San Diego - We have arrived!

Rod had a bunch of vacation time he was going to lose if he hadn't used it by the end of the year, so we decided to take a trip to San Diego.  His motive - to find the Red Diamond rattlesnake.  My motive - to get out of the house for a few days!!!


We left Friday as soon as he got off work.  We drove the two hours to Ely, and were going to let Charley play at McDonald's playland before getting back in the car, but they were closed - bummer.  So, we had Mexican instead.  Luckily, she was pretty tuckered out then, so she promptly went to sleep for the remainder of the drive (which is why we prefer to drive late at night!).  We encountered a cow elk on the drive, and several pronghorn on Long Valley road, but nothing else too exciting.  We made it to Vegas, checked into our hotel at 1 am, and crashed.


Next morning, Charley and I checked out the free breakfast while Rod slept in a bit.  Then, we hit the road.  We made it to Barstow, California, and it was time to stop.  We had Pizza Hut and then crashed some kind of random party that was going on at a city park we found with a playground.  Lots of kids and kid games, but lots of adults enjoying adult beverages, and rockin' Latino music - an interesting mix.  No one seemed to mind our presence, and Charley needed to run out some energy, so we joined them!


From there we made it with little incidence to San Diego.  Checked into our hotel - California Suites Hotel (a local place I found that worked really well for us) - and went to find some grub.  There were tons of ethnic restaurants packed around our hotel, so we found a GREAT little Indian place with YUMMY food.  Mmmmm.

Home sweet home for the week!

The next morning, after Charley and I had continental breakfast in the hotel while Rod slept (this became our routine over the course of the week - she made friends with the staff), we headed to the San Diego Zoo.  We arrived at 9:08 - 8 minutes after they opened - and stayed until 6:40 (closing).  We've never spent every possible minute of a day at the zoo before!  It is a massive zoo!

 This is a neat story.  Rod, for his MS, went to Ethiopia to look for a snake hardly known (as this info tag explains).  He was unsuccessful.  This was the first time he's ever laid eyes on one - and they had two!

 The petting zoo was a HUGE hit.

She had to hug them all.

Grandpa, this one's for you!

Tuckered out

We rode this before leaving - it totally freaked Rod out.

Dada  you bought me this???

I LOVE it!

Charley's faves included the lion (she signed "sleep" because it was sleeping), meerkat, brown bears, gorillas (like her mama!), giraffes and the birds in the aviaries, the peacocks, ducks and pigeons walking around the open areas (she could walk after them); I couldn't get her to look at the elephant because she was too busy looking at the House Sparrow at her feet (a future birder?); they had a fossa on a leash - they used it for an ambassador program because it was no good for breeding due to enlarged heart and malaligned jaws - and it had a toy stuffed snake.  They were having  a hard time getting the snake away, so one distracted the fossa while another grabbed the snake and flung it really quickly.  Charley broke out in hysterics!  I don't know if she was worried for the "snake", sad for the fossa, or what, but we had to take her away she was sobbing so hard!  While watching the polar bears, a duck walked right in front of us inside the pen.  The bear ran over, stood up on its hind legs and slammed its paws into the glass.  I think it scared her a bit, but she liked the bears!


We were all tired after a long day - Charley fell asleep on the way to supper.  We had to wake her - lesson learned.  Can't eat supper this late again!  We had a MISERABLE Thai dinner - she was so cranky!  But, it was a great first day in "sunny" San Diego!