This 4th of July, we elected to make use of our annual passes and head down to the zoo. The weather was a little gloomy at first and we experienced a little bit of drizzle, but it was only a light misting. We really only saw it during our drive down, but it was over by the time we got to the park. It was still a little chilly (I use that term lightly because: 1. It's never "chilly" in San Diego. 2. It's been so hot everywhere else that I feel bad if I complain.) A light sweater and I was good to go.
Personally, I love our zoo. It's not just the abundance of animals, but the layout and the terrain. It provides a real challenge for me and let's me get some work in on the legs. :P The annual pass also entitles us to rides on the Skyfari, so we could ride that down and up the hills as we got tired.
The peacocks did not disappoint. Immediately upon entering, there was one who had his feathers on full display in the flamingo's pond area. There was (of course) a huge crowd gathered around, but Paola managed to fight her way in and get a picture. We decided to head over to the new Reptile Walk exhibit and immediately saw a bunch of Galapagos Tortoise. One of them graced us with an up close experience and a volunteer walked over and let Heidi feed him some celery. His name was Oliver. He has the number 23 painted on his shell. I'll be keepin' an eye out for him next time we are there. :)
Oh, I almost forgot! Before we made our way down to the Reptile Walk, we went through the reptile house and got a closeup with a Komodo Dragon! That was cool. The monitor lizards are some of my favorite animals to see and the dragons are definitely the coolest. He hung out near the glass there for the entire day. We saw a crowd near that area when we were rollin' out.
The most exciting moments of the day were brought to us by the cats. First and foremost, tigers are one of my favorite animals to see. They are so beautiful, yet usually elusive....as you can see from the picture on this post, I managed to get a great shot of a tiger at rest just a few feet away! I was stoked after leaving that exhibit and certain that was going to be the highlight of my day.....it was not. We walked over to the lions. There was a male and a female in the pen but they weren't really in a good position for a picture, so I started to walk off. I noticed that there was a decent view behind some glass a few feet away, but it was still a long way off for my little camera. Just then, the male stood up and started walking my way. He ended up walking over to just a few feet from where I was standing at the glass. Nobody was there yet, so I had a good opportunity to get a few pictures and I had already staked out some real estate.....Well, I guess he wasn't too fond of the fact that people were looking at the leopard cubs instead of him, so he went ahead and got attention the only way he could.....he started bellowing. I don't know if I would call it a roar, but if there's one level below that...that's what he did. Everyone rushed over, but I had already snapped a few pictures. :)
If you click on the link to the leopard cubs, it's entirely self-explanatory. There's no reason to write about that, you can watch it, it was adorable.
All-in-all, we had a good time. We ended the night watching some live music on Front St. then headed back up to the house. We were on the road when the fireworks went off. The entire night sky in San Diego was brightened, it was a neat thing to see as we listened to patriotic music on loop. Not sure what the plan is for next 4th, but this 4th was a lot of fun.
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