Wednesday, August 16, 2017 – San Diego Zoo
We spent the last day of our vacation at the world-famous San Diego Zoo, located on 100 acres of the great Balboa Park. The entrance fee is a hefty $52 per person, but we saved 5 bucks each with a coupon, and the parking is free. The price includes a guided bus tour, the Kangaroo bus (for intrazoo transportation), and the Skyfari aerial tram, as well as all regularly scheduled presentations.
Tom in his natural habitat
We got to the zoo in the late morning and headed directly for the double-decker guided bus tour. We sat on the top, but I think you could see just as many animals if riding on the bottom. The bus tour takes about 40 minutes and traverses 75 percent of the zoo, giving a good overview of the different exhibits.
African elephants
Masai giraffe
Bornean sun bear
Flamingos
The San Diego Zoo is home to 3,500 rare and endangered animals, representing more than 650 species and subspecies. It is one of the few zoos in the world that houses and successfully breeds giant pandas, and it is home to the largest number of koalas outside of Australia.
Western lowland gorilla
Gorilla selfie
Giant panda
Cute koala
The San Diego Zoo was a pioneer in building "cageless" exhibits, and the zoo is divided into a number of habitats. The grounds are very hilly, and there is a high elevated path which allows you to see the surroundings from above. The vegetation is spectacular as well. The zoo maintains its grounds as an arboretum, with the botanical collection including more than 700,000 exotic plants.
Polar bear
African penguin
River hippopotamus
The Skyfari aerial tram connects the low-elevation entrance of the zoo with its highest point, providing a bird's-eye view of the zoo and much of Balboa Park. We rode it a couple of times and also took the hop-on/hop-off Kangaroo bus to help us backtrack so we didn't miss anything as we meandered the park's circuitous paths. We spent about six hours here.
Lesser kudu
Jaguar
Jana on the Skyfari aerial tram
Skyfari aerial tram
We left the zoo at 5:30 and drove to Mt. Soledad, home to the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial, its 822-foot elevation affording great views of the Scripps Pier in La Jolla and the Mission Bay area of San Diego. Marked by a 29-foot cross, the memorial honors our American veterans. We visited this spot in February, but the weather and views were much better today.
Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial
Scripps Pier from Mt. Soledad
View from Mt. Soledad
In the evening we walked from our hotel to Rosecrans Street, where we planned to eat across the street from the pub we visited last night, but when we got there, the original pub looked so inviting that we returned again to the Harbor Town Pub for good beers and great burgers. Tonight they were doing karaoke, and the singers (for the most part) were great. It was a fun end to a fun trip! On Thursday, we flew back home...
Harbor Town Pub
Words to live by...
THE END.
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