San Diego Zoo

The fun thing about where we were staying, was being able to hear the bugle's go off promptly every morning at 8:00 am. We must have been staying close enough to some military base to hear them. By day 3 the girls had learned to sleep through them. But, we were still up in plenty of time to get breakfast, pack, and head over to the San Diego Zoo!

We packed the cooler and wagon, so we planned to be there for the day. Definitely a good thing, because the zoo was absolutely ginormous!

We found a lion who sleeps just like Mr Mittens.

And we learned not to stand too close ...

This is the closest we will ever get to a Rattlesnake ... My mind was reeling.

The SD Zoo has this really cool section where it highlights fossils, tar pits, and dinosaurs who used to live in the area.

The girls were thrilled to hold a real Ivory tusk - it was heavy!

The Zoo had trails that went everywhere! We went down into a forested area and found the gorilla's, which was so cool! It's not until you are right up close to them when you realize how powerful they really are. We got to them around lunch time, and it was so cool to watch someone throw them a head of lettuce and how easily the gorilla would catch it. The girls loved sitting on the other side from this one - he was beautiful! He kept trying to hold his lettuce up to the glass, as if he were trying to share.

We walked so far, and the zoo was so big, that we had to take the Gondola to get us across the zoo. Quincey was having a moment, so Greg took one for the team and went with her in a gondola while I rode with Quincey and Claire. The ride was beautiful and a much-needed relief for all of our walking.

We heard good things about the playground at the SD Zoo and it did not disappoint! There was something for everyone and the girls had a blast!

The girls were starting to wilt. We had done A LOT of walking.

Greg was being artsy.

Turtles!

Even Greg got in on the action.

We ended the night at THE YUMMIEST Mexican food joint. Like for real, my mouth is still watering 1 year later just writing about it. As you can see by the food in Greg's mouth and on his face, he couldn't wait to eat it either. It was SO GOOD! And, they had fresh squeezed Mango Lemonade!!!

And there was a dedicated Luchador corner .... amazing!