The Zoo

I LOVED the zoo.

One of my favorite animals in the zoo. I also loved the koala.

Like I said in the last post, hard to tell which is the gorilla.

These rhinos were psychotic! They were running all around the pen playing with each other. I loved it.

JD made me sit on the turtle. I do love turtles.

Pretty cool topiary.

Wild Animal Park

One of the days in San Diego we went to the Wild Animal Park.
Hello sweatshirt! I've missed you! (A Pioneer Woman reference if there ever was one!)


It was so beautiful! We felt like we went from downtown city to Africa.


Stroke Boy and Shorty had surprising difficulty getting ourselves up on this thing!

When there's an empty plastic turtle shell sitting in your path, it's customary to get in and attempt a picture.

Poor birdie was disappointed to find I didn't have any treats for him.

Why did I take a picture of JD? Oh wait! It's a gorilla. Sorry, sometimes it's hard to tell.

The park

We talked a gu-zillion miles to get this shot. It was hot, I was tired, but we were NOT leaving until we saw the lions!

One of the cool things about this park is that they create natural habitats (minus fences and tourists) for the animals. So we saw animals interact with each other and roam.

They put more than one kind of animal in a habitat too. Here are some rhinos, hoggy things, and something with horns. And a tree. And dirt. I should be a tour guide.

Hey Pumbaa! Not in front of the kids!

Who said the petting zoo is for kids?!

A Romantic Dinner Cruise

We found ourselves a great deal on a dinner cruise sailing the seas aboard the High Spirits cruise ship.

It was this night that I discovered that The Husband is quite a good lookin' guy in a suit with no tie!


Here is the ship we went on.


The Husband didn't get to wear the suit jacket long- it was a cold night!

I thought that the bathrooms were pretty cool.

Holy handsome!!!

Sunny (sort of) San Diego- Sea World

The next stop on our trip was San Diego. Though it was NOT very sunny, we still managed to walk around looking like cherry tomatoes.

We spent our first day at Sea World. Again, here I'm wearing the same sweatshirt.


What cutie polar bear!

Serious tuskage. Don't mess!

I've always wanted a pet penguin.

The best part of Sea World is all of the shows. It was quite amazing to see what these animals are trained to do.

During one of the shows we went to, Ross the Intern was there to film a large audience. He's using the footage for a game show on GSN. I hope to tape them and see if we ended up on TV.

Meet Shamu. His sagging fin is the result of the way he slept last night. All of you ladies who worry about sags and bags- I don't think anyone can top his!

Breakfast!

Yes. I'm petting a ray. I could have played with them all day. But elbowing children out of the way is poor form.

Here is a little duck family we found waddling down the sidewalk. I felt so bad for the one lagging behind. Every two seconds he had to sit down- poor runt.

They really DO stand on one leg!

I'm a huge turtle fan. Ever since my first trip to Hawaii and I got to watch the turtles swim in the ocean, I have loved them. Dad wrote my name on the back of Tripod the three-legged turtle on my very first dive in Kauai.

Attempted shark impersonation- needs work....

The Sea World Coaster of Soakage (my name for it). This is the BEFORE picture.

At the Shamu show.

One hungry dude. We watched as suckers who paid $6 for a fish or two fed the seals. It actually was really cool. These guys acted as if they haven't eaten in weeks.

Here is the DURING picture of the Coaster of Soakage.

And here is AFTER. You can't tell in the picture, but my head was soaking wet. I stuffed my hat in my sweatshirt so it wouldn't fly away so it was rather dry after the adventure.

An Important Interruption

Before I get to posting the San Diego pictures, JD asked me to post a tribute to Jack.



Jack is my parents' dog who passed away recently. Joy and energy was crammed in every fiber of his being- right down to his feet that were too big for him and his floppy ears. JD and Jack were good buddies. Jack would actually sulk when JD left. We sure love that dog and will miss him.

Alcatraz

This is one freaky place! As they say: "Break the rules and you go to prison, break the prison rules and you go to Alcatraz."

The view from the boat.

There is some interesting political and social history at Alcatraz: Native Americans taking over the island as political activism, children of the warden and the workers growing up at Alcatraz, etc.

The boat we were on.

Shades on Alcatraz.

One of the cells- it was so creepy I couldn't go in.

JD in the solitary cell.

JD attempting a mug shot.