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Since our only goal for the day was to visit the San Diego zoo, we decided to sleep in. Our exhaustion led us to sleep to the late hour of 9am (yes, I wake up earlier on holidays then I ever do in actual life), which amusingly enough, missed us our hotel breakfast since we have the 'honour' of staying in the only hotel we've found so far that ends its breakfast at 9am. Dad ate some leftovers from last night for breakfast and I scarfed some granola bars so all was well. The next hour or so was spent trying to upload photos since, while the connection here is fine, it positively hates uploading stuff. So consider that this entry was brought to you by hours of work on my part. Anyway, around 11 we decided to head off to the zoo which was about 15 minutes from our hotel.
The San Diego zoo is rather famous, and very large with lots of hills. We didn't finish seeing all of it actually since our feet were hurting so badly. I'm quite happy with what we did see though. The park has some wonderfully innovative and attractive habitat designs. It made taking pictures quite convivial most of the time. I loved the rainforest aviary where you could wander through and spot over 20 varieties of birds. I also thought the hippo tank was pretty cool with lots of alternate views both above and below water. I really enjoyed seeing the gorillas, some of the big cats, the meerkats, the warthogs (there were babies!), the otters, the pandas (which included a baby), the giraffes, and the rhinos. There were a lot of species I'd never seen before, which is always a plus.
I saved the best part for last, which for me, is always the reptile house and exhibits. They had some great snakes there, including an emerald tree boa I wanted to take home. So cute. I also liked their variety of turtles and tortoises and the sheer number of poison dart frogs they had (though I have yet to go to any sort of exhibit in any park/zoo/aquarium/etc. which keeps the class clear enough for you to get decent pictures of the little buggers). By then, we were exhausted, I had a pounding headache from dehydration (I had brought a bottle of water into the park, but it disappeared very quickly and when we stopped to buy a very overpriced soda since the water fountains are few and far between and taste funny, our lemonade disappeared like the wind, which eventually caught up with me), but we did stop to view the myriad of stuffed animals they had and I succumbed to temptation and bought a stuffed badger and an anteater (what?).
From there, we headed back to our hotel via 163 which took us past a Book Off I'd spotted on the way down. We stopped off there and I introduced Dad to the joys of $1 hardcovers and books. He actually bought a lot more than I did, since all I did was pick up a few mangas and one or two $1 kids books I've been meaning to read. After a half hour there, we went to the Mitsuwa which was in the same shopping centre, and bought the fixings for okonomiyaki (thus saving us a drive to the Mitsuwa in Edgewater, NJ when we get home). I picked up some makie-e stickers for my cell phone, and introduced Dad to coffee in a can, Japanese style. It was 6:30 by then, so I suggested we eat at Mitsuwa. We both got kitsune udon (my favourite udon of sweet fried tofu for those who don't know). Dad really liked the flavour, but not the difficulty of eating it. From there, we headed back to the hotel. It was a long, rewarding day, so I went to soak my blistered feet in the hot tub, then settled in for the joys of trying to upload photos here.
We head to Los Angeles tomorrow, then on towards the Grand Canyon.
The San Diego zoo is rather famous, and very large with lots of hills. We didn't finish seeing all of it actually since our feet were hurting so badly. I'm quite happy with what we did see though. The park has some wonderfully innovative and attractive habitat designs. It made taking pictures quite convivial most of the time. I loved the rainforest aviary where you could wander through and spot over 20 varieties of birds. I also thought the hippo tank was pretty cool with lots of alternate views both above and below water. I really enjoyed seeing the gorillas, some of the big cats, the meerkats, the warthogs (there were babies!), the otters, the pandas (which included a baby), the giraffes, and the rhinos. There were a lot of species I'd never seen before, which is always a plus.
I saved the best part for last, which for me, is always the reptile house and exhibits. They had some great snakes there, including an emerald tree boa I wanted to take home. So cute. I also liked their variety of turtles and tortoises and the sheer number of poison dart frogs they had (though I have yet to go to any sort of exhibit in any park/zoo/aquarium/etc. which keeps the class clear enough for you to get decent pictures of the little buggers). By then, we were exhausted, I had a pounding headache from dehydration (I had brought a bottle of water into the park, but it disappeared very quickly and when we stopped to buy a very overpriced soda since the water fountains are few and far between and taste funny, our lemonade disappeared like the wind, which eventually caught up with me), but we did stop to view the myriad of stuffed animals they had and I succumbed to temptation and bought a stuffed badger and an anteater (what?).
From there, we headed back to our hotel via 163 which took us past a Book Off I'd spotted on the way down. We stopped off there and I introduced Dad to the joys of $1 hardcovers and books. He actually bought a lot more than I did, since all I did was pick up a few mangas and one or two $1 kids books I've been meaning to read. After a half hour there, we went to the Mitsuwa which was in the same shopping centre, and bought the fixings for okonomiyaki (thus saving us a drive to the Mitsuwa in Edgewater, NJ when we get home). I picked up some makie-e stickers for my cell phone, and introduced Dad to coffee in a can, Japanese style. It was 6:30 by then, so I suggested we eat at Mitsuwa. We both got kitsune udon (my favourite udon of sweet fried tofu for those who don't know). Dad really liked the flavour, but not the difficulty of eating it. From there, we headed back to the hotel. It was a long, rewarding day, so I went to soak my blistered feet in the hot tub, then settled in for the joys of trying to upload photos here.
We head to Los Angeles tomorrow, then on towards the Grand Canyon.
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