Nick and I have been lucky enough to host two (count 'em, TWO) sets of guests in the last month! Not that Columbus, OH isn't a swingin' vacation destination of its own, but it kind of pales in comparison to sunny San Diego ... and as we get closer to our departure, we've been glad to be able to show off our fair adopted hometown a few more times before it just becomes "that paradise in which we used to live."
Back in early March, my brother Randy and his wife Jenni came out to spend some of the last kid-free vacation time they're going to have for, oh, 20 years or so. Jenni is in her last trimester and was truly glowing and lovely. She's one of those pregnant ladies who look totally unpreggo from the back or from the neck up (or hips down), which makes me awfully jealous because I'm pretty sure when Nick and I have kids I'll be fat down to my pinkie toes. It was fantastic to spend some good family time with them - things have been so stressful here lately, it was nice to see their faces.
We spent a really great day at the zoo. The weather was exceptionally good, warm and sunny but with a cool breeze. A San Diego Special. We headed right for the lizards and Galapagos tortoises (my favorite first stop at the zoo). There were a couple of these outrageously colored lizards. I mean, seriously ... what kind of habitat are these guys trying to blend into? Hillcrest?
Here are the tortoises. Before San Diego Zoo was even a zoo, it was a menagerie set up for the Panama-California Exposition in 1916. The exposition was to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal and San Diego's prestigious position as America's first port city on the route up the Pacific Coast. After the exposition, a local physician decided to make it a permanent zoo and several years were spent trying to construct a permanent set of enclosures. A bear, elephants, and the various animals from the exposition made up the small set of animals at first, with the usual zoo animals filling in the collection. And then in 1928 a passionate New York conservationist donated a collection of galapagos tortoises to the zoo. Those original tortoises are still alive today, at well over 100 years old. Thus began the San Diego Zoo's mission of conservationism!
A gharial, a lesser-known species among the crocodilian family:
And one of the park's many long-necked birds (ibis, cranes, and herons), a Blue Heron:
Of course, San Diego Zoo's main draw are the pandas. It's hardly the only zoo in the country to have pandas, but the SD Zoo's panda breeding program is the most successful in the country, resulting in a very close relationship with the Chinese panda breeding initiative. It's also one of the only zoos where you can see the pandas in open air (instead of behind glass) in large enclosures. This set-up would theoretically make for great picture-taking, except that the pandas are awake about 80 minutes total each day ... so you end up standing in line for an hour to see sleeping blobs of black and white. Well. This time we were so lucky. After waiting in line the appropriate amount of time, we walked past the first enclosure (no panda) and started walking toward the second enclosure when I noticed that there wasn't the usual crush of people behind me. Hum. So I turned around just in time to see the panda wander out from her indoor habitat toward the food that the keepers had been laying out just minutes before (I thought they'd just been cleaning or something). Cameras up! Click away!
I believe this is Su Lin, a 4-year-old panda, the third to be born at the zoo. Here she is, popping up for a treat:
Grabbing the treats:
And climbing down her balance beam to get even more treats (they look like doggie bones!):
You can see just a teeny hint of her tongue as she licks up her goodie:
We walked up to Polar Bear ridge and took the Skyfari back down. Randy's taking pictures of his friend Jim, Jim's wife, and her daughter in the next gondola back:
And Jenni:
Randy gets me:
We stopped over to visit the koalas, which are always so cuddly looking. Too bad they bite. Hard. Vicious buggers.
Look at all that beautiful eucalyptus!
It was getting late in the day and we were making our last stops over by the big hooved animals. We happened to catch the giraffes at feeding time. I love the curve of their necks in this picture:
There was a relatively new baby (a month or so old) and a slightly older juvenile. They were both taking a bit of a break while mom and dad (or mom and auntie? mom and sister? cousins?) fed at the trough.
Here's the slightly older guy, stretching out his one wee (or not so wee) leg:
To cap off the day, we visited the rhinos. The Zoo and the Wild Animal Park both have a good crash of Indian rhinos, due mostly to very successful breeding programs. At one time, the number in the wild was down to 2,000 or less. But because of the breeding programs, the San Diego Zoo has been able to send Indian rhinos back out into protected wilderness areas to repopulate. Here are some pictures of the Indian rhinos:
Even though Randy and Jenni were only able to be out here a few days, it was wonderful to see and spend some quality time with them. The big negative to life in San Diego is being so far away from our families. As much as we may grumble about having to trudge through Ohio snow or the dreaded "wintry mix" or having to sweat our way through a midwestern summer, I don't think Nick or I will ever take for granted the opportunity to live closer to our families.
