California 2012 - Day 6 San Diego Zoo

So we went to the San Diego Zoo on the Wednesday of our week in California.

We are fans of the Calgary Zoo - it is a great zoo and we love going but San Diego's famous zoo is awesome!  We had a great day!

We got there just after opening and headed to the Children's Zoo section.

The Bug House there was really neat.  The spider in the top left is a bird eating spider! So gross!

Gwen's favourite was the poster of butterflies.

We checked out the goats in the petting area.

Our little spider and fly!

Daddy with his horns ;)

 

Naked Mole Rat!

On the left he is smiling for the camera!

The zoo is very hilly so when the Skyfari (like a gondola) opened at 10 we got on and went to the top of the hill.  4 riders per car so Jill rode in the one behind us.  Great views of Balboa Park and of the zoo.

We saw nearly every variety of antelope.

At the Arctic exhibit we saw polar bears just as snacks were being served so lots of swimming!

Cara contemplating the Earth.

The girls had fun playing in the exhibit.

One of Santa's reindeer getting some rest in San Diego before December.

Then we went downhill a bit to the Giant Panda exhibit.

It was amazing to see Pandas!
They were pretty active as well and were walking all around their enclosure.

This guy was an Asian moose type thing.

This warthog was actually strutting.

We saw many varieties of birds.

 And big cats!

 Is that a Byrne girl or a bonobo?

Gwen only wanted to be carried at the zoo.  By Mom.  Mom's arms were tired!

Cara was very smart and stayed right in the stroller :)

 We saw a hippo mommy and baby swimming around (right beside Gwen!)

Cara got to see her favourite animal - the okapi.
Before we went on the trip we were looking at the zoo's website and their map with all the animals on it.  Cara pointed out the okapi and said she loved those (thank you children's TV!) so we had to see them and she got an okapi figurine as a souvenir.

 We got to see a silverback gorilla and his two sons have a snack.

By this time Gwen was asleep.

Orangutangs!
We caught them at snack time too - they were really awesome to watch.

 Huh?

 This was just before Cara fell into the camel enclosure!
Just kidding!

Cara and a prehistoric bird.

Elephants!

This zookeeper was helping this leopard cub feel at ease in a big enclosure.

Riding a saber tooth tiger.

The girls really liked looking in the displays and trying to find the camouflaged reptiles.

The zoo is renovating their Austrailian exhibit so we had to search for the koalas.  We found a few napping in some trees before it was time to head out for the day.

Cara was a bit tired after such an exciting day!

After supper Aunt Jill brought out a cake for Gwen's birthday!  Having her cousins, aunt and uncle sing her "Happy Birthday" was so great - she loved it!
The first of Gwen's many cakes for her 2nd Birthday!

Cousins!
The girls loved their birthday presents and had some more fun with their cousins playing piano and Guess Who!

Day 7 - "Safari Park & The Monkees" was another fun day - post is being worked on :)