Wed. Jan 5th 2011, San Diego Zoo

Join us as we travel North America in our Holiday Rambler Vacationer, 

 since August 2006

      To start the day off with coffee, sunshine and warm weather. And remembering that 26 years ago today my youngest daughter Jessica came into this world, Happy Birthday Jess!!!

San Diego Zoo

      Today's agenda is a day trip to the World Famous San Diego Zoo, which began after abandoned animals where left here after the 1915 Panama-California Expostion. We start with a late breakfast then a nice 30 minute drive to San Diego's Balboa park where the huge almost full parking lot for the Zoo was, arriving just after 10:00am. We parked the car and bought our tickets for a one day pass (and I got a senior discount!) This pass includes a 35 minute guided bus tour over about 80% of the park. Having done this we have an idea of the layout of the zoo. It is on 107 acres of land with some very steep terrain and heavy jungle like vegetation. Now having done this we begin walking to a few areas and can also hop on and off what they call the express bus, that stops at 5 designated bus stops. So the plan is to mostly walk downhill and take the bus up the steeper ones. There is also a couple of low areas that have moving walkaways to return you back to the higher levels as well.

having fun on the bus

       They also had a Skyfari Arial Tramway included in the price of the ticket but it just happened to be closed this week for maintenance. Walking and riding and looking at all the animals, the scenic settings and information on all these different types of animals was overwhelming. I took lots of pictures and with so much to see. The koala bears, elephants, hippos, giraffes, lions, tigers, bears, monkeys and a lot of strange and exotic animals to see. I think we both agree that the Panda Bears were one of the most interesting, in a secluded very quiet area there was three of these guys just sitting back contently chewing on their meal of bamboo. The facilities here are very well maintained and one thing we did notice was the abundance of gift and souvenir shops each with a theme to the area of the zoo that we were in. Also quite a few restaurants and snack shops again themed to the areas that they were in. Typically very expensive for standard snacks and drinks. so we decided no lunch here we will stop for a nice supper on the way home.

      Now at 3:00 pm we figured its about time to head out and see if we can find our way home to beat the San Diego rush hour. Well not too bad we took a scenic route (that means we had no clue where we were) and how we made it to where we wanted to go but eventually ended up in Rancho San Diego, close to Jamul and the campground where we decided to stop at TGI Fridays for supper. This turned out to be good choice, I had very tender BBQ'd ribs with all I could eat Cajun shrimp and Suzie a steak, lobster tail and loaded mashed potatoes. It was actually quite reasonable compared to what we would have paid for a burger at the zoo.

     After supper a nice 10 minute drive home in time to see the sun setting behind the hill, and watch the border patrol chopper noisily checking out these same hills for illegal immigrants. Now to relax with a book and a bit of tv.

Todays Pictures at the Zoo

forgive me for not naming all the animals in the pictures,

just click on the slide show to look at individual pictures

Visitor Number

Caribbean Cruise, 2008

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Thurs. Dec. 30th 2010 San Diego

Join us as we travel North America in our Holiday Rambler Vacationer,

 since August 2006

      After a rainy wednesday it was cool overnight and we woke up to a very heavy frost on our car in the morning. Something we haven't seen for quite a while.

Frosty car roof

      But its going to be a sunny day and almost warm enough. We started the car to defrost it and headed out to San Diego at 8:00am this morning, a nice one hour drive thru the winding mountain roads, very scenic. Today we are going to take a sightseeing tour with Vizit Tours . We located their sales office in Old Town San Diego and were directed to a free parking lot 2 blocks away. We have never been to this area before so we find a sightseeing tour is usually a pretty good bargain. We chose this tour for the good price and flexibility of it. When we arrived we find that for $15.00 each we can get a pass for the two loops for two days, half price. So this is a deal, an open air bus, narrated by John, a jolly fellow with lots of information. Oh and we can hop on and hop off anywhere along the route and pick up the bus and hour oh so later.

Suzie by the Bus

      We have a nice day ahead of us and we have another bonus as well The Port of SanDiego Big Bay ballon Parade, this is billed as America's Largest Ballon Parade. The Parade route is of course right where we want to go and slows us down somewhat but, hey we got to see more sights at a slower pace and up close view of the parade from the vantage point of the open air bus right from the beginning. Then we were detoured around the Parade thru downtown to Seaport Village, at the south end ofthe parade. We got off our bus here and enjoyed some more of the balloons and bands for a while. With Seaport Village right there we decided it best to begin our walkabout before the parade ends to avoid some of the crowds. The souvenir shops, restaurants scenic walkaways and waterfront view was very nice. We grabbed a snack at one vendor to hold us over until we had lunch. As nice as this place looked it was just an expensive tourist trap, So after about 90 minutes we were ready to move on. Next to the village was an aircraft carrier that we could tour " The USS Midway"  , but thats a day all to itself.

We saw this beautiful flower in one of the gardens,
does anybody know what it is??
It is the Bird Of Paradise, Thanks Sharon!!

      Now Shortly after 12:00 John returned and we hopped on the bus for a nice narrated tour of  the Gas Lamp Quarter downtown, Horton Plaza, ( both have high end restaurants and shopping). Then on to Balboa Park,  the famous San Diego Zoo ( this will another day of sightseeing) and back along a different route to Seaport Village to pick up another couple. Then a different route thru Little Italy then to Old Town. Here we got off the bus and we shared a nice late lunch at Miguels Mexican Cantina. From the free chips and salsa, a coupon for a free appetizer ( tasty, tender calamari), then a delicious appetizer of ceviche (raw fish, scallops and shrimp in lime and onions) and bacon wrapped camaron (shrimp) tortillas, spanish rice and beans. So good (a little spicier than Suzie likes thou), After this a walkabout Old Town for a bit then decide its time to head home about 4:00pm to avoid some of the traffic that is coming into town for the football game tonight.

      Now with so much fun sightseeing and information to absorb after a great day of sightseeing and full tummies, we can relax at home and reflect on what we saw and did with the couple hundred pictures that I took for the day. An maybe plan another excursion into town at some point before we leave the area.

Lots more of Todays pictures

Visitor Number

Caribbean Cruise, 2008

Notice the controls for this New Map on the left side, you can zoom into different areas of the map and see where we are or have been.

View Winter 2010- 2011 in a larger map