Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

My sister and brother-in-law came down for a visit this weekend. We didn't have much in the way of big plans, but decided to check out the National Zoo today as well as hit a few places Matt and Carrie wanted to take in.

We saw the giant pandas and some funny orangutans. Actually pretty much every animal at the zoo was out and gawkable. I think my favorite was the massive hippo completely submerged at the edge of his indoor pool. He had his head propped on some curved tubing so he didn't have to expend any energy holding it up!

So the zoo was fun and after that we had pizza at a place I've been wanting to try for years, Vace! I mostly lurk at a Maryland Terps board and a few posters have mentioned this place near the zoo as having the best pizza in the DC area. I have to say it was awesome. We had managed to park right in front of the place and after buying a couple slices we walked a half block or so down to a bridge and grabbed a spot on a bench to gnosh. After the slices we cracked out a couple bricks of rice crispie treats that Carrie had brought down with her. Excellent!

We capped off the day with P.F. Chang's followed by a batch of cookies at home. I mix up large batches of cookies and then freeze out the dough pre-scooped into ready to bake mounds. The cookie recipes in The America's Test Kitchen Cookbook give specialized directions for doing this and it works out great!