San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park

Madelyn enjoying the view from a double deck tour bus


Polar exhibit

Just one of the many birds that roam the Zoo.

Cleaning up in the petting zoo.

Look at that adorable butterfly

Getty up Mr. Hippo

Madelyn and Grammie bugg'n each other

I think I can see Madelyn

Baby Jaguar... Madelyn's only reason for coming to the Zoo.

In the Elephant Odyssey.

She loved the view from the Sky Ride

View of Balboa Park from the Sky Ride. The dome shape building is the Museum of Man.

Riding the train with Mama Jaguar in Balboa Park.

Riding an historic 1906 carousel.

Floating like a butterfly.

For our third day in San Diego we spent the day at the San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park. The morning started off rather warm and sunny, but before lunch the Marine Layer fog started to roll in the mystery fog from Scoby Do, which created a rather enjoyable day, breezy yet still warm. The Zoo is HUGE with over 30, 000 species of animals. There is no way to see everything on one day. And I did I mention the monstrous hills--the steep up and down. To solve this problem we opted for the double deck tour bus and loved the tour and the scenery. The petting zoo portion was OK, but we were spoiled from the day before at the Wild Animal safari (which is own by the zoo). Madelyn once again found the Zebra vibrating chair and had to sit in it each time we passed one. She loved the Sky Ride, once she figured out we were going to go back down, and the polar bear exhibit.

But the most exciting part of the day for the little munchkin was the Jaguar exhibit. You would have thought she had won the lottery, so thrilled to see "Baby Jaguar". Any one who watches Go Diego Go would understand. Her daddy gave her a stuffed Baby Jaguar and he goes everywhere with her. Madelyn even took the pictures of the Jaguar. Yes, she still talks about the Jaguar, but if you ask her what she saw at the Zoo, Madelyn will tell you about the elephant that "pooped and peed a lot"! The Elephant Odyssey was amazing and allowed you to get up close to the elephants and see how they were taken care of. We saw one elephant getting it's daily pedicure, and saw two other elephants playing together. One of the elephants turned its rump to use and proceed to pee in front of Madelyn. I wish I video camera with me, because Madelyn's eyes got very big and she said, wow, that's a lot of pee. Moments later, Madelyn loudly exclaimed to the enjoyment of the people surrounding us, "Look mommy that elephant's poop is bigger than me and really stinky". Profoundly impact by this sight, she still tells everyone about the elephants at the San Diego Zoo.