Cali Trip, Part 2

On Sunday, before we knew Kaeden had an ear infection, we loaded the kids up in the car and drove down to San Diego.  I'd always heard the zoo was amazing, so we decided to spend the day seeing us some animals.

And animals we saw.

The boys were instantly enamored by the flamingos.

Since we were visiting during Spring, all the flamingos were busy protecting their nests.  It was pretty neat watching them all busy building up their nests with mud and protecting them from each other.

Another neat exhibit was the polar bears.  We got to see a bear swimming up close.  We also got to see him attack a low flying duck.  It was a little shocking how instantaneously he changed his demeanor, growled, and snapped at it.

Then there was the zebra...

 The cheetah...

And whatever these things were.

The panda sat there like he was trained on how to pose all day,

And the swimming hippos were a big hit.  I seriously love the hippos.  Growing up they were my most favorite thing to go see at Hogle Zoo.  Damn you Hogle Zoo...where are my hippos?!?

A close second for me are the rhinos.  When you think about it though, they are pretty much the same as hippos, right?

Last but not least were the giraffes, elephants, and the cutest little koala doing exactly what a koala should do...eat eucalyptus.  Stereotypes are true.

I will have to say....the San Diego zoo is amazing.  Lots of animals, but even more impressive is the layout.  It's beautiful there.  One of Jeff and my favorite things was the fact that as you are going through the monkey and aviary areas, you actually start out on walkways that are in the canopy of the trees, then you work your way down to the "jungle" floor.  There are lots of waterfalls and animals on your way down.  Pretty neat.

The place is huge.  And on a hot day...that can kind of be daunting.  I hauled my boys [Jeff included] around as long as I could, but eventually their tired whines won out.  I'd be lying if I didn't say that Jeff was doing the most whining.  He has no stamina.

Some other fun areas we visited were the kids play area where Kaeden got to ride a camel,

and Carter enjoyed the tubes.

But nothing beat the excitement Kaeden had for the overhead tram; even if his goofy face doesn't look like it.  The tram was pretty cool.  It gave you a bird's eye view of the entire zoo, showing how massive and covered in trees it is.

All in all it was a very good day.  Knowing how sick Kaeden would get just a few hours later, I feel bad packing him around, but he never once complained about being sick while we were there.

Would I go there again?  Probably...just not any time soon.  It's one of those places where I feel that if you've been there once...you're probably good.  But, as our kids grow it will probably be somewhere they'll want to visit again.  It's definitely an experience to be had, and I'm glad we got to do it.