This weekend, my friend Piper and I took a trip to Washington DC- our nation's capitol city! We had to accomplish a goal- Piper's first Junior Ranger badge! Luckily, Piper is very handy at figuring out subways, so we took the DC Metro. Here's Piper at the nearest station to the zoo. The farecards in Washington have giant pandas on them! I need to speak to Mayor Bloomberg about getting red pandas on ours in NYC.



We got off the metro at the Smithsonian stop. We each had a Junior Ranger book for the National Mall, and we'd been working on them the whole trip. Actually, we got most of the work done on the bus- Piper brought her laptop along.

We decided to visit the Washington Monument as our first stop before going to the ranger station. Did you know the monument was built in two phases? That's why it's two different colors. It was designed to look like an Egyptian obelisk.



My friend Violet and I have a tradition of standing in front of the official park signs, so Piper and I had to get a snapshot in front of the little ranger station. Here we are!



Inside the station, a friendly park ranger swore us in as Junior Rangers! Piper was very proud to earn her first badge in the nation's capitol. We both took our vows very seriously- Explore! Learn! Protect! That's the Junior Ranger motto.



After we left the ranger station, we had to leave to go back to New York. We walked back to the Smithsonian metro station so we could go to Union Station. Before we left, Piper took one last photo of me in Washington.

It was a great weekend! If you ever have the chance to visit Washington, take it! To learn more about the National Mall & Memorial Parks, check out http://www.nps.gov/nama!