On Wednesday, we took the day off of the beach and went to the San Diego Zoo with Travis, Lorraine, Sarah, and Garrett.
The BEST part of the zoo, BY FAR, was the gorillas. The Boss gorilla had his rear right against the glass display when we first walked up to it, but Stella was too busy looking far into the habitat for the other gorillas that she didn't see him 1 foot away from her. I wish I would have had video of when she finally did see him as she walked along the glass case because it was quite the shock and hilarious.
The Boss gorilla moved to a better seat to observe 2 other gorillas totally wrestling. Stella was concerned for a little bit because of the bearing of teeth, the smacking of their heads against the glass, and the sudden attacks . . . but when I pointed out that she does the same things to us at home, she was like, "Oh." Then she was fine and thought it was hilarious.
The gorillas wrestled for quite some time until the little gorilla won by sitting on the bigger gorilla's head. So entertaining.
Stella would totally ride a gorilla.
We stuck around some of the animals a little longer than we needed just so see if they were real . . .
. . . like this alligator . . . it never moved . . .
. . . and this hippo . . . also, never moved. Travis is still convinced that they were statues.
The Pandas had their very own private display where we were instructed to whisper even though there was a zoo lady using a microphone to describe Panda behavior and these specific pandas.
Interesting facts:
1) These pandas only weigh about 120 pounds (the zoo lady was very defensive of his size and said at least 3 times that size does not matter),
2) they are vegetarians and only eat cold/moist bamboo or leaves so the zoo has to refrigerate their foliage,
3) the girl panda is only fertile 2 days out of the year,
4) me too,
5) if she is pregnant, she's due in August,
6) me too,
7) once again in defense of the boy panda's size, the zoo lady said, "he hasn't ever missed those 2 days."
8) neither has Elliot.
After the San Diego Zoo took Beth's life savings to pay for lunch, we headed over to the Polar Bears.
This one was cooling his uma-goolies.
Did you know that polar bears can be 10 feet tall? Stella wanted to climb the bigger one, but I wouldn't let her.
My favorite zoo sign of the day was at the lion cage. We needed one of those at our house when my cousins would teach us how to do blue darts.
The best quote of the day, even though I didn't get it, came with observing the camels when Elliot said something about this pathetic looking creature listening to Bob Marley and not being able to give up the ganja.
We made it around to most of the rest of the zoo, including the petting zoo (which I avoided), until the kids decided they were done (I was sort of done too . . . but not until I got my giant over-priced chocolate ice cream cone).
. . . guaranteed that Stella's favorite part of the zoo didn't have anything to do with the animals.
It was a lot of walking, but it was an absolutely beautiful day and the animals were out where we could see them . . . that's a successful zoo trip. I was excited for a little nap when we got back to camp because of the massive headache I was working on, but what we were really excited about was this bowl of goodness. . .
Lorraine makes the best guacamole!
It was good for the kids to spend the day apart because they played so nicely together when we got back.
Marshmallow face.
SAVE THE SEAWEED
Garrett was quite the engineer with his construction of this little swing. I'm sure Stella thought it was all for her.
But I do love to take that one last walk on the beach before we drive away. Elliot chose not to come down with us (having only been walking on his foot for one week was painful). But Beth came with us.
I didn't think we were down there for very long, but apparently it was long enough for me to get a sunburn . . .
. . . and for Stella to get completely wet and sandy.
Also enough time for Sarah and Lorraine to do Yoga and headstands.
Tyler, Sarah, Stella, Joe, and Dara liked the last walk on the beach.
Joe especially liked it.
Some of our favorite people.
Oh look, there's more.
For some reason, Beth was really excited to sit in the back seat with Stella for the next 6 hours.
See ya next year . . . we'll have a 9-month-old baby brother to consume his portion of sand by then. :)
