California Vacation-Days 6 and 7

Wednesday was our last full day in California and the day we had planned to visit the San Diego Zoo! I admit that I hesitated after our long day at Disneyland to attempt another full day excursion. But I'm so glad we were able to go. It was a lot of hilly walking, but an amazing zoo!

We headed out early and walked around a bit before my brother and his family met us. We saw lots of flamingos!


a "pea-hen" and her babies!


And then when Brice, Allison, and Addison arrived, we went on the bus tour, sitting on the upper level of the double-decker bus! Unfortunately we couldn't see the animals very well from our side, but I did get a couple decent shots...of a tiger,


and the polar bears! That one on the left was playing with the blue ball and throwing it up in the air. It was fun to watch!


After the bus tour, we went straight to see the sea lion show. It was great!


and then after walking around the reptile exhibit, Steven, Mary Clare, SJ, and Allison took a tour on the "Skyfari" gondola skyride, which was the one time during the trip that the camera wasn't working. Oh well, I'm just glad my feet were on the ground...I'm not one for heights, especially with small children! Brice and I wandered around the children's zoo and then we all decided to head back to the house for a lunch break. After a couple hours, we drove back to the zoo for the rest of the afternoon (they only lived 10 minutes away!).

We checked out the koala bears


and the giraffes


rhinos


and a cheetah!


We saw an amazing bird show. This parrot sang several verses of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm!"


They trained the hawk to grab dollar bills out of peoples' hands to donate towards a bird organization. Steven Joseph wasn't so sure he wanted to get close!


Here's a peacock walking around the grounds


There were lots of elephants


and a big sleeping lion


I love this shot of my matching Stevens :)


And my 3 cute kiddos in the Arctic area where they had some fun tunnels to play in,




along with a helicopter!



It was starting to get later in the evening and the polar bears were sleeping,


and so were most of the Pandas. This one was eating but facing the other direction, bummer!


The sun was setting as we checked out some zebras


and made our way to the hippo exhibit



After a long adventure trying to find our way back to the entrance (the zoo is 100 acres!), we finally left after 8pm! What a long, exhausting, but fun day!

The next morning it was time to head back to Texas. I got some cute shots of the toddler cousins in their Mickey/Minnie ears before we left for the airport.


The girls enjoyed playing with their princesses from Disneyland on the flight home.


Finally we were back on Texas soil, and after a shuttle ride to the parking lot,

We loaded up our truck to drive back home!

What a wonderful vacation! Thanks to all the family members who made it possible...our flyer-mile angel, our kind hosts, and our traveling buddies for the first leg...and of course my fantastic little family who fills all our days with fun and laughter whether on the road or in our own living room. We are so blessed!