San Diego Day 2

It was another awesome day in San Diego. Ed is a great tour guide. After a tasty breakfast, we headed directly to the San Diego Zoo. All along, I've been aware of Ed's surefire plan: (1) Get to the Zoo when it opens. (2) Race to the back of the zoo (via a "super secret" path, no less) to beat the crowds to the pandas. (3) Enjoy much of the park before the crowds arrive. Sounds like a good plan, right?

Well it turned out to be a great plan. It was a big help that we got to the zoo in no time. Ed calls San Diego "the easiest city to drive in." Unlike most other major cities, the downtown area is home to lots of bars, restaurants, and nightclubs, but relatively few businesses. The result is a city that's a piece of cake to navigate on a weekday morning.

Upon arriving at the park, we put our game faces on. On our way to the front gate, Ed quietly derided our fellow zoo patrons. "You think you're getting to the pandas before us, Mom?" he quipped about a flip-flop-wearing, stroller-pushing woman slowly walking towards the entrance. (I quickly looked down to make sure my shoelaces were tied tightly.) Once inside, we strode quickly towards the back of the park, gliding past birds, monkeys, and many other creatures which remained largely unexamined. "Hey, look at that baboon!" Ed remarked. "Stay focused!" he quickly added with a smirk as he sped around a corner. Having visited the zoo at least 12-15 times during the 13 months he lived here, Ed knows exactly what he wants to see and when he wants to see it. And his determination paid off once we reached the rear of the park. The line for the panda exhibit looked like this:



Well, ok. There was nobody there. The park had only been open for about seven minutes by that point. But can you imagine the lineup we would've had to deal with if we dawdled on our way in? Ironically, the pandas were napping when we got there, anyway. But I stand by the plan. It served us well for most of the morning, as it felt like we had the zoo to ourselves.

My favorite animals, by far, were the polar bears. They started out with some nuzzling, on the rocks a ways away from the observation window, then gradually moved closer...





And the play got a little more rough...





And they soon ended up in the water...













The roughhousing, splashing, wrestling, ear-biting, and hugging (by the polar bears, not me and Ed) continued for about 20 minutes as zoo patrons rushed from one window to the other and back again, snapping photo after photo. It was exciting, and definitely the best part of the trip to the zoo. In this last photo, realize that the polar bear shown is by far the smallest of the three.



The second-best thing we saw at the zoo were the elephants. Of course, elephants are just cool in their own right. But today we got to see two elephants being taken care of by a team of zookeepers. While they worked, they explained what they were doing to the small crowd that had gathered. You see, elephants eat pretty well in captivity. With a nutritionally-optimized diet comes a greater growth rate of their toenails than in the wild. This increases the chances of chips and fractures. They also tend to walk quite a bit more in captivity--many miles a day, in fact. This increased wear and tear on the pads of their feet leads to a greater chance of infection. Because of these factors, the elephants' feet require daily attention. This is all well and good until one considers how one might actually go about cleaning an elephant's feet.

I was amazed to see the trainers use vocal commands to instruct the elephants. To clean one foot, they simply instruct the creature to lift it up through the gate as shown:



Then they spray down...



and scrub the foot.



This elephant was standing with its feet in tubs for an antibacterial soak:



How do you get the elephant to put its feet in the tubs? Excellent question. It's easy. You just use a broom to push the tub into place...



and instruct the elephant to put its foot in and stay there. Remarkable.



The third-best thing we saw were Guenons (old world monkeys) fighting over and playing with an orange tape measure. (Ed and I agreed on this top-three list, by the way.) Since I didn't get any pictures, you'll have to take our word that it was a funny sight.

On our last push through the park, we did catch the pandas up and about:





We ended up spending nearly four hours at the zoo. Other than needing to blow my nose what seemed like every ten paces (I'm still fighting a cold), it was a very enjoyable visit. We had lunch at Taste of Thai in Hillcrest and then went back to the hotel to crash for a while (and blog). The Padres game (rather, the stadium) was cool. I'll get the PETCO pictures up later. Following the game, we walked through the vibrant Gaslamp Quarter near our hotel, eventually finding an Irish pub. As we sat listening to the live music (guy with a guitar), we discussed both how easy and how hard it would be to do that sort of thing.

It was a great day. Tomorrow we head up the coast to L.A.