We hadn’t made any real plans for Memorial Day, so we were delighted when our friends Pat & Theo invited us to go with them and their daughters to the National Zoo on Monday. It’s no secret that Mio loves animals, and although she’s been to the Oakland Zoo and the San Francisco Zoo, this was her first time going to the Smithsonian National Zoo! This is the zoo that I grew up going to, and boasts 163 acres which serves as a home to 2,000 animals from 400 different species. As one of the nation’s oldest zoos, it’s part of the Smithsonian and therefore doesn’t charge admission. We decided to take the Metro over to Woodley Park together, and walked to the zoo from there.
Sitting down for lunch upon arriving at the zoo.
Hungry girls! 2 year olds Mio and Anna, both April babies!
The girls on their Daddies’ shoulders.
Looking at the red panda.
Mio had such a good view!
A fishing cat resting on a branch.
The two cuties on the Asian sloth bear statue.
Mio: “CHARGE!!!”
The cutest girls at the zoo!
Male panda Tian Tian at the National Zoo, munching away on bamboo.
Female panda Mei Xiang at the National Zoo
Adorable Anna atop the red panda statue. “Sifu!!!”
Mio and I with the red panda statue.
The Asian elephants at the National Zoo. Such grand animals!
Mio and Anna walking hand in hand through the zoo.
Holding hands. I can’t handle the cuteness! They’re such sweet friends!
Mio on top of the anteater statue by the small animals exhibit.
Anna reaching up towards the statue.
Mio conked out towards the end of the afternoon at the zoo. Anna was like the Energizer Bunny and just kept going and going…
The Nguyen-Cao family, including 2 month old Cara. (She had just turned 2 months that exact day!)
Thanks for inviting us along to the zoo! We had such a great time and Mio loved seeing all the animals and spending time with Anna and Cara. 🙂
Happy Halloween! We have survived Hurricane Sandy/Frankenstorm and all of its pouring rain and howling winds it brought with it earlier this week. Thankfully, we didn’t suffer any damage to the house or cars, and didn’t even lose power. Unfortunately, some of our friends up north were not as lucky — we’re keeping them in our prayers, and hope that they’ll be able to regain a sense of normalcy back in their lives as soon as possible.
We have nothing planned for actual Halloween Day today, as we got all of our festivities out of the way this past weekend before the storm hit. Here are some photos from our Halloween activities this year!
Watching Shimajiro is serious business.
Breaking out of her trance a little to wield her wand…
Casting a spell!
Because Mio was sort of a Tinkerbell-esque fairy this year, I decided to wear this dress — it’s a vintage Betsey Johnson dress that I bought at a thrift store a couple years ago, and Dan always calls it my “Peter Pan dress” whenever I wear it. Instead of buying a costume, I figured I’d just wear it to be Peter Pan-ish this year. 😉
Almost-Peter Pan and Almost-Tinkerbell.
Mio and Mama
Looking out at an autumn afternoon.
I love this little silhouette of her in the doorway…
Mio holding a mini pumpkin outside.
On Saturday afternoon, we took Mio to the Air & Scare event at the Udvar-Hazy Center, which is the annex to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. It was actually one of the first places I took Dan for a date when he first came to visit me in DC several years ago, when it had just opened in 2003, so it was fun to revisit it again after almost a decade. The Air & Scare is an annual event they hold at the museum, where kids can come in costume for safe indoor trick-or-treating and participate in creepy crafts, spooky science experiments, and other Halloween-themed activities. There’s storytime for younger kids like Mio, and opportunities to take photos with Star Wars characters all around the building!
Arriving at the Udvar-Hazy Center.
Inside the Air and Space Museum. There were so many people!
Mio is too young for candy, and I knew that if we let her trick-or-treat, she would most assuredly put the candy in her mouth, so we avoided the trick-or-treating stations and just explored the museum and other activities. Between the permanent aerospace exhibits and the Halloween-themed activities, there was plenty to see!
Mio and I posing with Star Wars characters. I confess that I have no idea who the heck these characters are…
I think the main attraction for Dan and I was seeing the retired Discovery space shuttle up close! We weren’t in DC yet when it made its final flight over the area back in April of this year, and we just missed the Endeavor space shuttle flying over California right after we moved away last month, so I had felt disappointed that we missed both opportunities to see the shuttles. Thankfully, one of the perks of living right by the nation’s capital is that a lot of such historical sights are open for viewing and can be easily visited. We stood in awe as we got to see the retired orbiter, which has made 39 successful missions in over 27 years of service as the oldest of the surviving space shuttles.
