Days 80 & 81 -San Diego

Wednesday, September 19
San Diego is home to one of the most highly rated zoos in the world. Today we found out why. They do a fantastic job keeping the exhibits well maintained and they have a very wide variety of animals. I saw several animals I had never heard of and some of which the San Diego Zoo is the only western hemisphere zoo to house them. They have the largest Koala group outside of Australia and they lay claim to 4 of the 6 US panda births that have survived. The zoo was fantastic, you really need 2 days to take it all in. We saw just about every animal, but we cruised through many of the exhibits to cover ground quickly. The two most impressive sightings of the day were seeing two polar bears wrestling in the water right next to the viewing glass and seeing two hippos walking under water. Hippos have so much fat that when they walk on the bottom of the water they look like they float between steps. We also got a kick out of watching a baby monkey try to play with his mother who didn’t want to play at all. Tomorrow we will go to Legoland and then on Friday we will see the outdoor wildlife park, which is set like a safari.
Tuesday, September 18
We began the day with another trip to the beach. We figured that we ought to take advantage of the ocean as it was within walking distance. The sky was overcast, so the air temperature was fairly cold for swimming, but that didn’t seem to phase Levi and Seth. They both got pretty good at body surfing and experienced the reason that most people don’t do it for very long. Those of you who have bodysurfed probably know that you can get slammed into the sand if the right conditions occur. Both boys experienced that and decided that body surfing was not something to continue. We headed south from Huntington Beach to San Diego. We got to the campground pretty early so I took care of an oil change while the kids played at the playground. They rented a four person bike-like vehicle, which provided a good wearing out for the kids and Sheri.