We managed to get a 3 day weekend for Veterans' Weekend around November 10, so Roland, Catherine, Rihab, Loic, Veronica, Brandon and I decided to have a jaunt down to San Diego. We spent 3 days and 2 nights scoping out the place, visiting the zoo, the wild animal park and enjoying being in a real city. Now I wish I had gone to UCSD...

After a long car ride...


First Stop: the San Diego Zoo

This was the gang (from L-R): Veronica, Rihab (from Tunisia), Brandon, Roland, Loic and Catherine

Spot the tourist!!

This boa was like the one that Britney used in one of her performances - naturally I had to take a photo and plus it looks pretty cool.The Hippo exhibit was way cool
House of Flying Daggers - San Diego style
Elephants, giraffes and zebras are my favorites

The view from the sky ride thingo was also really nice as we took it at sunset and you could see the tower at Balboa Park and all the way downtown
Next we visited Old Town where the old Spanish mission is and there were people playing the spoons and dressed up in old-fashioned garb.



After Old Town we went to the Military Museum and Balboa Park and walked around taking lots of photos.


Veronica should be the next Miss UniverseThe Sunset Cliffs

At night we went to the Gaslamp district which has lots of restaurants and bars. It was so lively and Veronica had lots of guys leering at her as we walked past people drinking on the outside parts of the bar.

Loic and a poser

The lovely Rihab
We also went to the Wild Animal Park which was better than the Zoo. It's also used as a breeding center so you get to see lots of baby animals up close - so cute!
We also saw a bird show which was really, really good.
A lion family with the dad sleeping on the roof of the car, the mum on the bonnet and the kids (you can't see) sleeping in front of the car
Papa Lion taking a nap - I also want to sleep like this (see the LA County Fair post with the pig)
An old fashioned hot air balloon
We also saw an Elephant Show (no, not like the donkey shows in TJ). Elephants have really strong trunks and on the tips of them they have something that acts like a thumb which allows them to have fine motor movement. They also have exceptional balance as shown in the picture after this one.



The Secret Seven (with the 7th behind the camera)
We also got to pat some animals - Rihab thought she would try feeding them the leaves off the trees and it was really funny to watch because she would get scared when they came to get the leaves off her.


Afterwards it was time to head home, but not before picking up my mobile phone which I left behind at the hotel (oops) and grab a bite to eat in Little Italy. San Diego - it rocked!