Hippo Happiness

Zoo Trip Trilogy

Day 2

Monday, October 8, 2012

We woke up and had a free hotel breakfast.  It wasn't really early, so there was a long line for waffles.  Also, they didn't have any hard-boiled eggs when I looked for them.  So I would have to get better food later, and just settle for a continental breakfast for today.  Too bad the fruit was not pretty, or I would have at least been happy with that.  But no.  I'll just go ask some monkeys for bananas or something later on.

We drove to the San Diego Zoo, and I declared to my twitter friends that if I didn't get to see any hippos, there would be much pouting.  Dad remembered about our placard today, but the parking was still a little bit of a walk to the entrance.  We were early enough that it wasn't that far from where others were parked.  When we entered, we noticed that the zoo doesn't bother with that whole fingerprint thing that we dealt with at Sea World (only my fingerprint thing worked there).  We saw trams and buses and we didn't know what we were doing, so we found out that we could take a bus tour around the zoo so we could get familiar with the place first.  Since we had our 3-park pass, our bus tour was free.  I made the family stop to take a picture, which they refused to do when we were at Sea World.  I just have fun taking the pictures, but don't necessarily buy them unless I really like what I see.  The kids decided that they wanted to sit on the top level of the bus, and we sat in front.  Then after we were up there, we were told that the bottom had a better view because it was closer to the animals.  Whatever, the kids were happy and we got to sit in front.  I got to see a hippo! 

Hippo!

 And then I saw this hippo, too!  

Lifeguard hippo!

So the threat of pouting was over, at least from me, especially when my mom said that we'd go back to see the hippo after the bus ride was over.  We were able to see several animals on the bus tour, mostly different types of deer and big cats.  My favorite was the very pretty Giraffe Antelope.  I have also always loved the beauty of giraffes, and here are a teenage brother and sister being cute.

Bro and Sis Giraffes

After the bus ride, I sneaked away and bought the picture that we took before boarding the bus.  Ssshhh...they still don't know.  Mom suggested that we go to the petting zoo, so she and I ate the fruit that I bought and the rest of them went in to pet goats.  I was hoping that we would hear the Kookaburra's call, but that didn't happen.  But all of that was not until after we found this to sit on. There are hippos all over the place around here!  YAY!

Pink Hippo

Then I found out that, APPARENTLY, Miss O is quite fond of snakes, and has a fake one at home. This doesn't freak out my mom as much as when Bro terrified her with a rubber snake.  Oh, no.  Now, with Miss O, she brought her all around the reptile area, and pointed out all of the different snakes.  Who replaced my mother with this being?  She was still a little squeamish, but was willing to let Miss O look at every single one of the slithery animals.  Mom even had a favorite: the green mamba.  That thing is fast.  But here is Miss O with another green one.  I think it's a viper.

Happy MIss O with her snake

Then after Brady and Dad came back from the restroom for, like, the 5th time, we somehow lost Mom and Miss O.  You see, people?  THIS is why each adult should have a cell phone!  Anyway, we decided to have lunch because I whined when Mom had the idea to just leave at that point.  Hello, we have not actually seen the hippo up close!  OK, I didn't exactly whine, because I needed to not do that in front of the children, but I did voice my opinion on the whole leaving-before-hippo thing.  Brady said that he had blisters on his toes, so I took him to First Aid to get a band aid before we walked the Hippo Trail.  I mean, really, this place is practically made for me.  Along the trail, we saw some monkeys.  One of the capuchins stared at me and followed me a little bit so that I could take more pictures of him.  Perhaps he liked it when I said, "Pose for me!"  (I did that a lot during our 3-day tour, and most of the animals obliged).  One of the capuchins wanted to get leaves from a tree that was beyond their rope-fence, and we marveled at him in his successful effort.

Posing Capuchin

We also saw beautiful Red-cheeked Gibbons, and this  female gibbon was so gorgeous that she felt confident enough to pee while we were all watching her.  This pic is pre-pee, because I'm sparing you from the other one that I have.  For now.  

Red-cheeked Female Gibbon

We also saw a beautiful Okapi (one of my other favoritely-designed animals), then I got totally distracted because I saw the Hippopotamus sign.  There was a mama and baby!  The mama was so big and it was so crowded in that area that I could only get a picture of her butt, but I was able to get one of the baby's face.  YAY!

Baby HIppo

Then I needed to take a solo photo with the shiny hippo.  :)

I want one of these in my backyard

Then Miss O wanted to go back to see the real hippo again, so I happily obliged.  I love how interested she and Brady are when they watch the animals.  On our way back to catch a shuttle bus to the entrance, we visited the panda exhibit, and saw baby Yun Zi.

Yun Zi

While waiting for the shuttle bus, I saw huge porcupines. I didn't know they got that big, but maybe it was just their quills.  I don't know.  They were big.  At the last stop for the bus, we ended up by the rhinos.  We had seen them from the regular bus tour, but this was a chance to see them much closer.  At one point, this happened.

Rhino Love

The guy standing next to me said, "Are we about to see something here?"  I giggled and said, "Maybe!"  He said, "They shouldn't allow them to do that here!  There are kids around!"  I'm pretty sure he was kidding, because I couldn't stop laughing.  The one in front ended up trotting away from the other one, but was still being followed.  I will always think of this moment when I see rhinos in the future.  

Did you know that the zoo brings in dogs to calm down the wolves that they have at the zoo?  I thought that was pretty neat, and they even had pictures of the wolf companions at the wolf exhibit.  

I needed to find a hippo shirt, and didn't find a damn thing.  You have hippos everywhere, but no shirts?!  Grrrr.  So I got a little plush one, and Brady helped me pick out a book for Miss O (she had been sleeping since the last bus ride).  He was also allowed to get a sticker book, and we also got a couple of mini puzzles for the two of them.  On our way back to the car, I realized that the hedges were huge topiaries.  Yeah, I was blind before or something.  

Brady and Elephant Hedge

We then headed for the beach, where I just stood at the shore and watched the waves and the surfers, missing my college days of living on Balboa Island.  Brady looked for shells, and Miss O played far away from the water, because she doesn't like the waves.  Mom eventually got her to stand in the water for a while, but she still didn't like it as much as Brady did.

Balancing Act

We picked up some dinner from Panda Express and ate dinner at the hotel.  We watched "The Voice" on TV, and the kids danced during the upbeat songs.  Brady read Miss O's new book to her.  I enjoyed watching this, because it was just incredibly sweet.  What a nice way to end a great day!

Bedtime Story

Next up:  Safari Park