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24.05.08
San
Diego Zoo
Today was ‘zoo day’ and as we drove along
the coast
to San Diego I was amazed when
Dad pointed out a nuclear power station right
beside us between the road and the sea.
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| "Nuclear power station to your right" |
When we stopped at a rest area the warning sign about
rattlesnakes caught my eye.
"Reasonable watchfulness should be sufficient to
avoid snakebite"
What I want to know
is exactly how much watchfulness is
classed as a reasonable amount? I decided to be watchful
from the car!
The sight of fabulous castle spires to the left of the freeway
made me imagine we were about to enter
some sort of magical
fairy land, the gorgeous buildings were actually a
Mormon temple.
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| My first sight of the San Diego skyline |
Guess where all those kids that aren’t at
Disneyland go? San Diego
zoo of course!!
The place was so huge there was not time to
see everything and because I can’t read a map
properly
we totally missed out seeing the gorillas
and the polar bears.
The closest we got to the gorillas.
This photo was taken from the cable car and thanks to the
magic
of PhotoShop I can actually sort of see it now!
We couldn't find many parrots on
display
(they were probably near the gorillas and polar bears!)
but this one took my breath away.
I never
thought I'd see a Hyacinth macaw and
especially not one so close.
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| No cage, no bars, just sitting there looking totally awesome! |
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| The Owens Rainforest Aviary |
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| This guy was waiting in a bush outside a cafe just asking for his photo to be taken! |
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| Sleeping bears and tame wolves. (I want her job please!) |
There was an outside display arena where a
short show was put on and at
the end of it a flock
of free flight Scarlet and Blue & Gold macaws
flew over our heads. They were so beautiful.
I'll
own up to it, they bought a lump to my throat
and tears to my eyes.
Strangely
enough being able to see the reptile
display was really interesting. I've decided that
snakes are actually quite beautiful.
Rattlesnakes.
There was glass between us so of course I was
brave enough to take photos!
It was well worth the wait to see the pandas and
we were lucky enough to
see the baby feeding.
Apparently the baby only feeds twice a day and
we happened to be there at just the right time.
I
guess feeding for father bear continues all day.
He was totally engrossed in demolishing a huge
pile of bamboo and mother
bear was catching
up on a little snooze time while baby was
feeding so, all in all not a very energetic
family really!
You can view the zoo Panda Cam at the link below.
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/zoo/ex_panda_station.html
There
was quite a wait to get on to the cable car
that spans the zoo. We finally got there and
travelled right across the
zoo expecting to
see the Polar bears on the other side.
As I said before, I don’t seem to be able to read
a
map properly and we realized the bears were
actually on the side of the zoo we had just left!
Duh!
The zoo trip was finished off with a little
‘shopping spree’ for souvenirs and as there
were
quite a few stalls and shops at the exit
area, it took a bit of time to finally leave.
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