Sunday, November 29, 2009

San Diego pt. 2



On our 2nd day in San Diego, Fred and Lynne arrived. Once they settled in, we headed over to the Cabrillio Monument to check it out. I am very glad that we went over there. We went up to the monument first and walked around. Funny enough a big ol' ship went by as I was reading this sign "Commercial and Pleasure Craft". The monument was about a 15 minute drive from our hotel, so it was fairly close and well worth the visit. I think it cost $5 for us to get in.



Lynne and Fred, with San Diego in the background



The light house is on the right side of this picture. It looks far in the picture, but only took about 5 minutes to walk over there.

Jim in the lighthouse


Love this photo, the stairwell in the light house

Once we were done at the monument, we drove down to the tide pools which is still part of the monument. What a gorgeous view!

This seagul was pretty tollerant of humans. Both Lynne and I got close for a picture. Tried to get Jim to sit next to him for a picture, but no go. There was seagul doo-doo all over that ledge.



Down by the ocean

It was so beautiful. I love the ocean


Lynne and Fred enjoying the ocean


Jim pretending to fall off of the side of the rocks, there was about a
20 foot drop on the other side of him


Not to be out done, I pretended to climb a rock


Walking along the beach looking for critters in the tide pools

The tidepools had some really neat creatures. Some just had little snails and others actually had little fish swimming around

Jim and Lynne checking out the fish in the water


Jim, Fred and Lynne


Jim and I


Lynne and Fred

After the Cabrillio Monument we drove over to Coronado Island. We walked around the hotel for a bit then went out to the beach to watch the sunset. Beautiful sunset!


Jim, Lynne and Fred

Jim, me and Fred





Peek a boo sun set


Vacation- San Diego

I am going to split up our vacation photos into a few different posts because I took so many photos! On our 3rd day in San Diego we went to the San Diego Zoo. It had been many years (maybe about 20??) since I visited the San Diego Zoo. This zoo is awesome to simply put it. They have great displays and variety of animals. I know this zoo does a great deal to help animals outside of the zoo walls as well. We spent 6 hours in the zoo, and it was worth every minute. It took that much time to walk around and look at all of the animals. We spent some extra time to sit and watch some of the animals because they were so entertaining.


Jim and the camels


Fred and Lynne checking out the Koala bears
The elephant enclosure was enormous. There were quite a few elephants, but a lot of them were in their cages for their check ups. They opened up the elephants cages to the public could see a lot of what they were doing to them. It was interesting to watch and learn! I think they said that the oldest elephant there was around 55 years old
Elephant getting her toes done
This was a huge surprise, to walk up and see this lion laying right where people are gawking at them.
Hmmmm.... Spray range is 7-10 feet? I can't imagine what would happen if you accidentally got sprayed. I think you would smell for weeks. YUCK.

Ahhh! Watch out for flying condors!


We spent a lot of time watching this guy swim around. He kept playing with the ball while floating around. I was amazed at how graceful he was and how he could just float there. I guess it's all of his fat keeping him floating?



The polar bear sat along the glass wall looking at all of us, which made for good photos for the lucky bastards up at the front. I didn't think it would be in good taste to push the little kids out of the way, so I waited my turn :)



Look at that face! Don't ya just want to bring him home with you!?!?
Lynne and Fred with the polar bear statue
Jim and I
The Hippo exhibit
These guys didn't do much... just kind of sat there
The orangutan's were so much fun to watch! They climbed around, chased each other, and were goofy.
The orangutan clan has a new family member :)We had to wait in line to watch the panda bear. We were asked to stay quiet because the panda was sensitive. I had a little cough so Fred would tell me I was bothering the panda with each cough :) Thanks Fred. The zoo recently had one of their pandas have a baby, but it was still in isolation and wouldn't be out in the display for a few more months.

There were two cubs playing in the Sun Bear display. They chased each other around for the entire time that we watched them. There were multiple times I thought they were going to fall off of the "wood pile" but they always caught themselves, like the guy below.
Look! A new giraffe at the zoo!





This picture cracks me up every time I see it. I swear if this guy could talk he would say.. "What in the fuck are you looking at". Clearly he is from Jersey.



This is the snow leopard. There were two in this display and there were pacing back and forth (much like most of the cats). They had short legs, but they were built to pounce. He was yawning in this picture.
I wish I knew exactly what kind of cat this is... perhaps some type of Jaguar? We were so close to the display, probably less than 6 feet. Every time he would walk by us he looked at the little kid in the stroller sitting next to us. It was eerie...



This looks like a little puppy that you might find at the pound. But he is a Singing Prairie Dog. There were 3 or 4 puppies running around in the display along with the mom and dad dog. How cute is he!!?!?
We had a wonderful time at the zoo!!! Sure it took 6 hours but it was totally worth every minute. We saw so many different types of animals, many of which I haven't seen live before, some I have never even heard of!!!