The World Famous San Diego Zoo

It was everything I'd dreamed it would be and more!

Though our day started out rough with a nail in the front passenger tire of our rental car, we did eventually trade out the car and make it to the zoo. Poor Hilary had to listen to me squeal and take a million pictures at the entrance before we even made it into the zoo :) I was so excited to finally see the zoo's sign that I'd seen when I was a little girl, I think I might have hyperventilated a bit.

First of all, the zoo is beyond huge! And of course, I wanted to see everything; it was so hard to decide what to see first. However, what we saw first was most unexpected - a peacock, not in a cage, but sitting freely on top of the ticket booth making a very loud and obnoxious squawk (which Hilary can immitate perfectly, by the way.) Apparently there are three or four of these Indian peacocks that wander the zoo freely making their highly annoying and LOUD "may-awe, may-awe" noise. (Again, ask Hil :) We ran into these guys several times: one was eating a Skittle, another was trying to sneak into the gift shop by the entrance - but the best was the one posing with his plummage open for everyone. I mean, literally posing. Wherever the groups of cameras were, he would slowly circle around to face them. Like he knew he was beautiful and wanted to make sure everyone got a great shot! I took a few pictures standing next to him.

We got lost amidst the monkeys several times en route to the tigers and hippos. Sadly, the tiger was hiding from us, but we did see the pygmy hippos, and I so wanted to hug them :)



My favorites? Hmmmm...that's tough. Of course I love the elephants. The ones at the Zoo are the older elephants, and from what I could see they were all Asian elephants. You could look at their faces and tell they were older, but still adorable! I wanted to play with them so bad! The zookeeper even got one of them (Mary) to trumpet for us! We watched them eat and play for a while. Then we moved on to the giraffes.

I think the giraffes enjoyed the crowd that they ensue as well - at least the seemed to look at the camera it was pointed at them. Unless there was food involved. One of the zookeepers came out and fed them "giraffee snacks" while we were there. Apparently Thursdays - Sundays there are certain times that you can go and feed the giraffes for $3 or so. Darn that we went on Wednesday! Anyway, we still got to watch them line up fore cookies, which is hilarious considering their size.

The pandas! Apparently, the SDZ is one of the few zoos which has a successful giant panda conservation program, since several have been born at the facility since 1987 when they began the program. We got toe see baby Yun Zi who will turn one on August 5 this year. He is currently only 48 pounds and unbelievable adorable. He's still very uncertain of himself and is extremely curious. He loves to climb the trees in the exhibit and will do just about anything for a red apple, just like his mamma. We saw three of the adult females and this adorable little guy :)

I only took about a million photos - ok, 724, but who's counting? So clearly I can't post them all. Needless to say, I hope that I can go back to the SDZ some day! It was so worth the trip and to know that there are places doing so much to protect our endangered animals.



My last on the list of favorites has to be the meerkats. They run around like crazy and get the greatest looks on their faces. Both the zoo and the Wild Animal Park had a meerkat manor, but we spent more time at the one in the zoo. These guys are hams for the camera. Several of them would stop and look at me while I took a picture, then scurry off after I put the camera down. Can't say they aren't used to being adorable!

Snorkeling in La Jolla

La Jolla is such a fun place! Small college town, on the beach no less, with lots of young people running around in swimsuits and wetsuits. Hil and I snorkeled with San Diego Bike and Kayak Tours - basically we rented snorkeling gear and walked down the street to the beach where a guide (with very nice abs) showed us where to snorkel if we wanted to see certain things. Our plan was to snorkel with leopard sharks, who use the shallow waters of La Jolla cove during their summer mating season, and we saw plenty of them, plus some shovelnose guitar fish and a few others I don't know the names of. One fish kept following me and getting really close to my camera! It looked like he was trying to smile for it! The leopard sharks are very shy, so they made underwater photography more difficult than it already was (there was a glare so it was hard to tell what I was shooting.)



The water was also very cold. Make that VERY cold. Considering the outside temperature was under 70 degrees, the water had to be at least in the 60s. It was soon very clear why we were in full wetsuits! We snorkeled for a few hours before I looked up to ask Hilary where she wanted to swim to - only to discover her lips were turning blue! Needless to say we headed for shore.



