Off to the Zoo!

Day 10

We're only a mile from one of the best zoos in the world so when we awoke to find the temperature was delightful in the high teens, we knew it would be the perfect activity for today.

We were a little uneasy when we arrived at the same time as lots and lots of Mexican school children. Weekday visits are great for avoiding the masses, not so great for the busloads of munchkins that are running around. We must've went one way while they went another - they were out of our sight in no time. Yes!

Within two minutes I knew this zoo was going to be something special. First, because we happened across two antelopes doing it. Eww...they're ugly, ugly creatures and I did not want to see that. But second, because unlike the Toronto Zoo, there are only a few steps between various cages and exhibits. We headed straight to Panda Canyon, but encountered rhinos, giraffes, flamingos, meerkats and plenty other creatures along the way.

There was no panda line-up at all and although the two of them were sleeping in trees the whole time, we arrived in time for a 15 minute talk about the bears.

There were monkeys, other bears (all but one were sleeping) lots and lots of birds I was delighted by a male bird of paradise doing a mating dance - for those of you who've seen Earth, he's the one who hops around, claps his big feathers together, and puffs up this big ring around his neck so you can only see two little eyes and the tip of his beak! I squealed and clapped, not expecting to ever see with my own eyes this secret ritual from deep in the forests of New Guinea!

We were then completely mezmerized and entertained by orangutans. This big chewbacca look alike munched on lettuce and leeks and after much protest, eventually shared some with a female companion who was adament that she should get some too.

She was apparently delighted by her few bites of lettuce, because she then rolled and rolled across the length of the viewing glass. A minute of her shananigans can be seen here. Hilarious!


As much as I was delighted so far, the koalas took the cake. They're have the largest group of koalas outside of Australia, which helped increase our odds of actually seeing them awake.




They sleep for 18-20 hours a day, but out of the 12 or so they had, four or five of them were wide awake muhcing on their eucalyptus.

I loved, loved, loved these bears!

We still had plenty to see so had to keep going; I could've watched them all day!

We made it to the elephants and watched one toss dirt on himself and the other soaking their feet in some soapy water for the keeper. There were hippos, more birds, turtles, a very cross jaguar, various antelope type animals and ugly hogs.

There had been a sign at the entrance saying the polar bears were off their exhibit today, but we wandered over anyway and good thing we did.

We got to watch one huge one dig around in the dirt for a while, even saw him stand straight up and tower about 10 feet in the air.

We the Skyfari buckets back down to the other side of the park. It's was kind of fun and kind of scary; I guess we don't love heights. Or dangling at bird's eye heights in a small bucket.


We capped off our visit with a walk through the reptile house and the Zoo store. Unfortuantely, they had koala slippers that were a bit too small for me and although we scowered the store looking for a bigger pair, I had to leave with a pout and cold feet.

We met other friendly Canadians in the parking lots and took turns taking pictures of each other. This is the only one we got together that day, but it's a keeper!

Back at the apartment, we celebrated the success of the Bust a Move flash mob with a beer and spent a good hour or more checking all the videos, comments and coverage.

Then it was off the the Gaslamp Quarter; we hadn't yet seen much of San Diego itself. We enjoyed a mexican fiest at a packed place called Fred's and a visit to another beutiful gallery, where I fell in love with one of the artist's featured and treated myself to a signed book of his entire collection. An awesome keepsake of our adventure, I figured. And it makes up for the lost opportunity of koala slippers.