Well, this post is getting quite long, so I think I'll break it into two and publish about Chris, Kate, and Josh's trip out here in a separate post. So ... more to come!
Back in early March, my brother Randy and his wife Jenni came out to spend some of the last kid-free vacation time they're going to have for, oh, 20 years or so. Jenni is in her last trimester and was truly glowing and lovely. She's one of those pregnant ladies who look totally unpreggo from the back or from the neck up (or hips down), which makes me awfully jealous because I'm pretty sure when Nick and I have kids I'll be fat down to my pinkie toes. It was fantastic to spend some good family time with them - things have been so stressful here lately, it was nice to see their faces.
We spent a really great day at the zoo. The weather was exceptionally good, warm and sunny but with a cool breeze. A San Diego Special. We headed right for the lizards and Galapagos tortoises (my favorite first stop at the zoo). There were a couple of these outrageously colored lizards. I mean, seriously ... what kind of habitat are these guys trying to blend into? Hillcrest?
Here are the tortoises. Before San Diego Zoo was even a zoo, it was a menagerie set up for the Panama-California Exposition in 1916. The exposition was to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal and San Diego's prestigious position as America's first port city on the route up the Pacific Coast. After the exposition, a local physician decided to make it a permanent zoo and several years were spent trying to construct a permanent set of enclosures. A bear, elephants, and the various animals from the exposition made up the small set of animals at first, with the usual zoo animals filling in the collection. And then in 1928 a passionate New York conservationist donated a collection of galapagos tortoises to the zoo. Those original tortoises are still alive today, at well over 100 years old. Thus began the San Diego Zoo's mission of conservationism!
A gharial, a lesser-known species among the crocodilian family:
And one of the park's many long-necked birds (ibis, cranes, and herons), a Blue Heron:
Of course, San Diego Zoo's main draw are the pandas. It's hardly the only zoo in the country to have pandas, but the SD Zoo's panda breeding program is the most successful in the country, resulting in a very close relationship with the Chinese panda breeding initiative. It's also one of the only zoos where you can see the pandas in open air (instead of behind glass) in large enclosures. This set-up would theoretically make for great picture-taking, except that the pandas are awake about 80 minutes total each day ... so you end up standing in line for an hour to see sleeping blobs of black and white. Well. This time we were so lucky. After waiting in line the appropriate amount of time, we walked past the first enclosure (no panda) and started walking toward the second enclosure when I noticed that there wasn't the usual crush of people behind me. Hum. So I turned around just in time to see the panda wander out from her indoor habitat toward the food that the keepers had been laying out just minutes before (I thought they'd just been cleaning or something). Cameras up! Click away!
I believe this is Su Lin, a 4-year-old panda, the third to be born at the zoo. Here she is, popping up for a treat:
Grabbing the treats:
And climbing down her balance beam to get even more treats (they look like doggie bones!):
You can see just a teeny hint of her tongue as she licks up her goodie:
We walked up to Polar Bear ridge and took the Skyfari back down. Randy's taking pictures of his friend Jim, Jim's wife, and her daughter in the next gondola back:
And Jenni:
Randy gets me:
We stopped over to visit the koalas, which are always so cuddly looking. Too bad they bite. Hard. Vicious buggers.
Look at all that beautiful eucalyptus!
It was getting late in the day and we were making our last stops over by the big hooved animals. We happened to catch the giraffes at feeding time. I love the curve of their necks in this picture:
There was a relatively new baby (a month or so old) and a slightly older juvenile. They were both taking a bit of a break while mom and dad (or mom and auntie? mom and sister? cousins?) fed at the trough.
Here's the slightly older guy, stretching out his one wee (or not so wee) leg:
To cap off the day, we visited the rhinos. The Zoo and the Wild Animal Park both have a good crash of Indian rhinos, due mostly to very successful breeding programs. At one time, the number in the wild was down to 2,000 or less. But because of the breeding programs, the San Diego Zoo has been able to send Indian rhinos back out into protected wilderness areas to repopulate. Here are some pictures of the Indian rhinos:
Even though Randy and Jenni were only able to be out here a few days, it was wonderful to see and spend some quality time with them. The big negative to life in San Diego is being so far away from our families. As much as we may grumble about having to trudge through Ohio snow or the dreaded "wintry mix" or having to sweat our way through a midwestern summer, I don't think Nick or I will ever take for granted the opportunity to live closer to our families.
Well, this post is getting quite long, so I think I'll break it into two and publish about Chris, Kate, and Josh's trip out here in a separate post. So ... more to come!
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