It's no wonder people choose that little cove as a vacation spot though. I could have spent a weekend there easy just hanging out by the beach and snorkeling and kayaking around the cove.

Getting Ready to Live a Dream :)

OK, so I'm turning 30 this year (gasp!), and I'm getting to live a dream. Since I was a little girl I've wanted to go to the San Diego Zoo. You are all about to see why...

Home Sweet Away from Home - Weekend in SA

Procrastinator that I've become, I didn't pack until Friday morning, when I was supposed to be leaving. I couldn't believe how much stuff I brought; I used to be rather proud that I could travel efficiently, but I definitely looked like I was moving in with Laurie and Justin by the time I got done packing!

The journey always starts with the packing. Midget is not a fan of my suitcase, because she knows that means 99% of the time I'm leaving, and she's being left behind. Immediately when the suitcase came out of the closet, the whining started, and she was on my heels observing every movement I made with huge eyes.

Once I load up the car and come back in to tell her bye, she turns her head like a little kid and won't look at me - her version of a temper tantrum.

The drive to San Antonio was fabulous with no traffic or events outside of a few scattered showers and some minor traffic in Houston @ I-10 and 59. I got to SA around 3pm. My first stops? Scrapbook Cottage and Scrapbook 911. I mean - if I didn't have access to the Internet, I'd have nothing but the chain hobby stores to feed my expensive past-time! How cruel would that be? Anyway, I had a $10 credit at Scrapbook 911 from my previous exploits that I hadn't redeemed and plenty of time on my hands...which meant I had a bit less money left when I was done shopping.

Laurie and Justin were doing a family birthday celebration with their family for Justin's b-day, so I went to my old favorite Starbucks at the corner of West and NW Military to curl up with a book for a while. (Anyone that's interested, I finished all the Percy Jackson books now and I'm reading "Beautiful in God's Eyes" by Elizabeth George and continuing my Philippa Gregory books.) At 7pm I met up with David (whose Bible study buddies who were coming with us totally bailed on!!!), and we went to Azuca for some amazing food and salsa dancing - which is where we had his birthday party a few years ago. They had updated their menu, and I think it just keeps getting better. If I'd had my camera with me I think I would have taken pics of the food. It feels like a vacation restaurant; they put a lot of effort into the presentation as well. We danced until we were exhausted and couldn't stand the heat (the a/c isn't all that great in the place) and then walked around downtown. How I miss having a 'downtown' for one - and then having a place where you can just walk and stop in places just to see what's going on! I miss you SA!

I got to Laurie's about midnightish - navigating thanks to my iPod. We sat up and talked till about 2am until we had to force ourselves to bed. Poor Justin had drill all weekend so he didn't get to play with us on Saturday morning - which was a shame since we went to float the Guadalupe with Rockin' R. The river was fast and COLD! It was a huge shock getting in after standing in the heat to pay for 45 mins and sweating bullets (and all our sunscreen off). They told us at Rockin' R that we had to wear life vests because the water was moving at 180 cc per minute (or something to that effect where we nodded and said 'OK') or we'd get a fine from the county. Apparently there is a county ordinance when the river is that fast/high.

Well anyway, we survived all the rapids in our toobs without major incident - which is more than we can say for family in a raft that rammed a tree head-on and lost their life jackets and oars in the collision. The little kid in the boat hit something hard when they went down, because she came up screaming with a bloody nose. Fortunately, fellow toobers retrieved the scattered belongings that were floating and paddled to return them. At that point forward, they all wore their 'required' life jackets - which I don't think they had on prior to the collision.

