San Diego Zoo - Day 3

The day of the "big" surprise was finally here and the guessed where we were the minute they saw the parking lot signs with the animals.  While we were walking in, Halen kept saying, "I'm so excited I can hardly breathe."  That made it all worth it.

Had to get the family pic at the front entrance sign

Once we got in the zoo, we got our maps and let the boys lead the way.  They wanted to go straight to the Lost Forest to see the gorillas and orangutans.  Luckily one of the orangutans was sitting right up against the window when we got there.  We sat and watched all of them swinging and eating for quite a while before moving on to the gorillas.  All the kids were enthralled with them.

Silly monkey

Big guy just hangin' out

Alex playing with the monkey statues

Halen had to hitch a ride too

We had a really successful day.  The three main animals we came to see (gorillas, orangutans & cougars), were all out and we got a good look at them.  We also got a better look of most of the other animals that we didn't get to see that well last time.  Maybe it's because it wasn't so hot so they weren't all hiding in the shade, I don't know.

Mr Polar Bear looking for his lunch

We had to walk up a massive hill to get here so this was a good resting place

After walking around the park all day, we took a moment to get a little foot massage.  The boys wanted to do this last time but they were always being used when we went by them so we didn't get to do it.  It felt fantastic...wish I could have stayed longer. Ü

Mia was great sitting in her stroller all day

The cougar watched us pretty close

Mia fell asleep on the bus ride...tired girl

She had a nice, long nap though

Mia was still sleeping as we were making our last few stops of the day.  We made one last loop around to see the koala's, rhino and giraffes.  Mia loves giraffes so I woke her up to see them before we left.  She didn't want to leave and cried when we did.



Lazy old tiger

We had 4 less hours in the park this time but I think we had better luck with the animals this time.  Our feet were still tired though and since we really didn't stop for a real lunch, we were pretty hungry.  The kids were great.  They didn't complain once about how far we walked and were happy that we took them back to the zoo.

We loaded back in the van, got some gas and something to eat and headed back toward home.  We didn't want to drive the entire way that night but we wanted to knock out a little bit so we drove to the Riverside area.  We got to the hotel about 9:00 and we all crashed pretty hard.  It was a good day.