Wildlife...and the Zoo

Hi, Readers, we are about to run out of days, but yesterday was another good one.

We started with the drive from Anaheim to San Diego.  In what has happened before, somehow Michael, driving, and his navigator, whose name I will not mention, missed some maneuver and instead of "just staying on I-5" (the navigator and Googly's instructions), we decided to see some beachfront communities.  In the end, we didn't waste too many minutes, but there was much discussion of who screwed up -- the backseat seemed to throw the navigator under the Hyundai SUV -- and away we went.

In San Diego, we went straight to the zoo.  It IS the best zoo in the world.  Period.  I heard one of the staff there say "it's only 120 acres."  It seems bigger.

Let's start with the classic San Diego zoo photo:

Neither panda was awake.

But then I got this souvenir, which was worth the $10. :)

Pongo enjoyed the ride. :)  Dr. Slavin, not so much. :)

I always enjoy the tiger -- there are two pretty good pics.
And Karen's favorite, here's the few weeks old giraffe.  He's not quite 6 feet tall.

The funniest moment (I remember) was on the people mover, up the hill (saving us steps).  In a moment of ineptitude, I caught my foot against the running board and tried to roll down the people mover.  Karen caught me to keep me from hitting the ground.  I heard about this for the rest of the day.  And dinner.

We checked into the very nice hotel -- the Sheraton at the marina -- across the road from the airport (convenient for tomorrow's exit) and Karen and I got in the hot tub just outside our room.

Michael and Barb, on the other hand, upgraded "to a suite." You know, how the 1% lives.  BTW, Michael likes to read the Wall Street Journal.  He's a liberal elitist snob. :) (and it's MY blog :))

Then to the gaslamp district for dinner.  The gaslamp is a part of old San Diego that has been revived with restaurants, clubs, etc, and has people milling around till all hours.  I saw a sign advertising 40 restaurants.

We ate at a place that claimed to be the best Mexican place in the district.  Michael said it was the best Mexican food he'd ever eaten.  My phone gave out so there's not much food porn, but here are the appetizers -- shrimp tostada and the guac, which was excellent.  And we had drinks (me a strawberry frozen margarita) before dinner.  HERE'S the LINK

Then we walked around the block (from 4th to 5th st) to this gelato place.  Michael said "I've had more ice cream on this trip than I've had..." and I said "you didn't have ice cream." :)

Then back to "the suite" to play cards.  Michael whined (with charcuterie) about not catching cards as he and Karen won two straight games!  I showed how to be a bad loser, as well as how to be a bad winner. :)

And now, one full day left. Pout.  Ah, well...someone has to go back to work.  I'm not sure who.