Another interesting note - the cops on the river are mean! When we got to the long stretch between the rapids and the dam, they floated by in their little boat looking for reasons to write tickets to toobers. We asked about the life jackets, since several people weren't wearing them, and no one seemed to be getting ticketed. They said no one had told them to ticket for life jackets - so everyone started taking them off (they were a huge pain and made it very difficult to navigate the toobs - not to mention turn your head or move at all!). Then they proceeded to cite a group for having a cooler that was too big for that particular section of the river - like it's possible to do something about that while you're floating!?!? Rockin' R apparently rented them a cooler that was too big - which didn't seem right that the group could get cited when they thought they were rented an acceptable cooler. I mean, why would anyone question the acceptability of the cooler you were being rented for floating? Oh well. While they were getting ticketed though, the cops' boat decided to ram into Laurie and I - literally! First, he was steering to stick with the drunken cooler people and steered right into me with the motor on the boat - making some rude comment about it not being able to hurt me when I quickly pulled my legs into the toob to avoid contact with the propeller. (Like I wanted to stick my leg out and find out if it would or wouldn't mangle my outstretched appendage!?!) As we're dealing with that, one of the cooler group guys says, "Um, there's a tree" and Laurie barely had time to put her arm out before she rammed hard into the tree. The cop then says, 'Well that might hurt you' referring to the fact that the propeller wouldn't but his inability to navigate a boat with a motor might affect Laurie's consciousness. If she hadn't stuck her hand out, the back of her head would have hit pretty hard. If I'd had a way to report their badge numbers, I would have! They came and apologized about 15 mins later after they ticketed the other group - but never once asked if she was OK after the collision. The cooler people floated by and checked on us though.

The rest of the adventure went without incident. While we were waiting on the bus to get back to the car after the float, we learned that Rockin' R had lost about 32 of their vehicles in the flooding last month, which explained the long waits between the water exit and the transport back to the car. I guess I didn't realize how bad the river had been when I was hearing about the high water.

We went back to the house and showered. By that time Justin was home, and we decided that he, David, Laurie and I were going to go out to eat @ TGI Fridays and then we went to the movies to see "The A-Team." It was a good movie once I accepted the fact that Mr. T was not there to play his signature character.

Sunday's activities included church @ Castle Hills (and I LOVED having everyone hugging me and telling me 'Welcome Home' - I cried a lot that morning!) . After church, Laurie and I went to Chuy's and Fashion Bug (which could have been named that due to the infestation of crickets that were EVERYWHERE! Even inside the clothes on the racks!) We both bought a few things (they didn't charge for the crickets) and then went home to rest before Bible study. I got to see Devin, Khaliann and Elena (who is definitely up for the cutest girl in the world award) and Jennifer and Curt. After Bible study we ate at Incredible Pizza - and that pretty much ended the night's festivities. We went back to Laurie's and Justin's and sat and talked till late, and then I headed out this morning for a wonderfully quick drive thanks to the lack of early Monday morning traffic.

All in all, an AMAZING weekend! I took this photo on Friday, but it pretty much summed up the awesomeness of the whole weekend - though the photo doesn't do God's artwork justice. Thanks to J & L for letting me stay (and Justin for letting me have his wife for most of the weekend!) - and for everyone else I got to see and catch up with. I'll be back soon SA! Miss you!

The Baby Bird Story

Well, after the massive amounts of rain that we had last week, I awoke Thursday morning to find yet another bird nest in the front yard after the storms. Not unusual; I've lost count of the number of nests that have fallen out of the oak tree out front this summer. It's been a bad summer for bird housing. Midget and I find them all the time on our walks. Usually I leave them unless it'll be awhile before the yard guy comes. This one I had planned to leave, but I did have to walk by it to get the water hose so I could take care of the plants on the porch. I was quite surprised when a very large mouth popped up out of the mangled nest and began chirping away.

This is the first time I've found one of the nests on the ground with the residents still inside! I got closer for a look and started noticing the adult birds up in the trees making awful noises to deter me from eating their young. Turns out there were two little fledglings still in the nest who had amazingly survived the fall. So I had to figure out how to get them off the ground so the neighborhood cats wouldn't eat them. (I didn't want to have to rescue another injured one from a cat.) I'm quite thankful I have those coconut hanging baskets now! I scooped up the babies, nest and all, and put them in the basket, which I then hung in the tree.

I peeked in on them a few times on Thursday afternoon and Friday before I left to go visit Laurie and Justin (another blog entry to come), and the babies were doing great! I named them Icarus and Apollo (fell from the sky and I've been reading the Percy Jackson books).

I got back today and was sad to find an empty nest. I kinda figured they'd died and Mom had disposed of them so the bugs wouldn't be attracted to the yard. But I noticed the birds were still trying to keep me away from the tree, so I started looking in the bushes nearby - and sure enough, one of my babies had feathers on his wings (but was still bald and fuzzy up top) and was perched in the bushes!

I only saw one, but I think that both my babies survived and will fly off! I'm so glad that I had a few more babies survive the summer heat and the weather that has been destroying the nests this year :)