March 12, 2012

The San Diego Zoo is world renown, and since I enjoy photographing animals, we couldn’t leave the area without a visit. Unfortunately ticket prices are a budget-busting $42 each. Coming from St Louis I am used to zoos being free.

We arrived shortly after opening and randomly picked a direction to start. I was immediately amused with a flock of Caribbean pink flamingos that would regularly honk and start marching in unison. We wandered into the monkey area and smiled again watching two gibbons compete on who could howl the loudest. We watched some chimpanzee-like bonobos use a stick as a tool to gather some gooey treat. Frustration soon set in because the Primate area is a maze of hilly intersecting paths making an efficient visit impossible. We walked around and around and never passed the gorillas or orangutans. I almost wish I had brought a highlighter so I could mark off the routes as we walk them.

We decided to push on to new areas and use the aerial tram to return to the entrance. We did a lot of walking, more than a normal zoo. Half the park seems to be non-zoo stuff, like shops, restaurants, entertainment, and roads, lots of roads. For the sedentary, the zoo offers a tour bus that will drive you around and let you “glance” at the animals from the comfort of your seat. The zoo seems to be conflicted on whether they want to be a walking zoo or a driving one. After three circuits of the park we thought we finally saw everything, so we hopped on the tour bus to give our weary feet a rest. To my consternation we missed at least one whole street.

In the end, the zoo was nice and awesomely landscaped with plants and flowers from around the world. And like all zoos, it has some unique exhibits but I am not sure if San Diego is any better than its major competitors. Interestingly the zoo also has a sister park outside town called Safari Park (for another $42) where the animals roam in an open savannah.

Weary and starving, we drove downtown and had an early dinner in the Gaslamp Quarter. We then crossed over to Coronado Island to visit the Hotel del Coronado. This historic structure opened in 1888. You may recognize it from when the hotel starred with Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe in the movie, “Some like it hot”. We make it back to Old Town in time for happy hour.