The San Diego Zoo

I never thought that the San Diego Zoo was so . . . hilly and green. I was truly amazed. It was nothing like what I had expected it to be like. I guess I'm not sure what I really was expecting. Maybe something more like a bigger Hogle Zoo. It was still very nice. We decided to start the day off on a tour of the zoo. We rode a double-decker bus that took us around the whole zoo. We were able to see about 70% of the zoo from the bus. It saved us from a lot of walking. I tried to get a picture of everyone on the bus, but Hunter was having one of those 2 year old moments and was being uncooperative. Oh well, such is life.

There was a really cute play place that had some playground equipment the kids got to play on for a while. You had to cross a little bridge that had water that would spray over it. We tried to get a picture of the water, but it was kind of hard to predict. In that area of the zoo, there were all these little statues and figures that the kids had to get pictures with. Hunter was really funny about these. We had to go all the way back to one area just so he could sit on the tortoise.



We rode the sky ride over to the other side of the zoo to get a better look at the polar bears then make our over to the aviaries. Brooklyn and Hunter rode with us while Autumn rode with Brian's parents. It was fun watching the kids' faces as we rode high above the zoo. It got a little chilly, so we were glad to get back on the ground. When we got to the polar bear exhibit, there weren't there. We were a little bummed out until we saw one of the keepers bring out food. So we decided to wait a round a little while. The kids had fun playing in a little cave and poking their heads out with the seals. They also had to get their picture taken next to the figures of the life size polar bears. Hunter loved the baby bear. He would not go anywhere until Grandma took a picture of him with it. too Soon after both polar bears were let out to enjoy their treat.



We wanted to go see the panda bears, but the line was insanely long, so we decided to go to the aviary instead. It was amazing. There was a large waterfall in the middle of it and you were so close that you could almost touch these beautiful birds. Actually, there was one bird that was so friendly that he sat on the path following people. The zoo keeper actually had us help him try to catch him. He said that sometimes the birds are so familiar with people, they follow them out of the aviary. He finally flew to another area and hopefully will stay away from the walkway.
The last area we decided to see was the monkeys and gorillas. When we got to the gorillas, two of them were playing. They played so gently with each other. Biting and pulling at one another. Hunter was really cute when we got to the monkeys. He is my little monkey so I had to take some photos of him with the monkeys.

It was a long day, but a lot of fun. We didn't stay too long because we still needed to drive up to Anaheim that day. But not before stopping and getting a picture in front of our last stop before leaving, the flamingos. A very fun day and hopefully memorable for the kids.