I'm going to try to recap all that went down in San Diego first before trying to tackle San Francisco, so here we gooo...
[hot, right?]DAY 2: After an unsuccessful attempt to wake up early after our night out at Gaslamp, Anna and I finally got up sometime around noon --- just in time for low tide at La Jolla Shores. Last year we had a great time snorkeling with Uncle Joey and our Kiwi buddy Nathan, so we asked if we could do it again this time around.
So Uncle Joey, Uncle Mike, new buddy Brent, Anna, and I set out for the beach. Unfortunately, the beach was PACKED, both sand and surf, because it was a Sunday afternoon AND everyone knew that the leopard sharks were back in town for breeding in the shallow waters. Uncle Joey dropped us off with the snorkeling gear and boogie boards before going to find parking, and after about 45 minutes, we were in the water.
[I love my underwater camera case :D]The water was warm and full of kayak and snorkel traffic, and I had quite the struggle with my boogie board because my rib is still injured (I slipped in the bathtub a couple of weeks ago and am still recovering), so I only got to see one leopard shark; all of the activity in the water was scaring the sharks away, and I was preoccupied with avoiding drowning.
[leopard sharks --- totally harmless ;)]Fortunately, Uncle Joey swims like a friggin' dolphin, so I handed my camera off to him and he was able to spot about 20 leopard sharks and take pics of them. He also took several pictures of me and Anna trying not to drown. :)
[happiest place on earth]
DAY 3: DISNEYLAAAAAAND! Who cares if I'm almost (*gulp*) 25? My love for Disneyland will never fade. No trip to southern California would be complete without a trip to the Magic Kingdom.
Uncle Joey works in LA during the week, so we hitched a ride up north with him at 5am and were outside the Disneyland premises by 6:30am. Disneyland doesn't actually open until 8am, so with time to kill, we grabbed breakfast at IHOP.
[7:48AM and still happy to be there]We lined up to buy our tickets around 7:30, so by 8:05am we were IN. I have to admit though, Disneyland really doesn't feel like Disneyland that early in the morning, especially when the sky is gray and the air is cold. It kind of smelled like garbage, too.
The good thing about getting there so early is that the lines for rides are really short. In the first couple of hours, we were able to browse a lot of the shops and fit in four rides (Buzz Lightyear, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Carribean, and the Haunted Mansion). And thankfully, the sun decided to come out to play and the garbage smelled slowly got replaced with the smell of popcorn, cotton candy, and churros.
[California Screamin': unfortunately, we did not go on this one for fear of further injury to my ribs]We had the 1-day hopper pass to go between the two parks, so after California Adventure opened at 10am, we headed over to ride Soaring Over California. We ventured further into the park than we did last time and rode the big ferris wheel and the swing ride inside of the giant orange (I don't recall the names of these ones) before stopping for lunch (and gossip).
[C is for...]All in all, we were at the Disneyland resort for 12 hours. We didn't go on many more rides, but we did a lot of browsing and shopping, as well as sitting and talking. It definitely lived up to my expectations.
[our DIY picture in front of the castle]DAY 4: For our last full day in SD, Uncle Joey took Anna and I to the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park, located about an hour north of where the uncles reside. It was originally the space where the zoo animals were taken care of (bred, acclimated, nursed to health, etc.), but I guess a while ago they had the bright idea of turning it into a Jurassic Park-like wildlife reserve.
[view of the open range portion of the park]It was pretty cool --- we went on a tour of the reserve on a tram and go to see a lot of the animals peacefully coexisting on 18 acres of land. Most of them were antelopes and other antlered creatures, but there were also rhinoceroses, giraffes, zebras, and birds.
[Nola the Northern White Rhinoceros]I consider myself to be quite the animal lover (except when it comes to birds... sorry), so I ended up taking more pictures of the animals that day than I did at Disneyland.
I found a new appreciation for rhinoceroses (rhinoceri? is that the plural) on this trip, especially for the one pictured above, which is a female Northern White Rhinoceros. This species is extinct in the wild and there are only 8 left in the entire world (three of which are currently living at the Wild Animal Park). Unfortunately, it is unlikely that any efforts to repopulate the species will be successful as most of the females are beyond their fertile age and there's only one known male left (also located at the Wild Animal Park).
[steady chillin]We also caught one of the shows at the park, bought a few stuffed animals, and rode the carousel once before leaving to eat and then head back to the house to rest. Our San Diego trip was short this time around, but we were still able to do everything we had intended to in an abbreviated amount of time. Good times, man, good times.
Until next time... Stay classy, San Diego. ;)
1 comment:
milo? where's milo? does he have a blog of what he's doing without you?
i picture him walking around aimlessly...where's tita? where's my other momma (assuming aunty's the first mommma)?
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