Adventure #4: The San Diego Zoo

We spent a very warm Day 7 at the San Diego Zoo. You know it's world famous, right? It's so famous that just by going you become famous too. We got our picture taken or at least offers to do so around every corner.

We started the day with a 40-minute bus tour of the zoo. It really is a lovely zoo with a sound commitment to the environment. We had a great bus driver who gave us a peek at the majority of the zoo's animals. She spoiled us really. We had to do some serious cost-benefit analysis later in the day when deciding which hills were worth pushing two strollers up in order to see the animals up close and personal.

This picture of the giraffes was taken from the bus. Would you have walked back to see them again? Us either!
We went to the sea lion show. It was fun although Madelyn was bummed she wasn't picked to be the kid who got to feed the sea lion squid and get a kiss from him.
This was my favorite exhibit. Children in nature, but be careful because they're prone to ask for drinks, food, and demand rides even when all four stroller seats are taken.
A highlight of our zoo visit was seeing the panda bears. Well, sort of. This poor girl was in heat. I'm thankful our kids were too tired to ask what that meant or consider the panda's pacing behavior unusual.
Madelyn took over the camera for the cat walk. Most of the cats were sleeping but she got this good shot of a duck.
Our second zoo 'moment' came at the koala exhibit. A handler brought this guy out and placed him on the tree right in front of our eyes. He was so cute and fuzzy, you just wanted to squeeze him. I settled for giving Harrison an extra squeeze instead. He's not as fuzzy but his nails are much less threatening.
Seth was fixated with a kelp snake for several days of this trip so we decided to take him to see some real snakes. I hope to never see Seth carrying one of these around.
The first five visited the petting zoo with Mark while I tended to Harrison. Chloe made friends with a goat.
Next was the aerial tram. It was refreshing and fun because any vehicle suspended above the ground is exhilarating. We had to take two trams because there is a 4 per car limit. We're finding that more and more often we are filling things like cars and tables to capacity.
Our last stop was souvenir shopping with the six kids. Yes, we're scheduled to have our mental health checked. Going into the experience we rationalized it by telling ourselves that it's good for children to have choices and to meet budgetary expectations. It really wasn't that bad other than our children's painful inability to make a decision about spending money, which Mark would say they inherited from me.

All in all, it was a good day. We learned a lot about why the San Diego Zoo is world famous. The enclosures do seem more authentic than we've seen at other zoos and it is pretty cool that they grow food for the animals on the grounds. But the animals didn't look any happier and I was definitely not happier having to walk so far to see them, pushing a double stroller uphill, both ways. And it did seem a little too commercial. I did mention they're world famous, didn't I?