Easter Sunday at the San Diego Zoo

Day 5 The San Diego Zoo

We woke up and I headed to the provided breakfast at the Comfort Inn and Suites on Hotel Circle . It was located on the fourth floor. There were many families also grabbing a bite to eat before headed to their Easter celebrations or their travel plans. In the parking lot there were cars from many different states.

The breakfast was pretty good with sausage, eggs, cereals, and four, yes four waffle machines with two canisters to pour out the patter. Two of the waffle machines that you activate by pouring the batter from little cups and dropping and turning the handle 90 degrees made four tiny individual waffles.  They were used continually the entire time that I was in the breakfast rooms. There were two eating areas that had TV's set up so that the morning news would not be missed. Some of the families were from other countries and almost all of the breakfast crowd had kids along with them.  All of them were really well behaved and understood that the whole thing was a terrific treat.

We got all geared up and headed out the door. I had checked the maps and confirmed that we were just 15 minutes away. The Iphone gave offered us two choices. One choice had us zooming down the freeway to connect with Interstate 5 and then after 5 minutes on the Golden State, we would take an exit and head up the hill to connect with Balboa Park. The other choice, which saved about 5 minutes had us back tracking up the freeway and jamming over the top the ravine's hill and down the other side to connect with the crossroad of I5 to Balboa Park. We took that one and with just one crazy move that almost took us off the freeway in a suddenly appearing exit only lane to enter at the base of the Balboa Park hill.  Balboa Park is a wonderful San Diego treasure with the zoo occupying the back third and museums, Imax movies and other picnic and park treasures connected to the side of the hill. It was once the cite of a world's fair and many of the buildings and infrastructures remain. Many are being updated to accommodate earthquake standards and Americans with Disability act accessibility.  One of the really cool things about this public park including the zoo is that the parking is free. This also makes the parking lot very large. Many families had brought their picnic to the park and were enjoying their families on blankets and portable chairs.

We did a drop off here in front of the zoo entrance with Sue's power chair because it would save some of her battery and I had forgotten to pack my big camera. So I dropped her off and retraced my route back to the hotel and picked up my camera.

When I returned Sue had found some treasures in the gift shops and we were ready to board a two tiered open aired bus to see that grounds.

The entrance fee is the same as the entrance fee at the Safari Park, 45dollars. You can save a little by showing your AAA card at the entrance. If you live close by, you may be able to save some serious money by buying a membership. It is still a great deal when you look at the value included. Newbies like us get a bus trip from one end of the park to the other with a knowledgeable guide that points out all the salient features of the park. A casual visitor will see about 75 percent of the park with this help and can pick and choose where to go once the bus drops them off at the top. Every bus rider is cordially invited to have their photo taken and prints are available with the license to use the prints sold extra.

We took the zoo bus and has a great time looking over all of the parts visible from the bus. It was now time to think about a little lunch.

Most of the crowd had bought lunch and were on their merry way. We picked the sandwich shop looking for a salad and a sandwich. I picked the pulled pork sandwich and Sue picked the California salad sans avocado.  We shared up and had a perfect lunch.

After lunch we staggered around on the top terrace and took in some of the animal exhibits.

And interesting one was a small exhibit on hummingbirds. The zoo had established a great arboal cannopy  within a small area. When we first walked in it was hard to see whether anything was housed in this little area. pretty soon jealous birds starte to appear and it was obvious that they were ready to protect their territory. A couple of very tourquise and tellow bird started flying overhead. Then some birds with a touch of red on their throats seemed to appear. It was really a place to sit down and watch as these birds seem to be doing more flying than hoovering.

We checked out the monkeys  and the baboon enclosure, The wooded treeline inclosure allowed the monkeys to swing easily in a 5 story arena. We got to the bottom of their enclosure via an elevator. Ofter zooming around on the ground floor a while we looked at the map and discovered that the tiger area was not far away. We were a little dismayed when the route to the lions was posted with a beware of walking devices warning. When we asked about it at the top, the people said that it was indeed pretty steep and probably not a good idea to push that limit. After experiences at the San Francisco Japanese Tea Garden, where the only way up the the gift shop was to unmounted the power chair and walk beside it, we decided to not take a chance in San Diego with little battery endurance. On Easter Sunday, all of the usual people that help make these transitions were not around.

We stopped at a few other exhibits along the way, including a much smaller meekat display, and decided that we had gotten our money's worth so we headed back to the car and back to the hotel.

When we arrived, there were suddenly many more spots to park in the parking garage. and the place seemed a little unpopulated.

After a rest Sue asked me to go get something to eat for us. By this time I was trusting the Iphone maps to navigate me home. It was daylight and much easier to find yourself around. I knew there was a big shopping center just up the freeway from us but it was completely shut down do to the Easter celebrations. So off I went to look for someplace open.

I came across a spot that looked promising. I followed a tour bus off the I5 connection and he dead ended in Point Loma. Point Loma is a interesting area of San Diego. There are many hotels here just like Hotel Circle on the I8. It is also home of the farthest West spot in San Diego area. A state park area called Cabrillo State Park sits at the end of road. The major road through this area is Rosecrans. A great little amenity area is located up the hill from the Shelter Cover marina area. It claims to the the America's Cup port. When I arrrived there were people who had spent the day on the Bay/Ocean and were getting back into their cars to go home.

I found an ATM and a Greek oriented pizza place called Gus's. It featured gyros, kabobs, and pizza. It was run this evening by a couple of Latino kids. I ordered a 12 inch pizza to go and a antipasta. The pizza was 13 bucks and the anti pasta was 8. Both seemed like great deals.

I used the Iphone navigator to get me back to the hotel. It was now dark and the basic instructions were just head down Rosecans for a couple of miles. Then it talked me through the cloverleaf sections of the freeway and soon I was back home.... even in the dark.

Sue was pretty pleased at seeing the pizza and it was a very good pizza. We saved the antipasto for dinner at our next night's stop, Solvang.