San Diego Day 3: The San Diego Zoo!!

Monday was day 3 in San Diego.  We planned to go to the place Kate had been waiting all summer for...the San Diego Zoo.  Ever since we told Kate we would be coming she has asked me if it was time to go to the "Diego zoo" yet.  Well the time had come and she was excited!  We all were actually.  We had decided we would get to the zoo when it opened at 9:00, stay until lunch, leave to come back to our hotel for naps and rest, then go back to finish what we had not seen.  And hopefully avoid the most crowded time of the day...and hot!  Bryce has to have a good nap too in order for us to not go crazy.  First up on our animal list were the koalas!  (my favorite, and Bebe's too!)  From there we made our way to the pandas since they tend to draw big crowds as the day goes on.  It was there where we got separated from Paula and Brock and when you get separated at this big zoo you don't find your way back for a while!  We finally all decided to just head to the front because it was time to leave for lunch and naps.  We wanted to avoid zoo lunch prices too and it worked out to go to the In and Out Burger.  Yum!

The cheetah is one of Kate's favorites.   She is always asking me if she can run faster than a cheetah.  What was cute was this cheetah also has a dog in the enclosure with it.  IF you look you can see the dog in the background.  The dog would take off running and the cheetah would chase it.  Back and forth...the sign said these two were best buddies.

a snow leopard

 We learned a fun or funny fact that hippos can't swim.  Notice how big and still this hippo was under the water.  Fish would swim all around it but sure enough he never swam or even moved!

The orangutans are always fun to watch.  Check out the size of this one's hand!  Yikes!  And he also laid right down for a good face shot too.

Cohen got a kick out of the fact that the baby gorilla was named Denny...we know another silly monkey we call Denny!

We came back to the zoo after our break and took in the rest of the zoo.  I think the mountain lion was the all time favorite for Kate.  There were several unique animals.  When we first came back we went into the reptile house and saw all the snakes and frogs which she really enjoyed.  Bryce loved all the turtles and this guy here had us all wondering if he was alive or dead...turtles have some saggy skin too it appears.

A large toad just for Kate!

The kids enjoyed the petting zoo part too!  Even Bryce didn't cry this time when he was near the goat!

As we would walk along seeing the animals Kate was all into reading the map to see which animal we would see next.  She got quite good at reading the map and knew exactly what we would see next down to the waterfalls and bridges we would cross.

This jaguar was smart...sleeping in the water.  

Both mountain lions loving on each other

This church was pretty as we walked along the zoo path.   It stuck out to me and also had its bells chiming when we saw it.

Bryce loved this helicopter way more than the animals!  His favorite word of the week is airplane with helicopter coming in a close second.  I thought nothing could top the word Mommy but airplane has this week.  

Since this year is the 100th year celebration of the zoo, they had a small closing parade with animal puppets.  Another fun day had come to an end.  It was back to the hotel where the girls had some swim time with Brock and Daddy!  Mama did a little blogging :)