'Just Press a Button and Zing! You're Off'
Perhaps we're all too hard in our criticisms of visitors to our city. They do pump millions of dollars into local food courts, restaurants, hotels and stores, but we're all well aware of the baggage they drag along with them to the nation's capital: themselves and their children, many unversed in standard rules of urban etiquette.
There are the simple mistakes which we should not fault them on. Then there are the instances where we can't help ourselves but ask: "Huhh?"
Have you ever visited Washington's subterranean zoo? Maybe you can, if you find the right elevator and then press the correct button ...
Earlier this week, we were on our way to work as we were approaching the elevator at the corner of Woodley Road and Connecticut Avenue which whisks residents of Woodley Park down to the deep-level Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan metrorail station. Just as the doors were about to close, this DCist was just about to make an attempt at a mad dash for the elevator when we heard from behind us: "Excuse me, sir!"
We turned around. Our attempt to make it to the elevator was thwarted, then aborted. We'd have to wait 2-3 minutes, or how ever long it takes for the elevator to make its return to the surface.
In this neck of the woods, the most common question we get from lost tourists is where the National Zoo is, despite signs pointing the way up the hill toward the zoo. So we were expecting some sort of inquiry along those lines. Then this question came out of the mouth of one of the visitors.
Sir, does that elevator go to the zoo?
Now, we were unaware that there were underground zoos out there, but we suppose that doesn't lie outside the realm of possibilities. But seriously, this isn't a Willy Wonka world. WMATA elevators, to our knowledge, aren't equipped with a button that if pressed catapults you sky high into a sequel or sends you deep down to a subterranean menagerie.
Do you have any good recent tourist run-in stories?