San Diego. Mmmmmm. Sun. 80 degrees. Well, push that out of your mind because sun only happened about 50% of the time and we never even got close to 80 degrees. But with humidity, 65 degrees is much warmer there than it is here. It was great to get away, out of routine, etc.
The hotel we stayed in was on the Naval Air Base on Coronado Island just across the San Diego Bay from the city. And the hotel itself was right next to the airfield. We saw lots of airplanes and helicopters.
The first night Chuck and I headed to bay side of the island which had a fabulous view of the city.
And my favorite part, palm trees.
The second day we were in town we paid (and, woah baby, did I pay!!! That place is $46 a person!!) a visit to the San Diego Zoo. I've heard so much about this zoo. It's award winning and oh so talked about. They had some great exhibits for their animals. And their koala exhibit was amazing indeed.
Their males were kept separate from each other, a decision that was confusing us because they were so sedate. However, when we asked questions, the people working there said they can become very territorial and attack each other.
There were a couple babies there as well. If you look closely at this image you can see the baby's head below Mama right next to the "branch". The worker said the babies stay with Mama for 9 months.
Next up was the cheetahs. They were very surprising. As you can see, there is a DOG in the exhibit WITH the cheetah!!! Say wha?!?! The board that we read said that it balances out the dynamic of the cheetah, makes them calm. Each cheetah had their own dog partner. Some were more wolf-like.
This guy was very slimy so we stayed pretty far back because we didn't want him to spit on us. Do camels spit?
There were these super weird trees that were full of spikes and flowers on the ends of the branches. No leaves. Weird.
These guys were sleeping. In this position! The funniest thing!
This one was being fed and the worker was training her to put her trunk underneath the lower wire. We asked why and he said it teaches her that she needs to follow rules in order to get a reward as well as keeping himself safe. If she just rammed her trunk through where it was easiest for her, it puts her trunk at an advantageous angle to hurt the trainer.
These guys were hiding as far away from their humans as possible.
These were Chuck's favorite ducks. Ducks we don't see in our area. I think we stayed in the duck habitat longer than any other habitat in the whole zoo.
This was a far away view of the Museum of Man in another part of Balboa Park (the park that is the home to the zoo and most of San Diego's museums). You'll see a close up later. This shot was taken during the aerial tram ride which was included in the entrance fee.
Then we went to the one show they had in the zoo. And there's the dog with the cheetah again.
San Diego had LOTS of Birds of Paradise all over the city and Coronado Island. I have seen lots of these plants but never before did they actually look like birds to me!! They were beautiful.
This guy was practically talking to all the people stopped to see him.
There was a ton more but do you really want to look at a million pictures of animals that you can basically see at your own zoos? They did have some different kids of animals that I've never seen at zoos, but this zoo was huge and very hilly. We made it to all the exhibits we wanted to and left.
More another day!
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