December 31, 2012 - Day 5 in Washington D.C. - New Year's Eve

Today we walked over to the Smithsonian National Zoo.  It was huge!  I got over 25,000 steps this day and we only did the zoo.  It was really cold, so a lot of the animals were moved in, but a lot of these had enclosures inside that we could go into.  Some did not, but there was definitely enough to see and do.  I forgot to mention from the beginning that anything Smithsonian related (museums and zoos) were all free to go to.  The bad thing about D.C. is that the tax and food and beverage is 10%.  So, when you get your dinner bill at a restaurant, add 10% before gratuity because that is the tax on food.  Also, parking is expensive.  If I had known, we would not have gotten a rental car and we would have just used the metro all week instead.  It even went all the way to Mt. Vernon.  Parking the car each night at the hotel was $34 and most hotels were more than that.  Oh well, live and learn.