Day Three - The San Diego Zoo

So, day one and day two had been pretty hectic but now with our guests back in L.A. and everybody else either going back to Sea World or to the beach we headed for the San Diego Zoo. This was far from a stressful day, actually although tiring because of all the walking up and down the hills and slopes that are part of the park, it was stress free.

How can you not feel stress free in an environment like this.
Just a stroll in the park. Again a stroller with a cooler full of water and sodas was all we had to deal with. I didn't know what to expect, I only visited the Los Angeles Zoo once many years ago and I have never been to the Phoenix Zoo either. I really expected it to be stinky and stuff but I was really surprised at how clean the park is, and that includes the cages.

For sure a highlight of the day was feeding the giraffes. This giant but gentle animals were more than happy to take the biscuits off our hands with their very long tongues. The kids for sure loved it.

Dropped it the first two times. He had it right after the third attempt.
Then there was the crazy orangutan that rolled from one edge of the cage all the way to the other end and then back. Homey orangutan had got be very dizzy when after what it seemed forever he decided to sit against a tree.

This guy rolled all over the place before he sat there to rest. Probably dizzy too.
In the end it was the monkeys that gave the biggest show, ewwww. Not to be outdone they decided out of the blue and without fair warning to give us a lesson in how to do the nasty monkey style. I'm sorry it sounds explicit but truth is it was funny because well they are monkeys just monkeying around. lol

Bad monkeys, bad monkeys. Next time get a room.
If you never been there, this place is huge and yes they do have double decker buses that give you tours and probably take you all over the park, but we decided that walking was the way we wanted to experience the zoo.

We easily spent a good eight hours there, we caught a kids show and took them to the petting zoo, went on our mandatory souvenir and t-shirt shopping and off we went back to the hotel.

All said and done we had a really great time.

The plan was to go to the hotel change into warmer clothes and to go back to Seaport Village to watch the fireworks. What was I thinking? I don't go anywhere on the fourth of July in Phoenix because of the insane crowds and traffic, what made me think that it would be easier in a place like San Diego?

Well, needless to say the rest of the night was a blur.

And just to end this weekend tale, day four, the day we had predestined to go to the beach and maybe cross the bridge to Coronado Island is... yep! A blur too.

Here are some shots that I really like:

Diego, the polo player.
This magestic creature was just there posing and displaying its beauty in front of everyone.
Oh no! I'm going to be puree.,
You don't go to the zoo to have them play in a playground but gosh once they saw it that's all they wanted.
These photo ops are just to cool to pass them up.
The spider and the fly.
Me petting the goats.
Savannah sitting on one cool bench.

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Vacation

So can I be a little kid at heart and be excited? Not only have I never been there but to be there for the first time with so many loved ones is definitely a highlight. We normally do this on our yearly Knott's Berry Farm trip but this year due to the three new additions to the clan we had to miss it. So just to prove a point and to show you how we blow thing out of proportion what started as a simple outing for four turned out into a full blown family vacation and some 20+ of us will be going.

Overwhelming for some, I say yes but I think that with a little effort and lots of understanding not to mention some more family members from California things once again are looking good and we are set to go. I must say there for a while things almost went south. Wait, we are going south, no, more like south west but oh well we are going and that's all that matters.

Without a doubt we love to go out together even if we all leave on our own and at our own pace, and when we get to our destination if we can snap a group picture we'll be lucky because once again we all divide into smaller groups as we all have different ways of pursuing our fun.


It seems the only the only place we will have in common is on Saturday as we go to Sea World to visit Shamu. Sunday for my tiny group will be a day at the San Diego Zoo and Monday we will go to the beach to admire the ocean for a while before returning to Phoenix. Hopefully our Friday will be spent shopping for souvenirs and stuff. If things go at least half as we have them planned it should make it for a good short vacation.

A definite highlight should be Saturday at night as Sea World will have fireworks, I am expecting that there may be lots of people but hopefully it won't be too crowded. In any case I am going with a mindset of lets have fun regardless of.



So... San Diego, here we come! I am totally excited about Sea World and The Zoo but at the same time dread all the walking we'll be doing. I know at the end of each day we'll be super tired and those hotel beds will be just an added attraction and a sight for sore eyes.

Yes, I will most likely blog about it and will post lots of pics sometime on Tuesday when I am back. So stay tuned!

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