San Diaaago

  San Diego, California, United States
Saturday, July 19, 2008

Every vacation needs a moment to take you back to your childhood. For this one, it was visiting the San Diego Zoo.

En route to San Diego on the 405

As we cruised down the 405, the "service engine soon" light came on. My first thought was, "it's a rental, ignore it." But then I quickly remembered the classic scene of Kate Winslett running from a broke-down car in an attempt to save the already doomed Gale (Kevin Spacey), in The Life of David Gale. Good thing my attention deficit conveniently kicked in and I stopped worrying about it, because it turned out to be nothing. Really not wanting to deal with traffic at all, I called my father about a different route. "405 it is. Whatever you do, don't go to Tijuana." My dad's closing words ringing in my head. Nevertheless, the drive down was picturesque.

Flamingo territory

Growing up in Northern Virginia, we were spoiled with the Washington National Zoo, an everyday, free exhibit. I had been hearing from Dick that the San Diego Zoo was right up there with my hometown zoo, so what better way to spend a romantic date? One of the first things we saw was a little too romantic. After seeing two gargantuan turtles show their love for each other, we needed to get that harsh image out of our heads.

Turtles kissing

Luckily, we turned the corner to see a couple of much smaller reptiles displaying more appropriate public affection. Alright, enough sappy elements for one day. It was time to move on to the more impressive creatures.

"What haven't we seen?" Hmm, how about monkeys with rainbow-colored tails, laughing hyenas, and dueling gorillas? Even the great Dian Fossey, bless her heart, would have had nightmares if she were in that mix! One of the gorillas had "sucker" punched another from behind, and it turned into an all-out brawl.

Mother and son

The spectacle really drew the attention of the crowd watching. Later, we watched the triumphant mother gorilla walk away with her son. "You see, son, that's how you whoop some primate butt."

The rest of the zoo left a little something to be desired, especially after paying the $49 entrance fee (each). The polar bear was dead asleep, the giraffe kept eyeballing me in a suggestive fashion, and the panda bear

Lunchtime with lazy panda

 looked like nothing more than me eating some nachos on the couch while watching Sports Center. The bird exhibit was fabulous and it's always a pleasure to see the koalas and zebras. But next time, Zoo Keeper Extraordinare, make sure the lions and tigers are visible! Instead, we settled for the shy wallaby joey. Five hours later, we finished the brief stop in San Diego with a hearty serving of my favorite food, Indian, from Royal India in the Gas Lamp District.

A real red-neck

Laguna Beach anyone?