San Diego Day 4

The fun continues! This morning started out cloudy, but the sun came out later in the morning and was in and out the rest of the day. No complaints here. The forecast for today is mostly cloudy, and rain moving in sometime in the next 24 hours. It's OK if it is raining tomorrow when we are leaving, as long as it is not so much rain as to interfere with our travel plans.

But I don't want to think about leaving just yet, so let me tell you what touristy things we did yesterday. 

It was zoo day. We were there as the gates opened and we walked around for more than 3 hours checking out the animals. The animal photos I have included are the orangutan and an anteater carrying a baby on her back. 

Almost as interesting as the animals was the diversity of the tree and plant life. Every where you looked there was a different variety of tree, and by different, I mean trees we never see in Rochester! The flowering plants added such a nice splash of color-the blooming long-stemmed birds of paradise are just past their prime, but are as common as daffodils or tulips at home. The photo at the top of this entry is just one of the many flowering plants that decorated the zoo.

The next photo is called "Feeding Time at the Zoo." Notice these 2 specimens look a little skinny and like they could use a good meal!!

After the zoo, we used our GPS to located the nearest Mexican Restaurant for lunch and there were about 5 to choose from within a mile of the zoo. We choose the second one we came to because there was place to park right next to it. I think Tucker would like to eat Mexican food for 3 meals a day. I'm OK with one or two meals!

Because the weather was nice, we decided to tour the aircraft carrier, The Midway. This ship has a long and important military history and is now permanently docked in the San Diego harbor. We took a self-guided tour, using head phones and little digital radio-type things that provide you with info as you move around the ship. It was a good way to tour the majority of the ship. In order to go up to the flight control deck and the bridge we needed to get on a guided tour, which we did. It was all very interesting and it would be exciting to see one of these ships in action when planes are taking off and landing every 42 seconds! With 4,500 men on this ship, it was a floating town and we saw everything from the laundry room to the brig.

From the ship, we drove across the beautiful bridge to Coronado, where we walked through and around the very fancy Hotel Del Coronado. This photo shows us standing in front of a Dragon Tree, one of Tucker's favorites. 

We thought about having dinner somewhere in Coronado, but it was a bit early so Tucker suggested we stop into a local bar and have a drink. This younger crowd is full of good ideas! We walked into an Irish pub (what, no Mexican!!) and found nice table with a view of a TV that was showing the Syracuse basketball game. It was Happy Hour at this pub so we had discounted drinks and a half-priced appetizer. Unfortunately SU lost, but it was fun to watch. We were quite full from our appetizer sampler so we came back to the beach house with plans to get a pizza later. We ended up walking down the ocean walk about a mile to a pizza place and had a nice meal. 

So that was our Monday. Today we will do a museum and then head north to La Jolla to do some hiking.

Hope all is well.