One of the newest Museums in Washington DC, the National Museum of the American Indian is an interesting place. The special exhibit at the time was “Identity by Design.” The exhibit shows how American Indian dress identifies their tribe. Though the museum is a bit odd architecturally, the exhibit was interesting.

The National Zoo has a fairly large selection of small mammals in their small mammal house. When I was there, the Golden Lion Tamarins (pictured above) had taken over a lot of the areas in the house (or were mixed in with other animals) but they are usually in an outside habitat. There were still plenty of other animals to see though.

You can find more pictures in one of my four National Zoo Sets.

Another fun to photograph animal at the zoo are the Asian small-clawed otters. Like the red pandas, if you show up too early they’ll be asleep still (once again, the last picture). But if they’re away, they’re probably playing, which makes for good opportunities to photograph.

You can find more otter pictures and other animals in one of my four National Zoo Sets.

What is probably the most famous of animals at the National Zoo, the pandas are always of interest.  The panda babies grow incredibly fast.  When first visiting, I mistook the baby for one of the full grown it was so large and still only a few months old. I’ve got several good pictures of them, so there’s more in this post than usual.

You can find more panda pictures and other animals in one of my four National Zoo Sets.

Skyline drive is located west of DC off of Highway 66.  It’s a beautiful (and can be very long) drive along the Shenandoah Mountains inside the Shenandoah National Park.  There are several places that you can enter and exit the driving tail and a large number of spots to pull off the road for views.  There is a nominal fee to enter.

More pictures in my Skyline Drive set.

I’ve visited the National Zoo in Washington, DC several times.  They have a wonderful selection of animals and one of my favorites are the red pandas. Don’t show up too early or they’ll be asleep still (like the last picture).

You can find more red panda pictures and other animals in one of my four National Zoo Sets.

On April 28th, 2007 I visited the National Botanical Gardens… It was perfect timing. The flowers were at their peak, inside and out. The best shot of the set is above. The Passion Flower.  It is definitely worth a trip to flickr to view full sized (just click on the image).

(more photos below)

Many more photos in the Flickr photo set.