On Saturday, we got together with my older brother, his wife, and my very cute little niece and went to the National Zoo. We didn't manage to get there until around 5:45. Buildings close at 6, but the grounds were open until 8, so we thought we'd be O.K.
What we didn't understand was that when the buildings close, the animals pretty much disappear. No gorillas. No cats. The one cheetah we saw was lazing around in some tall grass, so we could barely see it. Two hippos were hiding in some murky water. Giraffes and elephants had been moved indoors.
Basically, the only wildlife we saw were the squirrels that dashed around all over the place and a couple of arthritic camels. In fact, we saw more wildlife trying to get back to civilization afterwards in the form of three deer in the forest bordering the zoo.
We'd been to the zoo only once or twice before during the day and that was a great experience. This was not. But at least I got some good pictures of my niece.