It was a jammed packed week, but no time in San Diego would be complete without a trip to the San Diego Zoo….
Disclaimer *some of the pictures might be a bit blurry, as the camera setting mistakingly got changed*
During the years of 1915-1917, the Panama-California Exposition was held in San Diego celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal. The exposition had many exotic animals on display. In 1916, a group of businessmen, led by Harry Wegeforth, came up with the idea to obtain the animals and create a zoo. The zoo now covers 100 acres and has 3700+ animals.
The lion statue at the front gate is in honor of a lion from the exposition.
While we were waiting for the zoo to open we bought hats.
At Disney they have a rope drop to enter the park, but at the San Diego Zoo it is the Flight of the Macaws.
The zoo provides a bus tour that is included in the admission price. In 1926, a retired school teacher donated two buses to help bring school children to the zoo for field trips. The staff realized that the buses could also be used to transport guests around the zoo grounds. It turned into the most popular attraction at the zoo. The buses are now double-decker, with one line for the bottom section and another line for the top section.
The top of the bus was a great place to see the animals early in the morning and the bus is on a different route than the walking paths. Our driver provided excellent information about the animals and zoo.
The tour let us see the animals from a different perspective but also to get a look at the park, so we could plan our day.
After the bus, Wyatt and Kaylee enjoyed the orangutans
We watched the tiger eat his breakfast
Then we watched and listened as another tiger roared, one sat right in front of Kaylee
We loved the hippo exhibit and viewing them underwater.
Jim was very excited because in January, we will see these penguins in the wild in South Africa.
The Panda exhibit had just reopened and a nice volunteer helped our group sign up for a viewing time, so we only had to wait a few minutes. We are lucky and have now seen them twice as we saw the pandas when they were at the zoo in 2011.
The gorillas were fun to watch…a girl asked us if we could move our “big butts” so she could see and our family responded…lol, but yes we did move.
The gorillas came right up to the window..
We had to compare our hands and feet to the gorilla
We saw snakes, monkeys, birds, and baboons
In the afternoon, the lions were awake and roaring and roaring and roaring
The leopards were pretty chill
Of course we had to walk on the “Backside of Water”!! Once a Disnerd, always a Disnerd.
Elephants!!
A Circle of Life picture!!
We visited the North Pole…but only saw two “polar bears” as they were all asleep, but we enjoyed the play area
Wyatt loved being a polar bear and jumping on ice flows
One way to get from one end of the park to the other is on the Skyfari aerial tram.
Another way is to walk across the Sky Bridge
The reptile area was “creepy” and it had a truly “wild” inhabitant…lol
Giraffees…
Our last animal of the day were the Koalas
It’s not often we are all together so we bought the zoo pictures…what an awesome day!!
Back at the Welk Resort, we celebrated a successful day, with animal plates and a sweet pork buffet. What a great way to end a perfect day!!
