Our last day in California was spent at the San Diego Zoo. I had been there as a child and remembered it being one of the best zoos in the country, but it had been almost 20 years. I was taken aback immediately by the size of the parking lot, and then when we took a look at the map, saw how large it was. There were double decker buses departing right inside the gate for tours and they have their own Hop On-Hop Off bus route, as it's almost impossible to walk it all. A lot of it is also not handicap and stroller accessible and the map even outlined the best route for those on wheels.
We decided to do the bus tour first and then go back on foot to see anything of interest.
We were glad we did the bus tour first because we saw a lot of animals out that weren't there (or asleep) when we went back on foot. Tigers were one of those we caught a glimpse of from the bus only.
The polar bears were another we only saw from the bus.
We saw six elephants out while on the bus, whereas we only saw two out later.
The bears were in a part of the zoo that was going to be refurbished soon, so much of the area was empty and we were glad that we knew this so we didn't bother walking and seeing almost nothing.
A baby giraffe that was only five months old.
A baby orangutan.
I love my new camera and the woman behind me even noticed how close I was getting on my screen and said she wanted it for Christmas. She said I had the best view and it was pretty much true.
Tribal Brady
Koalas are one of the animals that you don't get to see in many zoos across the country and because they're all in the trees, we couldn't see them well from the bus. We were told they sleep 22 hours each day because they don't get much energy from the eucalyptus that they eat. We were fortunate enough to see most of them awake!
Pandas are also a rarer animal in zoos and we waited 40 minutes in line to see them. It was well worth the wait though.
We had a great day at the zoo and would love to go back and visit again when the kids are older.
