Zoo 5k Run

This morning we went to the NC Zoo to run in the "Run for the Wild" 5k race through the zoo (and we stayed afterwards until Avery decided she was ready for a nap.)

Jim pushed the stroller so he had to start in back.

There was a huge crowd so he got stuck in back for awhile after the race started, but once he got through the pack he sprinted for a full mile to catch up to (and run next to) Colleen who started up front with the regular runners.  It was a really tough course through the zoo, it was very hilly with lots of tight turns on the zoo paths.  The last mile was on a crushed gravel path through the forest which was really neat.

After race there was a 0.1 mile kids fun run (from the 3.0 mile marker to the finish line), and Avery took part.  Based on the crowd at the starting line, she was the youngest one taking part!  (She's in the white top, black pants, left of the kid in green)

She stopped a few times and was more interested in picking up pieces of gravel than continuing on, and she finished last amongst all the kids!  But considering she was only 15 months old, at least she finished!  (Binky in her mouth the whole course, naturally)

She came through the finish chute

 And got a medal for finishing!

(She thought the medal was a cookie and kept trying to eat it!!!)

Then she posed next to the polar bear

and giraffe at the finish line.

We went into the zoo and decided to put the cost of our two admission tickets to obtaining a year long zoo membership since it is reciprocal with 150 zoos and aquariums nationwide (Including the three NC Aquariums we plan on visiting in the next few months with Avery now that she is old enough to enjoy them).

Inside the zoo Avery liked seeing the sea lions right up against the glass!

She also like seeing the polar bear, black bears, and grizzly bears. (She kept waving at them like they were puppies or something nice!)

She watched one of the keepers talk about turtles

And enjoyed a carousel ride.

She also hung out in a giant beehive

She really liked these small mammals called cacomistles.  There were in the Sonoran Desert exhibit, and they were nocturnal in a low-light setting so they were hard to photograph. But they were related to raccoons but much cuter!  She loved watching them play, and we had to stop her from banging on the glass so much!  We'd never heard of them before and they aren't the type of exhibit that is something people usually stop for awhile to see at a zoo, but Avery loved them, who'd have known???

They had two white alligators at the zoo on a temporary exhibit from April - October of this year, very interesting to see.

Then she fell asleep in the stroller right before the elephant exhibit

She really loved the elephants at the DC National Zoo last weekend so it was too bad she fell asleep then!  So since we were tired we headed back to the car and skipped exhibits such as the lions, giraffes, mearcats, chimps, etc.  (we really wanted to see the giraffes because they have 4 different tree level viewing platforms so you can see them at face level, neat!  We'll save all of those for the next visit!

Marbles Kids Museum

Right across the street from Jim's office in downtown Raleigh is the Marbles Kids Museum , and now that Avery is walking we decided to check it out.  She had a real fun time there!

She got to build houses

Play with train sets

Be a vetrinarian 

Crawl through tunnels

Try on hats in a mirror

Walk through a working garden

Water the plants in the garden

Ride in the back and front of cars

Be a soccer goalie

Surf the big waves

Play in a dog house

Plus other fun things!  She got to spend so much energy running from exhibit to exhibit.  We had so much fun watching her play at the museum that we bought an annual membership so that Avery can go down with momma to the museum and then meet daddy for lunch a lot!

Old Town Alexandria

We found a great deal on Travelzoo for a weekend stay in the Old Town area of Alexandria, VA (right across the river from Washington, DC).

Unfortunately we forgot our nice camera so we only had our iPhones for pictures!

The view from our hotel room was great, we were on the 10th floor and had floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Patomac River and the Capitol Dome visible in the distance!

Avery loved looking out at the water and pointing to the sailboats and saying "boat boat"

Friday night we strolled down the waterfront walk

Over to King Street

For those that haven't been to Alexandria, Old Town is from the colonial era (It's founding pre-dated DC), and is filled with block after block of buildings with great colonial architecture and numerous stores and restaurants

We had a beer and ate dinner Friday night at Pizzeria Paradiso

 We ordered a Margharita Pizza on wheat crust, and Avery checked out the menu and got a kids cheese pizza

Then we had ice cream at Ben and Jerry's and Avery loved playing on the cow couch!

Then she became fascinated with they eyeball and wanted to poke its eye out!

Then we enjoyed the nice cool evening while Avery played at the park

Saturday we took the Metro down to the National Acquarium.  It's the oldest Acquarium in the nation, which means it is not big and a bit outdated in some ways (It's in the basement of the Department of Commerce Building), but Avery did like pointing at the all the fish and even the alligator!

She did get scared when the leapord shark swam up to the glass

About one second after this photo was taken she turned away and cried and hugged mommy!

We went back to Alexandria stuffed from our lunch we ate near Chinatown, so we just had a pastry and coffee for a dessert instead of dinner

Sunday we took the Metro over to the National Zoo

The Panda exhibit was really nice, they don't make you wait in a long line and shuffle you through quickly like the SD Zoo.  They were indoors at the time and feeding on Bamboo.

Then we went to the Asian Elephant exhibit. Avery absolutely loved the elephant. She was completely fascinated by it. She stared, pointed, waved, for 30 straight minutes!

They were doing a daily checkup on the elephants teeth, feet, back, etc so they had it do tricks so they could look at the bottom of the feet, open it's mouth, etc.

After we left we got a stuffed elephant from the zoo gift shop so we could remember the trip.  Avery hugged the stuffed elephant the whole drive home!