San Diego Zoo Pictures

Saturday we picked up our nephew Mikey in South County and headed over to the San Diego Zoo. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of zoos because I get a little sad looking at caged animals. I know the animals are more than taken care of and they probably don't know that their natural habitat is infinitely larger than the caged quarters that they are living, but still, it feels a little exploitive to me. The San Diego Zoo is so famous and has no shortage of funding but I couldn't help but think of zoos like the one in Las Vegas. WHY IS THERE A ZOO IN LAS VEGAS? THE TEMPERATURES IN THE SUMMER ARE INSANE, EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS! I've driven by the Las Vegas Zoo many times and every time my heart melts of sadness.

When I got over all of that, I actually had a good time. I loved how tropical it was--the waterfalls and the lush trees.

Here are some of the pictures from the day:::





Expressions like this make me want to take this kid to every theme park/attraction within a 500 mile radius:::


A four year old response to hogs:::






I didn't take a ton of pictures of the animals. The only ones I would snap were the calm, non violent types that didn't require cages. Didn't feel like taking pictures through the wires or bars.



Sleeping koala:::


This one was in the petting zoo, his eye kind of freaked me out:::


This, unfortunately, was the angle many of the bigger animals gave us:::


No better time for a junk food lunch:::


Sleepy after lunch:::


Got his second wind:::




There were a couple of lines we had to wait in and at first I was nervous because I wasn't sure how Mikey would handle the boring wait, but I guess I wasn't familiar with the art of rail acrobatics that kept him occupied the entire time:::









I'm very afraid of heights, but I didn't want to wuss out in front of a four year old, so I went on the skyfari. It wasn't the worst (the one I took in Lake Tahoe a couple of years ago just about killed me), but I didn't love it. Here's Mikey's reaction once he got in the death cart, I thought for sure he would freak:::





A couple of my favorites from the day:::






Classic zoo expression:::


Finally some pics on the way out:::




Holding onto the exit post in a light hearted attempt to stay longer:::