365 Days in SD, Day 33: The San Diego Zoo

So this was actually two days ago. But between Calen's double ear infection, Camden's boycotting of sleep and me attempting to break my habit with Pepsi, I didn't get to it until today. Sue me. 

You obviously can't visit San Diego, much less live here, without at least one trip to the San Diego zoo. Luckily for us, it's five minutes away from our house. Even luckier, the military offers discounted annual passes which we indulged in. Monday we took our first ever trip to one of the most famous zoos in the world with some Coastie friends, and man were we not disappointed. 

This zoo is big. Big big. For four years we were accustomed to our cutesy little free zoo in Cape May, in which a single tiger and a lion were about as exotic as it got. Don't get me wrong, we loved that tiny little zoo. Especially the free part. Especially free with smaller children that lose interest after an hour. By the end of that hour, we had walked the entire zoo already and it was time to go home. Done and done.

Now that the kids are a little older they can tolerate/enjoy bigger and better things. I don't think you can get much bigger or better than the San Diego zoo. We spent four hours there, and didn't even cover half of the exhibits. It's hard, being there amongst the trees and the wildlife and humongous habitats, to remember that you're still within San Diego city limits. And there's not a palm tree in sight. Maybe that's why I like it there so much. There's also animals I've never seen in person, particularly PANDAS, which I kind of wanted to kidnap and take home and snuggle and pretend it wasn't going to eat my face. 

Munching on bamboo. Can I keep her?!

Anyways, we went in the late afternoon because they have a summer program called Nighttime At The Zoo, where they keep the zoo open late so that you can see all the nocturnal animals actually be awake and active after dark. That was an especially neat experience for us, not only being at the zoo after dark, but seeing the tasmanian devils and koalas actually awake, bouncing around, eating, and being particularly adorable. 

I want a koala too. To go with my panda. Military housing will totally allow that, right?

Because we have annual passes and because there's so much to see, we'll be going back a lot. Calen said it was his favorite thing he's done so far. Maybe we'll make it a weekly thing. 

Friends at the zoo observing one of their own kind

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