The National Zoo - Invertebrates!

Think of this as the teaser trailer to a future feature post about The National Zoo's Invertebrate House.

Did I mention that the Vienna Metro station is under construction?

Avoid it, if you can!

The original plan was to get to the zoo in plenty of time to have a personal tour of the inverts by a friend of mine who volunteers at The National Zoo in DC.  Unfortunately, there had been a train derailment (obviously this is unfortunate for many reasons) the day before and the Metro was not quite reliable that day.  As it turns out, neither was my camera.  So my promise to you is that there will be a post on Lost in DC in the future that will actually be worthy of the amazing Invertebrate Exhibit and the friend I mentioned will be contributing to it, so I predict that it shall not suck.  What I offer you today are the pictures that I could salvage from that day, followed by a few places you might want to check out in DC (Cleveland Park neighborhood), which are just down the street from this zoo entrance:

Here you can see that we went on a decent day (it didn't rain, but it wasn't too sunny).

When you see these, you know you're near the first set of bathrooms on your way into the zoo.

And the gift shop, it's next to the bathrooms.

The invert house is behind that building, don't let it confuse you!

Another reason I really need to go back.

And here we are!

Before we go in for the shortest tour of the invert house ever, we have one general rule: Please don't kill the exhibits.  Leftover detergent on your hands can kill an entire ecosystem and some marine life can be extremely sensitive to flash photography.  Avoid sticking your hands and/or belongings where they don't belong and turn your flash off before you enter this exhibit (or any aquarium).

The Invertebrate House is in it's 25th year, as of this May!  Once you've looked through the awesomeness below, click here to see how you can help The National Zoo celebrate this occasion (sorry, the cake-cutting ceremony was May 7th - I missed it, too).

Gorgeous teensy sea anemone.

Gorgeous not-so-teensy sea anemone (some are the size of a top hat).  See the ones that don't have any tendrils sticking out?  They're digesting.  More on that in the next post.

Cuttlefish, hiding under the rocks (bottom of this photo, slightly camouflaged).

Happy dancing crab!  Oh...nope.  Angry man crab!  That there's a Blue Crab from Chesapeake Bay.

Look at those brilliant blue antennules.

I believe these are Slipper Lobsters...I may be corrected shortly...

Looks like two tarantulas, right?  The one on the left is actually the husk of the one on the right.   Creepy.

Cone jellyfish?  Comb jelly?  To learn exactly what these are, you and I may both have to wait for the next post on this exhibit.  There are so many different types of jelly and non-jellyfish that I officially give up...for now.

Anthropod molts a tactile experience.  I was told not to touch them because I break things.

This area includes the touch tank (which you can see right behind the molt cart).

Gelatinous Zooplankton?

Just outside of the invert house...

Pair of Chinese Alligators (the other is pictured below) who came to the National Zoo in 2004.

Murphy, the Komodo Dragon

I'm really hoping to get a good pic of him with his tongue out.

Walking around Cleveland Park to find a late lunch.  This is the fancy side of the street (I didn't remember to take a picture of the other side, I was too hungry by then).

I really wanted to sit up on that balcony.

Wake Up Little Suzie is a cute lil tchotchke shop (just what I need).  We loved the lovely people working there that day.  We bought wallets from them.  We love those dang wallets.

Firehook Bakery.  We stopped for coffee here and sat outside, in the back.  They have a lovely little area (a lot of regulars entered through that back gate) and that fountain is the biggest bird bath I've ever seen.

Look at all those freaking birds!

Well, that is all I could salvage from my piece of poop camera.  Next time I'm bringing an iPhone, since it takes better photos (don't look at me lik that, I can't afford a fancy camera!).  Visit us again soon, we will have the feature post up, as soon as we get a chance to go out to  the zoo again!  And oh, we have so many things to show you.  Beautiful little thorny starfish, elegant coral and hopefully we can get a good photo for you of a nautilus and make it in time for the feeding of the baby octopus.  Let's visit Murphy one more time:

Mmmm...ratsicle.