San Diego...Old Town and Zoo

Monday, May 30, 2016

San Diego...Old Town and Zoo

Dear Family and Friends,

We timed our travel so that we left Los Angeles and arrived in San Diego without being in rush hour traffic. Even so, we were in heavy traffic...but at least it was moving. Chuck is a patient driver and that is what it takes to deal with the traffic.

We had two days to spend in San Diego. On the first day we went to Old Town. It is dubbed the birthplace of California. It is where the first Europeans settled in the mid 1700's.

Video Tour of Old Town

Below are Matt and Chuck cooling their heels under a big old shade tree.

Walking around Old Town is like going back in time. Many of the employees of the park wear period costumes.

Here is Matt making friends with an antique cigar store Indian.

and posing in front of an old Wells Fargo stage coach.

This photographer was taking this ladies photo. The camera was an antique and in order to have her photo taken she had to hold very still for several seconds.

On day two we headed off to the San Diego Zoo.

We spent the entire day touring the zoo. We started our tour by visiting the flamingos. In the picture below, they were squawking and carrying on over who gets which nest.

This flamingo was sleeping through the whole affair.

Here is a close up of one of the majestic birds.

This peacock obliged the crowd by displaying his beautiful tail feathers.

Oh goodness...the giraffes. I loved them.

The child below is staying real close to mama.

They have such cartoon like faces.

This adorable Koala Bear was busy napping away. We have a trip planned for Australia this fall. Hope to see a lot more of these adorable fellows then.

The cane wall and the stripes on this young zebra made an interesting picture. Did you know that when zebras are born they are brown and white striped and as they mature their stripes turn black?

These are Meerkats. They are native to the southern planes of Africa. They live in large groups. The second one from the left is sitting on his hind legs. This is very typical. There is usually at least one in the group that keeps an eye out to guard and warn the others if danger approaches.

I would say that this is a very tired camel. He has one hump which makes him a Dromedary. A camel with two humps is a Bactrian camel. We learned that the hump on the camel's back is made of fatty tissue...not water tanks.

Not all animals are destined to be cute and cuddly. But there is something about this wild African pig that is cute to me. Maybe it is his tiny ears and big head.

Here is a Gazelle enjoying the sunshine. The Gazelle is a type of antelope. They can run at very high speeds.

This baby Gazelle is so adorable.

When we were in the Galapagos Islands, last December, we were told that there were a couple of giant tortoises at the San Diego zoo. We found them.

I am not fond of snakes. That is one of the reasons I have not been to Ecuador's Amazon Jungle. But this snake is so darn cute. It looks like it has a puppy dog face. It is called a Green Tree Python. Although they are not poisonous they will bite....so don't be petting them. No danger of me doing that.

We had a wonderful day at the zoo.

Here we were in southern California and had to make our way back north. We could fly but that is boring. We decided to cruise north to get ourselves back home. Chuck's sister, Audrey and her husband were already on the ship. They had spent the last few weeks cruising the South Pacific. We joined them for a three day cruise from San Diego to Vancouver, B.C.

Here is the scene as we cruised away from San Diego.