Memorial Day and San Diego Zoo '09

So, being the naive doofuses we are, we thought we would be to escape Las Vegas on Memorial Day and head to San Diego. How wrong we were. Well, we did escape, it just took much longer than anticipated. Our thoughts were to leave very early in the morning, like 7am. Again, this is the naivete showing its ugly face. We have been together 20 years and I can count on one hand the number of times we have actually gotten out of town on time and as planned. Nevertheless, we had high hopes...Needless to say we did not leave until 11am, and once we hit Tropicana Avenue we knew we were headed straight into trouble as traffic was backed up as far as the eye could see. Apparently all the California partyers were leaving Las Vegas at the same exact time that we had planned to leave....imagine that (feel the sarcasm). We crept at 5-10mph for a good 3 hours. Since it takes about 5 hours to reach San Diego normally, we were way off track and were looking at a long day :(

Well, we finally arrived at our hotel around 8:30pm. Whew! We unloaded, went out for a Mexican dinner in Old Towne, and tried to get a good night's sleep before our big day at the Zoo!

Brad and Oliver get in some good snuggletime.

Oliver had a peaceful slumber with Zero, one of his best pals...

We fed Skippie, gave her a good long mosey, and while we headed out for our day, she prepared to take a good, long nap while she awaited our return.

Once at the zoo, we first decide to ride the SkyFari Tram since it was not busy. It gives a great overall view of the zoo, and we made some rough calculations for our method of trying to take it all in before our alotted 8 hours was up. Yeah, right. The Zoo is so huge it really cannot be seen well in 1 day, so we just did our best, especially with a 4-year old. :)

waiting for SkyFari

enjoying the view

We wandered down Monkey Trail...Oliver breezed through with the attention span of a flea. Brad and I, however, enjoyed watching these two creatues work on each other. One was splayed out, basking in the sun, letting #2 calmly pick nits from its body. Even funnier was watching #2 pick the nits, and then deftly shove them to his mouth for a yummy treat. Garghhh!

funny-looking little guy...

On to the Hippo Trail. Hippos are one of my faves. I just love their whiskers and the way they gently bobble underwater.

What animal is that peeking from behind the palm? An Oliver beast?

After lunch we take the escaltor up through the Asian Passage and into Elephant Odyssey.

We got to see the elephants being fed and pedicured. Elephants are another of my favorites. They are such gentle giants. As they were fed they had their front feet soaking in big barrels to soften them up for clipping. Their trunks snivel about the ground sucking up various goodies. Too cute!

Momma and Baby

More adorable faces. Love the meerkats.

Mom and Oliver

I know this photo does not look like much. But if you look closely, you will see Oliver peering through the display window at the infamous "brad-monk"....a very smelly creature that whoops like a monkey and scratches his armpits relentlessly. There is only one of these in the entire world!

Daddy and his Boy

The Zoo has so much wonderful foliage it is hard not to take pictures of everything!

oliver being all serious

C'mon, kid...smile as i drag you along...

This zoo is so pretty.

It is not an easy thing to get a family picture! Thanksalot, Oliver!



Getting into Panda territory.

Yes, we arrived at the Panda place during their naptime, so it was pretty quiet. This one was crashed flat on the ground. Reminds me of a skinned rug one might find in an old log cabin somewheres...

The next 2 pictures are as close as Oliver got to the pandas...

awwwwww.....

ZEBRAS! Love 'em!




GOOF!

Welcome to The Polar Bear Peep Show! The male was sleeping, and the female was gnawing on a bloody bone of some sort. She walked over to the male and woke him up. He proceeded to follow her around, and finally....! Everyone was cracking up and whooping like a pack of 5th graders...hehehe.

More pretty flowers with some cute kid in front of them :)

YAY! More hippos! This guy was sleeping like a baby.

We gave our feet a break and hopped on the Tour Bus for a nice narrated tour.




Within minutes Oliver is out cold.

Who can resist the koalas? They simply look like cushy stuffed animals. And they sleep 22 hours out of the day.

This guy opened his eyes long enough to look at us and give a wave hello.

Although we don't have a picture of it (and not that we would put it out there if we did), we had a little accident at the koala habitat. Oliver was sleepy so he was laying in the stroller, with the back laid out flat. Brad and I were busy taking pictures and admiring the koalas when we heard a crash. We had the camera bag (very heavy) hanging on the stroller handle, and with Oliver laying down the weight was shifted to the back and the stroller flipped backwards. Poor Oliver went upside down onto his head :0 He was scared, but fine. This picture proves it.

Enter Giraffe-ville. Another favorite of mine. Oh, OK, let's face it....I love all the big animals. Especially if they have cool prints. If you don't believe me, look at my home decor. :)

Nice tail.

Big-Butted Rhino. Wish my big butt had cool design like this :)

At Zoo closing time we headed out and this handsome beast was strutting his stuff. I love peacock feathers. Beautiful!

One last peek at the reptilian creatures before we leave.

And the cutest creature of all...

I have great memories of going to the San Diego Zoo when a child, and as an adult as well. But truly, nothing is better than re-living it again with your own child, seeing the joy and wonder in their faces as they experience the fun stuff of life!

For more pix from the Zoo click here.