San Diego Trip Report, Day 2

Day two of our mini-vacation was highlighted by our visit to the San Diego Zoo. We arrived a few minutes before the zoo opened at 9AM and took advantage of the fact that the zoo was nearly deserted in the morning.

The light attendance made touring the zoo a joy. Not only was it easy to see the animals up close (and to be able to linger, if we desired), the weather was absolutely perfect. Sure there was some walking to be done, but there were beautiful animals and plants to be seen all along the way. The Brewster Boys especially enjoyed seeing the pandas, meerkats and polar bears.

We did not bother with the tour bus because we wanted to see all of the animals up close. It took us about 90 minutes to reach the back of the zoo, where the polar bears reside. Along the way, we saw many rare and endangered species not typically seen in zoos, like the red panda and European black bears. The kids loved it because they did not have to jostle for position for a prime viewing spot, plus they could take their time whenever something interested them (such as the pandas).

At the rear of the zoo, we hopped onto the SkyFari to make our way back to the front of the zoo. There, we looked around at the Children's Zoo and other exhibits. At around 11:15AM, we noticed a huge hoard of families streaming through the entrance, and that's when we knew we had done the right thing by coming early. By 11:30AM, we were out the door heading towards our lunch destination, having seen around 80% of the animal exhibits at the zoo.

After relaxing back at the hotel, we headed towards the wharf and partook in a one-hour harbor tour of the Port of San Diego. It was a nice relaxing activity to end our day.

At the entrance of the San Diego Zoo (Jenny's Mom was with us)

The meerkats were a favorite of Russell's

Punky said that the pandas were his favorite animal, even though they didn't even move

Punky points out the lions to Russell

On the Hornblower one-hour cruise of San Diego harbor