Washington DC, USA

My favourite USA city so far. I am getting very behind in our travel diary, better start posting photos before I forget where they were taken, the whole point of this website.

There is only one RV park close to Washington DC, it is lovely but expensive, the other cheaper State park was under renovations, so we booked in for two days to do our washing and clean up etc. then left to find somewhere cheaper. We could park at the metro station on the weekends and the train was cheaper on Sat and Sun so that seemed like a good place to start.

There is so much to see in Washington DC we wanted to hang around. Mack and Laura were in the middle of exams so it was a good place to wait for them to finish.

On Monday we went and parked at a nearby Costcos, we were tired so the next day we didn’t bother moving and because no one came and told us to move on, we ended staying for another night. Four nights was pushing it so we went back to the metro station. It seemed to work ok, in between the metro car park and the supermarket carparks we filled and dumped water at the van park and stayed very cheaply in Washington DC. At the metro station the bus and RV parking area was still under construction so maybe that is why it was free and no one asked us to leave during the week days.

The National Zoological Park, one of the oldest zoos in the United States and part of the Smithsonian Institution.
The Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute is a leader in giant panda conservation. The bears arrived at the Zoo in 1972, where animal care staff and scientists have studied their biology, behaviour, breeding, reproduction and disease. These experts are also working with the Chinese on studies of the bears native habitat.

We were lucky enough to see Bei Bei before the Panda left the National Zoo. In 2000, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian came to the zoo as part of an agreement with Chinese officials, and have since had three successful cubs: Tai Shan, born in 2005, Bao Bao, born in 2013 and Bei Bei in 2015. As part of the agreement with Chinese wildlife officials, all cubs born at the zoo leave at age 4.
The pandas have been moved from endangered to vulnerable by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.