San Diego Zoo

Wednesday May 1st-San Diego Zoo

Today, we spent the whole day at the zoo.  It was an overcast day until later on so the animals were active.  Janae and Stefan liked getting the opportunity to hold a toucan during the bird show and enjoyed seeing the proud peacock display it’s spread.  We are a little spoiled in Colorado Springs because we have a very good zoo but it was fun to experience this one with it’s reputation and all.  We saw some animals for the first time.  We had a private viewing of a pangolin which is an interesting creature from Asia.  There are only three in captivity in the world and their scales are like our fingernails.  Janae and Stefan we’re particularly impressed or grossed out that it made a urine trail as it dragged itself back to it’s shelter.

We all loved seeing the polar bears swim.  So massive and graceful under water as they had fun eating carrots while they swam.  We got to see the infamous pandas.  We learned that they are on loan from China and San Diego is one of four zoos in US to have pandas.  China charges 1.2 million dollars a year per adult and 1/2 million for the babies.  San Diego is getting a special discount at 1/2 a million for the adults and $100,000 for the babies because of special favors (not sure what) that San Diego has given.  Now I know why the ticket prices are so steep.  Paying China on top of general upkeep I’m sure is no easy task.

The zoo is huge and we appreciated the gondola rides to get to the other side.  Stefan thought it was a once in a lifetime experience to see an elephant releave itself and he brought several smiles from fellow bystanders with this comment.

The zoo has beautiful vegetation that we enjoyed and got to see over and over again as we couldn’t find our way out.  Not a good marital moment as Mark and I each thought we knew the way out and we kept ending up in the same place.  We didn’t feel too proud of ourselves when it took us an hour and a lot of complaints from the peanut gallery to find the exit.