Zoos and Gardens in San Diego
We’ve had a weekend of exploring the zoos and gardens. On Friday we went to the Wild Animal Park which is about 30 miles outside of San Diego. It is run by the San Diego Zoo and I think it is what many people think of when they are thinking about the zoo. We took the Photo Safari through Africa which was expensive but well worth it, you really get up close with the animals. It brought back memories of visiting Zimbabwe as a child since most of the same animals were on display. Of course in Zimbabwe they weren’t so easy to find.
On Saturday we went to Quail Botanical Gardens, also north of San Diego. The gardens are pretty large (35 acres) and have a number of areas specializing in things like native California plants, South African plants, Bamboo, a nice herb garden, and cacti. It was a nice garden with a lot to see and explore.
We spent this morning and early afternoon in Balboa Park, right in the middle of San Diego. In the morning we went through the zoo, starting with a gondola ride to the far end of the park and then walking back through the exhibits. The animal collection didn’t have much overlap with the Wild Animal Park which made it nice to visit both of them. There were a lot of great birds on display in the zoo and we enjoyed the hippos and polar bears. Most of the animals were hiding in the shade because of the record heat, over 90F.
After the zoo we wandered around some other parts of Balboa Park, checking out the Museum of Photography (small but nice exhibits), the Botanical House (unlike Seattle they have to make shade here so that they don’t cook the plants — there is no glass to keep the heat in).
the fact that there is a polar bear sunning itself gives me hope for the wildlife in antartica surviving global warming