Zoo Day

We really lucked out on weather this trip - San Diego temps were in the mid to high 60’s, overcast with just a little breeze. Perfect for outdoor adventures.

 

The day started off with what could have been a big problem. While we were getting directions to the tour bus, Leanne slid her finger through the metal eye-screw for a gate latch and got it stuck. Really stuck. By the time she told us, her finger was starting to swell where she’d tried to pull it out. And of course, people were backing up behind our little log jam. I had visions of paramedics and bolt cutters and long explanations to her mom from an ER bed. The volunteer helping us opened another gate for those behind us while I liberally applied chapstick to Leanne’s finger and the metal. A few twists, a maybe-not-so-gentle-ish tug and she was free. Like the nice volunteer said, “I’ve never seen anything like that before!”

Fortunately, things got better from there. 

We saw lots of animals

including a close-up look at Leanne’s favorite, the cheetah, 

and this very cool secretarybird, a raptor with the body of an eagle and the legs of a crane, that looked like something straight out of a Harry Potter movie.

The girls climbed

and played 

and Leanne got the henna tattoo she desperately wanted (after Leia got one yesterday).

We rode little buses and double decker buses

and the sky-tram twice

just because it was so. much. fun.

But the best part of the day, for me anyway,

was sitting on a quiet, shaded bench 

watching mama hippo and her 2-year-old son do absolutely nothing except rise occasionally to the surface for synchronized breathing. Wish I could have stayed there all day.