to finally see Mr. Washington's false teeth. And we learned something about them, too  - they were not made of wood . . . (lol)

Time to say good-bye to Mount Vernon and, also, to Washington D.C.

We arrived here at Greenbelt National Park exactly a month ago!  We've seen and done much in that time and this "other Washington" has come to feel kind of like home to us!  But it's time to move on or we'll never get to Nova Scotia!

We are packing up and leaving the park today . . . but we won't go far . . .

. . . next stop - Martinak State Park.  

             It's time to explore Chesapeake Bay!