We are a family whole loves to go to the zoo. Even before we were married, we would visit the Kansas City Zoo often. It's just a peaceful place where you get fresh air, be one with nature and get a great walk with beautiful views! While in NY several years ago, we attended the Central Park Zoo and had a blast! It's a great zoo too. I truly recommend it. You don't feel like you're in the city. It's so quite, and again, a peaceful place to visit. We also attended the Lincoln Park Zoo while in Chicago last year. It's free, which is perfect while on a vacation, and fairly large. Again, we are zoo people!
So when I made my list of forty things to do before I turned 40, I indicated that I wanted to go to the San Diego Zoo. I honestly didn't think I would actually get to go. I hadn't planned a trip to Southern California in my head when I made the list. My main focus was Italy, so when that fell through, the next logical place was California, right? As soon as we booked the airline tickets, I knew that I would make number four a reality!
It's a long trip from LA to San Diego, about an hour and a half, but such a beautiful drive! You have mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. McKinley, who isn't up for long car rides, was at first enthralled by the views. That quickly turned sour so we read and watched You Tube videos to pass the time. (What did we do as kids on long car rides? On that's right, nothing! If you couldn't read, which at two I couldn't, you just sat in the back of the car and rode! These kids today have it so easy!)
We finally arrived in San Diego and made our way through Balboa Park to the zoo. I purchased our tickets online so no standing in line for us! We made our way through the gates and were right in the middle of the expansive view of the zoo entrance. It was amazing! We asked McKinley what he wanted to see first. His response, the double-decker bus that was headed our way. This happens to us at the KC zoo. Does he want to see animals? No! He wants to see the school bus, aka tram, and all the golf carts that make their way through the zoo. Maybe someday he will care about the animals. Maybe not. Joel and I decided that we would make our way to the Elephant Odyssey and what an odyssey it was! The elephant exhibit was huge! It's not that they had a large number of elephants, but their lay of the land was enormous! We even got to see one having their nails clipped in the elephant care center. Get your nails clipped by one person and be fed lunch by another. Where do I sign up?
We continued our journey through Africa where we found large lions, cheetahs, camels, llamas and zebras. Then came Northern Frontier, and as if on command, the temps turned cold! We started off with light layers, that were eventually removed, only to be added back within minutes! We covered McKinley with his blanket and he said "That's much better." Even he was cold! Their polar bears were snoozing, opening an eye every now and then, loving the chilly temps. We saw moose, which we don't have at our zoo, and they were so cool! Not in temperature, but as in so cool to see! They were enormous, by my standards anyway. And their antlers were impressive!
At this point in the zoo, we could go to Panda Canyon and the Asian Passage, but we decided to head to the Lost Forest. Inside the Lost Forest is a menagerie of animals, no pun intended. We saw amazingly huge hippos, a vast array of monkeys, turtles and alligators, and a swimming cat. That's what it was a called, a swimming cat. I've never heard of any cat loving water so this was huge news! Lastly, as we made our way to the beginning of the zoo, we found pink flamingos and McKinley found them to be hilarious! Since we never really get to see them at our zoo, it was fun to see him expression!
On our way out of the zoo, McKinley asked to ride the carousel, however this zoo didn't have one. I remembered seeing the one in Balboa Park, so we took a minor detour on the way to the car so he could take a spin. This was an old carousel that flew! I mean flew! It was roughly 15 miles an hour where newer carousels go around 10. Five miles an hour doesn't sound like much, but when you're spinning, it really does! He also wanted to ride the "small carousel", planes and butterflies that spun around on chains, and ride he did! There was a little train that ran around the park, but the entrance was back at the zoo, so we had to tell him no. It was getting late and we still had the hour and a half drive back to LA. He said, "Maybe next time, Mama." Next time indeed!!
There were several parts of the zoo we didn't see, and we really couldn't have in one day. If we do make it back to Southern California, the zoo is definitely on the list of things to see again. Or continue to explore.
But for now, I can say that number four is complete! For now....
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