I'm in San Diego with my kids, visiting my parents.
It's been a while since I was forced to rely on dialup as my sole means for connectivity for multiple days. I had forgotten how painful it can be.
About 9:15 this morning I had the urge to go over to San Diego Zoo. Which sounds strange, but isn't for a few reasons. First, I'm a big supporter of good zoos. In general I'm not a huge fan of the San Diego Zoo, because they still have the great majority of their animals in dirt pens that are far too small. The most aggregious example of this is the elephants. Their space is insanely small, and the elephants demonstrate the repetitive rocking behaviour that comes from stress induced by not having enough space. I'm a much bigger fan of the Wild Animal Park., which treats the animals much better. The Zoo is getting better over time, but it has a long way to go. Now the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle is a completely different story. 30 years ago it was all animals in cages. now there are almost no animals in cages (just the ones that need their environment artificually warmed, or things like insects that would escape). Plus, they have converted almost the entire zoo to habitat exhibits, because that's what we really need to educate people about.
But I digress.
The best time to visit a zoo (some would say the only time) is first thing in the morning. The animals are much more active then, and you get great pictures. If you come in the middle of the day or in the afternoon, they are mostly just lying around. The zoo is also much less crowded int he early morning hours, especially on holidays and weekends. Fewer screaming kids, and it's much easier to pay attention to the animals.
So at 9:30, my daughter and I headed out the door. We were inside the zoo by 9:45, camera in hand. Made a beeline for the orangutans, which are in a new exhibit that I wanted to see. Frankly, I don't think it's really better than the old one. They share an exhibit with the siamangs now, but it doesn't seem to be bigger or more naturalistic. And worse, they have fronted the entire exhibit with green tinted glass, which makes it impossible to take decent pictures. I will admit that the glass is great for kids to get close up with the animals, but I really miss having good opportunities for pictures. The old orang exhibit had an upper level overhang that was open air, and I have some amazing pictures from that.
The gorillas were fun. The alpha male was sitting with his back to a rock, and just as we walked in the clock tower in Baloa Park was chiming the hour. Apparently he didn't like that, because he covered his ears. I got some great shots of that. It never would have occurred to me that the gorillas would mind something like that, especially when they hear it so darn often.
The high point of the visit was the polar bears. Once agian, we timed it perfectly (by accident). As we walked in, two bears jumped into the pond, one with a rubber ball (you remember the ones we played four-square with in elementary school?) and the other with a big foam disc. They played with the toys, they play-wrestled with each other, they swam around. It was mesmerizing. I'd visited their exhibit 3 or 4 times before, but I'd never seen them in action before.
We expected to be out of there before 11. We actually stayed until almost noon, mostly just talking and not paying a ton of attention to animals. I can't think of a better way to spend the morning.
In the afternoon, my daughter and went out for a walk around Coronado (where we are staying). She had spotted a Cold Stone Creamery, and we indulged... well, mostly she indulged. We checked out a couple of art galleries, walked along the waterfront, talked, and swung by the grocery store on the way home.
I have amazing daughters. I'm the luckiest dad in the world.
11:54:38 PM  ; ;
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