Sea Lions, Tigers, and Gorillas, Oh My

Tuesday:

Susan and I wandered over to the world famous San Diego Zoo. It was an awesome and exhausting day. We walked all over that place and saw all the animals we wanted to catch, plus a few extras.

We started off the day by seeing the reptile exhibit. Some of those things are HUGE. There were pythons, an anaconda, cobras, vipers, and a whole mess of others. It was sad though because some of the snakes didn't look like they could even fit in their tanks if there were laid out straight, as opposed to the coiled shaped they were in. We also took notice of the size of the exhibits for some of the animals. While I will admit they were generally much bigger and well designed than other zoos I have visited, even a "big" area for a tiger, lion, or wolf in a zoo is still pretty small compared to the vast amounts of land they cover in the wild.

After the reptile exhibit, we saw a sea lion show in a small amphitheater. We couldn't figure out why no one was sitting around us, until the show started and we were sweating instantly...Everyone else had found a spot to sit in the shade on the side bleachers. But the show was fun, and the sea lion and its trainer were great. In the show they also brought out a white wolf, an Andean condor, and macaws. The birds flew up and down the arena, swooping right over the audiences' heads. Seeing the condor was really cool. The bird is so big, but it was surprisingly agile and quick once it landed, hoping around and jumping back into the air.

On really hot days, like the one we chose to go on, a lot of the animals hide out in the shade or their caves to escape the heat until the late afternoon. Fortunately we caught a few of them before they disappeared for a while. Susan really wanted to see the gorillas, apparently she really likes them. When we got over to the viewing area, three of them were just hanging out, leaning on the glass in the shade. But we got lucky and got to see them do some pretty funny stuff. One of the gorillas had a baby in its arms, and another one came over to take the baby for a while. It was really funny watching the gorilla hold its baby, with it slowly falling to sleep and head gradually tilting back till its head was just above the ground. Then another gorilla decided to say "hello" to everyone by turning around to face the spectators, and throwing its hands over its head and pressing its whole body against the glass, essentially flashing everyone there.

I really wanted to see the tigers, but the first time we stopped by they were at the very top of their exhibit, hiding under a tree to escape the heat. We stopped by again later and after a couple minutes of just sitting around, the tigers started playing and chasing each other around their area. They ran over to another part and we tried to follow them, just somehow they disappeared and we couldn't seem to find them again.

We couldn't go to the San Diego Zoo without seeing the famous panda exhibit. The zoo is well renowned for their panda research, and one of their pandas even gave birth just about a month ago. Unfortunately the newest panda or its mother were in the exhibit, but two others were. The funniest part was the second panda in the exhibit was actually sleeping in its tree! But this wasn't sleeping, like propped up, or laying across a branch kind of thing. This dude was straight-up hanging over a single branch right across her stomach. On either side her arms and legs were dangling down out of the tree. I tried to get a good photo of it, so be sure to check it out.

We saw scores of animals throughout the day, and I got a little trigger happy with the camera, so I'll slim it down to just the good ones before I put them up for you all to look at. We got to see meerkats, polar bears chomping on some snacks, a grizzly bear taking a nice afternoon dip, zebras, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, hippos, and a bunch of birds.

Once you walk around the zoo a little bit you realize how much better it is than a vast majority of the zoos out there, and it has some really cool environments to both walk through and for the animals. I really enjoyed the day there.

After that, we came home and collapsed on the couch for a little bit, trying to recoup and get ourselves ready for taco Tuesday. We didn't eat much at the zoo, saving our appetite and cash for delicious $2 tacos instead. The Memphis Crew went to Fred's, the girls favorite Tuesday night stop, and got a couple tacos and some large 20 oz margaritas to wash it down with. After a long day of walking around in the heat, it was just what my body needed.

Definitely another good day in the books, and making some headway on our list of things to do before we depart SoCal.