Alfie and Fred

The penguins know the importance of regular exercise. It keeps them healthy in body and mind, and gives them more energy to live their very social fast-paced lives. (Some of them are also quite vain and perhaps more concerned about maintaining low body fat percentages.) Each penguin has his/her favorite means of staying fit, some preferring team sports, others solo activities.


Alfie loves to swim, and looks forward to weekends in Fawn Lake, where he can spend the day swimming in the lake by his grandparents’ house. Otherwise it’s the pool at the Sports Club LA, where he keeps fit by swimming laps.


Fred likes to keep fit by jumping on his trampoline, a perfect activity for his bouncy personality. Most of the time he just jumps around playfully, but when he’s in the mood for some serious exercise he does an urban rebounding video.

Lucky

After a weekend of festivities the penguins like to relax and partake in various lazy Sunday afternoon activities. Lucky enjoys wandering aimlessly around Georgetown, window (and sometimes real) shopping. This past Sunday he was very excited to see penguins, the work of artist duo Kozyndan, on the window of the Puma store. The couple has designed a fabulous penguin t-shirt for Puma, but unfortunately the store does not carry his size.


Lucky also likes to indulge in the numerous tasty treats available in Georgetown. He loves the falafel sandwich and fries at Quick Pita, but his favorite treat is the divine peanut butter frozen yogurt at Thomas Sweet. He thinks that the Oreo frozen yogurt is rather good too, and when he’s feeling really decadent he gets the rum raisin ice cream.

Waddles

Waddles is a great fan of the opera (he counts Lucia di Lammermoor and L’italiana in Algeri amongst his favorites). A regular at Washington National Opera performances, the Opera Ball is one of the highlights of his social calendar. This year he began his evening with dinner at the Colombian Residence; the Ambassador was such a gracious hostess that Colombia has moved up numerous slots on his must-visit list.

Waddles then taxied over to the German Residence, where lots and lots of treats and visual pleasures awaited him. He loved the people dressed up as characters from The Magic Flute, and had fun watching marzipan creations being made. Of course he had more fun trying the different delicacies, including numerous chocolate treats and strudel from the strudel bar.


The highlight of the evening, however, was a performance by Ute Lemper, his favorite German chanteuse.


After the concert Waddles danced the night away, hoping to burn off some of the calories from all of the sweet treats (and to keep himself away from the bubbly). Having fun truly is exhausting!

Lil T

Life is one big arty party for the penguins. Lil T loves attending events held in museums, and the Corcoran, Hirshhorn and National Gallery are his favorite party spots. He does, however, like to expand his horizons, and hopes to hit every museum in town in the after hours. He recently attended the Sackler Gallery’s Asia AFTER Dark, where he saw some art, socialized with friends, had a few cocktails and ate yummy vegetarian-friendly food from Mie N Yu.


A creative type, Lil T enjoyed making an origami business card holder (only in DC). Next time – an origami penguin!

Isabella

Isabella is the most recent addition to the penguin family, having been adopted in London last week. Before packing up to come to Washington (she made certain to stock up on tea, Penguin Biscuits and other essentials), Isabella went to Greenwich to visit some friends.

She did a little shopping, trying on the latest fashions at Beauty and the Bib, and then painted ceramics and indulged in some carrot cake at Biscuit Ceramic Café.

Isabella is enjoying life in Washington with her new family, and is happy that she has lots of fellow English penguins to hang out with in case she ever feels homesick.

Allie

Tippety is not the only penguin who found his/her way to London last week; he was joined on his journey by Allie. Allie is an avid waddler, and enjoys spending her days wandering around cities, exploring their many nooks and crannies. Pedometer in hand, she logged 20,000 steps strolling around the back streets and parks of London, from the Barbican to Victoria to South Kensington. A lover of all things dairy (and rather thirsty from the substantial distance covered), she was tempted to take a sip of the freshly delivered milk she encountered along the way.


Allie also wanted a little art in her day, so she stopped by the gallery Eleven to check out Kent Christensen’s paintings of sweet treats. His images of ice cream, pancakes and other goodies made her very hungry, so she hurried down to the King’s Road Le Pain Quotidien, where she indulged in some baguette with Blandice, her favorite spread.

Tippety

Tippety, like many of his fellow penguins, enjoys jetting off to faraway places. As a fan of both the graphic arts and off the beaten path places and events, he was very happy to be in London for the first Leather Lane Biennale, thrown by Omni Colour and K2 Screen. Tippety learned about print production, and admired the various commissions and artist editions, a few in particular catching his eye.


He also caught up with friends while enjoying wine, juicy vodka melons and the very tasty guacamole and salsa verde provided by Daddy Donkey; he can’t wait to hit its burrito cart the next time he is in town. Tippety had a grand old time, but all that eating, drinking and socializing was hard work!