For some reason I always envisioned the space shuttle to be pristine, but it’s actually quite worn if you look at it up close (which of course makes sense, if you stop and think about how old it is and how much it’s been through).
Mio and I by the Discovery space shuttle. Thank you for 27 years of service. ãŠã¤ã‹ã‚Œã•ã¾ï¼
Mio and Dan by the base of the Discovery space shuttle. Dan was really excited to see the shuttle so close!
Dan showing Mio the models of Japanese rockets that were on display.
Daddy’s girl.
We met up with our friends Pat and Theo and their adorable daughter Anna, who was born only 3 weeks apart from Mio.
Trying to get the cuties to pose together.
…but the attempt failed, as they kept running away from each other. haha* I will find a way to make the two of them BFFs one way or another! 😉
Mio looking a little out of place among all the rockets.
Mio and I by the first military plane. I can’t believe they flew these things into war — incredible!Â
Storm troopers!
Look at these great Daddies! It was Theo’s birthday that day – Happy birthday Theo!
And of course we had to get a photo of the mamas with our girls! It was so wonderful seeing Pat, Theo, and Anna again.
Later that night, we put Mio to bed and entrusted her to my parents in case she woke up in the middle of the night (which she never does), Dan and I went off to have some more grownup Halloween fun at our friends’ party! The theme was comic superheroes, DC vs. Marvel. We had a great time seeing a lot of our college friends again and catching up with them! 😀
The DC Comics superheroes. (I didn’t get a photo of the Marvel ones.) I went as Catwoman — the latest Dark Knight Rises version too, with the cat-ear-like-goggles! Dan (not pictured) was lazy and went as Peter Parker (basically just hanging the camera off of his neck).
Hawkeye Danny with sexy Rogue Ashly! 🙂 Thanks for being such great hosts and throwing an awesome party.
The most adorable couple award goes to Tom and Hanna as Superboy and Wonder Girl!
Lastly, we also carved pumpkins as the weather got crappier into the weekend and we were cooped up indoors. Dan is always the skilled carver, so his is the awesome creation in the middle, but my sister Miwa and I also carved our own mini-pumpkins. Mine is the Angry Bird on the right.
Dan, my sister and I spent a good part of the day yesterday in Washington, DC. They had never been to the Holocaust Memorial Museum before, and I hadn’t been there since going there for a field trip in fifth grade, so we decided to brave the freezing cold to pay a visit to the museum. It’s definitely one of those places that everyone should visit at least once in a lifetime. The permanent exhibition there is one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive repositories of Holocaust-related records. After going through floor after floor of photographs, models, videos, and preserved items from the era, you are confronted with the horrors of this atrocity. It serves as a reminder of how awful and inhumane genocide is and encourages us to work towards a world in which such injustices will be eradicated.
Clear skies in Washington, DC!
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
the line into the museum
The Next Time You Witness Hatred... The Next Time You See Injustice... The Next Time You Hear About Genocide... Think About What You Saw
Miwa and I in front of the Holocaust memorial museum.
There was no photography allowed in the exhibition areas, but we were allowed to take some pictures on the first floor of the four-story museum.
Quote by Bill Clinton at the entrance of the museum.
enscription on the wall
"For the dead and the living we must bear witness" - Elie Wiesel
memorial area
From Memory to Action
Smithsonian Metro station... waiting for the train to go back home.
I’ve really missed DC and the richness of history, culture, and education that is characteristic of our nation’s capital. In the Smithsonian area alone, there are so many art, history, and science exhibits and archives that you can enjoy free of admission. Because I was so used to museums where everyone and anyone had equal opportunities to visit and enjoy exhibits, museum admission fees are such a foreign concept to me and I didn’t really realize that most museums around the country charge until I traveled to other cities. The Kennedy Center, where I interned one summer, boasts the nation’s busiest performing facility and as the national center of the performing arts, it is a public-private partnership in which ticket proceeds and gifts from individuals, corporations and private foundations go towards educational and outreach initiatives. There are endless resources to educate and open your horizons in DC, and it had been such a privilege to live only fifteen minutes away from it all. It’s one of those things that I couldn’t truly appreciate the value of until I was away from it.
