"It's the hottest day in the history of Los Angeles...113 degrees!" - 9/27/10
San Diego was 108 but that didn't stop Lauren (my old roommate in NYC) and I from hitting the BEST Zoo I've ever been too...The San Diego Zoo!
As you arrive you walk thru these two elephants:
First thing we did was take the guided tour bus around. We saw these folks on that:
The tour was smart because it helped us really narrow down what we "had" to make sure we saw that day. We started by taking the sky tran...here we are!
ME:
LAUREN:
We headed off to see the polar bears first. But on the way we ran into this "little" guy (a Chacoan Peccary)...don't you think he looks like PUMBA from "Lion King"?:
Anyhoo, I don't know about you, but I love watching polar bears. I must've watched the one who was under water for ages! He kept popping his head up top, getting something and then putting it in this little cave area. Here, he is:
They had this statue of the "true size" of a full grown polar bear...so of course I had to have a picture of me by it! LOL! I thought I looked short next to Lauren! Ha! Check this out! (insert short jokes here)
Lauren and I then were able to find some someone to take our picture IN the Sea Lion ice statue...let me say now, this was NOT easy to get into as it's made for kids! (No short jokes here, you already had your chance)
On our way back to the sky tram we saw this guy, a Siberian Reindeer:
Then we were off to the Sea Lion Show! These guys are my favorite...I can't lie. I can sit at the children's zoo in Central Park and watch them swim round and round and not get bored. Just LOVE them! So when I heard they had their own show?! HAD. TO. GO.! Here are a few pics of the show...which also had some great birds and a WOLF! :) We sat in the front row...and you know what that means...we got wet! On a 108 degree day? That was fine by me!
HERE HE IS WAVING AT US:
BEING FED:
TRYING TO GET INTO THE FISH BUCKET:
THE TIMBER WOLF!:
After the show we headed off to find food (which proved to be rather difficult as most of the places were closed...probably due to the heat AND the fact that there weren't many of us at the park).
We headed off to see some big cats! But on the way we saw these guys; Merecats and Koala Bears and Camels, oh my!
These are Lauren's favorite! Look at them dig!
We learned that Koala's sleep so much because the eucalyptus they eat doesn't supply them with enough energy to do much but sleep and eat. We got lucky though and they started to wake up to eat just as we got to them!
Look how cute he is!
Then we saw the camels!
Both ONE hump...
And TWO humps...
Next we saw some people in a little cave-like area (open on both sides) and thought they were just getting out of the sun but then saw there was something to "see". I wandered in first...thinking it was probably nothing major. I wandered up to the glass and BAM! I was in awe.
There, sleeping up against the glass in their air conditioned room, were a pair of lions; one male, one female. Just amazing...beautiful creatures. If you'd not seen them breathing you'd have thought they weren't real!
But though there were a male and female, my true love with this big guy:
Sleeping peacefully:
Opened his eyes to look at me for a brief moment:
Back to sleep...paw on glass...look at the size of that!:
We left my lion...heading towards Panda Canyon to run into Zebras! They were playing and it was really fun to watch! THey would bite at each other and chase each other around. I was able to get a few cute pics of that:
Then came the Pandas! Marc and Lynda went to the zoo on Saturday and said that the dad came out for the first time in years when they were there...but alas, we just saw the little one...eating bamboo...which, according to the guard, "its all he does".
But he's cute doing it huh?
On our way back towards the entrance/exit we went looking for this lovely lady:
She has a huge area to roam but due to the heat, she was sleeping in the shade. I'm guessing this area has some cool air blowing into it...she slept through everyone coming up to the glass and staring at her.
Last, but not least, we saw the one large Hippo they have (actually, I think there are two but this one is the only one we saw.
Our big "learning moment" of the day had to do with these guys...
Did you know that Flamingos get their color from the shrimp they eat? In this pic you can see baby Flamingos (they're about the same size as the adults) which are gray/white in appearance as the shrimp haven't colored them yet! Cool huh?
We left, got dinner and headed back to LA...it was a long drive but the sun was down and there was little humidity so the drive was nice. We headed to the bar/restaurant Lauren works at for a drink and Josh joined us!
Over all, it was an amazingly fun day! Even the heat couldn't ruin it for us! Definitely one of the highlights of my trip! I highly recommend you go if you get out that way OR if you live near enough to make a day trip out of it!
I leave you with a pic of Josh posing with our banana split...it was awesome!
Part III will be about my hike at Lake Hollywood, my trip to Santa Monica, and my unexpected lunch with David Holt!
Peace!
Tamsin :)
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