San Diego part 2: zoo & sea world

With 11 people it's hard to do anything or go anywhere very fast. Therefore, my suggestion to anyone in a similar situation is to take the things you want to do, and cut it in half; and that should get you to a more realistic plan of action. This is not me complaining, we were plenty busy. I just think you should know that there is so much to do in San Diego that you will want to prioritize the things you'd like to do and see.  

We walked so much that at one point I thought it possible for my legs to fall off. Thankfully, the zoo had a 40 minute bus tour that I was happy to ride, as well as a Skyfari (see above) that hoisted you high in the air and took you from the front to the back of the zoo in mere minutes. Not long enough, if you ask me. So in the name of "zoo orientation" I happily rested my bones. And since our tour was full of animals (as you'd expect) the only exhibit that required any real effort to go see was the panda. And let me tell you, it's cute. Unfortunately I can't tell you its name, if it was a male or female, how old or big it is, how many other pandas live at the zoo...basically, I can tell you nothing. I was too busy vying for a spot to snap this picture. Did I mention how cute it is?

Sadly I did not get in my normal amount of people watching as I would have liked, but the upside of my predicament is that I was a full-on Sea World participant. No sitting on park benches for me. I'm not sure, but I think my last time at Sea World was during my middle school years and in San Antonio. My favorite memory from that experience was going to the Shamu show. Can you honestly tell me you didn't want to be Jesse from Free Willy, and have a healthy obsession about being an orca trainer after seeing that movie? Oh, that was just me? Ok. Well anyway, I was excited to see shamu and all 11 of us showed up 30-ish minutes early to grab a seat in the shade and away from the splash zone. We knew the show was going to be a little different because a baby orca had just been born two days before our arrival and it would focus primarily on its birth. But what we didn't anticipate was a short show with no tricks. It was a bummer, to say the least, and just like that it was over in 15 minutes.

My mom dusted off this relic, circa 1993, at said San Antonio Sea World. I'm thankful that baseball style shirts and white shorts are so 20 years ago....

Annnnnnnd, it's currently snowing! I hope it snows and snows and snows because our crops are so dry. Thirsty thirsty thirsty.