Zoo Lights

Yesterday I had a day of blistering productivity.  I graded and graded and graded.  I got a rough draft of my paper for Pastoral Care and Counseling done, plus I put sticky notes in books for quotes to add to the paper.  I got my apartment straightened, cleaned, and vacuumed.  I finished my paper for Leading Innovation class and turned it in.  And that was all in the morning.

I had a good video conversation with my spouse at 2, and then my sister came over.  We had plans to go to a very early dinner and then head over to the National Zoo to see the Zoo Lights extravaganza.  And that's exactly what we did.

All week, I hadn't been sure we would actually be able to go to the Zoo.  I hadn't been able to get the free passes that we needed to have, but we snagged 2 on Saturday.  I had thought it might be rainy--it wasn't.  We had no trouble navigating the Metro and the city streets (thank goodness for signs that pointed us to the Zoo).

I knew that we wouldn't be able to go inside the animal buildings, but I did think we might see some of the animals.  Nope--it was strictly a fun lights event, which was fine.  As you might expect, there were lots of lights in the shape of animals, along with lights strung from trees and along the buildings.

An unexpected delight was the carousel.  My sister asked me if we should ride it, and my first thought was no, and then I thought, "Why not?"  So we paid our $4 per ticket and waited in line, a short wait.  My sister wanted to be on the zebra, which is her favorite animal, so that's what we did.

I had trouble capturing us on camera.  Once I had clambered up on my animal, I didn't want to get off of it to take the pictures.  So my pictures are imperfect, and yet they will suffice:

The carousel was more fun than I expected--just a delight.  I love this picture:

Then we hiked back to the Metro and then we hiked back to the seminary.  By the end of the night, we had walked over 5 miles, and often at a brisk pace, because it was cold and because my sister is a fast walker.

I didn't sleep well, because my hips, legs, and feet ached so much through the night.  I should have taken some ibuprofen before bed.

Hopefully I can still harness some of yesterday's energy today.  I still have lots of grading to be done before grades are due on Thursday, along with my paper that's due tomorrow.  Happily, I don't have classes today or tomorrow, so even if I don't have yesterday's blazing productivity, I should be OK.