Sea World and Little Italy

Sea World was on the agenda today.  I had read online that it is best to set your schedule according to the shows and feedings, so shortly after we arrived we made an agenda of the things we wanted to see.  Sea World is expensive- $70 per person, plus $14 to park.  After seeing how much Sea World contributes to conservation (and how much whales eat), we felt okay about paying this.  It's funny, both Sea World and the zoo have disclaimers to tell people who are against animals in captivity that they shouldn't visit the park (ya think?).  I don't really get this.  I LOVE animals.  I'm certainly not for anyone holding an animal in captivity- whether it's a dolphin or a housecat- if they do not treat it well.  But both Sea World and the zoo not only treat their animals extremely well, they also participate in so many research and conservation efforts that allow many more animals to survive.  Not only that, but they allow people to interact with animals in a way that they wouldn't otherwise get the chance to.  Especially with kids, this can trigger behaviors that are good for animals and good for the Earth. Over 6,000 animals live at San Diego Sea World, including 200 endangered species.

Oh, I think I have found my true calling in life.  I'm pretty sure when we get back home I'm going to quit my cubicle job and start applying to be a dolphin trainer.

The seals/sea lions were soooo funny.  You could buy fish to feed them for a few bucks.  They went absolutely berserk when someone had fish.  Some would bark excessively, some would sort of whine, and one of them made the most annoying, high pitched scream each and every time.  You also had to watch for sea gulls- they would try to steal the fish!

They had a really cheesy but fun sea lion show.  Here they're doing the tango as if they were on Dancing With the Seals.

They didn't have a big dolphin show today, but we did get to see a few tricks and a feeding.

And we even got to pet them!

They have a pretty interesting penguin exhibit.  There are only 3 places in the world that have Emperor penguins in captivity- San Diego Sea World, and places in China and Japan.  I love the little penguin waddle.

Warm weather penguins

A white beluga whale:

Of course, the stars of the show are the killer whales.  It is truly amazing to see a nearly 5,000 pound mammal  jump out of the water and do a flip.  They are beautiful creatures.  Mark made us sit in the splash zone; he didn't think they could or would splash 15 rows up.  They could.  And they did.  And it was cold.

After Sea World, we headed downtown to Little Italy.  San Diego has the largest Little Italy on the west coast.  We ate at a place called Boun Appetito.  It was good, very good.  We shared a pear salad.  I got lasagna and Mark got gnocci in pesto sauce. While pregnant you are not supposed to eat goat cheese (or any soft cheese), and I must say that is one of the most difficult restrictions for me.  I didn't get the dish I really wanted because of the goat cheese (and because I already had some this week).  It's a sacrifice I'm happy to make, but I'll be really glad when I can eat goat cheese again!

We then met our friend Todd for a drink.  Todd is from San Diego but went to college at Missouri to play football.  We met him in our business fraternity.  We haven't talked to him for years, but got in touch with him when we planned this trip.  Todd is a super nice guy and we had a great time catching up with him!

That's it.  Tomorrow we fly home.  The week had flown by and we're not quite ready to leave.  Our flight leaves at 2 PST and we arrive at midnight CST.  Not sure what we're going to do in the morning.  We looked into doing a brunch cruise, but there isn't much on a Thursday morning.  Our hotel has free rental bikes so we may enjoy a ride before we leave.  

Until next time...

Midway, La Jolla Children's Beach, and a Night Out in Gasla

Today was one of our busiest days yet.  We started off by touring the USS Midway.  This old Naval ship carried wartime aircraft from the 1940s to the early 1990s.  She served in WWII, Vietnam, Dessert Storm, and other battles.  At times she carried up to 4,500 men and/or over 100 aircraft.  She has been a museum ship since 2004.  The ship's tour is rated the #1 thing to do in San Diego on Trip Advisor.

If I have to describe the ship in one word, it's BIG.  Really really really big.  Nearly 1,000 feet long.

We checked out audio guides for the self guided tour. This is one of the first stops, where the lowest-ranked men slept.  This picture doesn't really show how tight this space really is.  They had virtually no room to themselves- they called them sleep coffins.  As you increased in rank, you got a little more personal space.

I acted up on the tour and got put in the ship's jail.

The top deck of the ship was completely flat and open for the aircraft.  Mark's sitting in this one.

This is the top of the ship, taken from the flight deck.  It's pretty intimidating looking.

The USS Midway is one of those museums that you could spend an hour or five hours at, depending on how much time you have and how interested you are.  Truthfully, I found it a bit boring.  It was really neat to be on such a large ship and learn about some of her missions.  They had some veterans speaking and it made one take time to reflect on the sacrifices so many people have made for our freedom.  But, I'm not all that interested in naval history and I'm certainley not interested in how much horsepower the engines have (212,000), so I was ready to go after about an hour.

After the ship we headed to a ritzy suburb on San Diego, La Jolla (Jolla is prounced like the last part of Oscar's last name).  La Jolla is about 30 minutes north of the city.  It is to San Diego what Johnson County is to Kansas City, only not quite as cookie cutter.  It does have a lot of neat little shops and restaurants.

One thing I didn't realize until we got here was how big microbrewing is in this city.  Karl Strauss is one of the biggest microbreweries in town, and although they don't have brewery tours, they do have a restaurant in La Jolla.  I got Mac and Cheese that the menu told me "might change my life."  It was good, but not life changing.  Mark got one of the best Greek salads he's ever had.  The best part of lunch, for Mark more than me, was the beer.  He tried several different kinds, and every one was awesome.  They had rich, full, unique tastes.  I would definitely recommend both the restaurant and the beer (I might have had a few sips)!

After lunch we headed to Children's Beach.  I had really been looking forward to this part of the trip.  This beach was built so that local children and citizens would have a place to enjoy the water, but in the last 10 or 15 years seals and sea lions have taken over.  Today, the beach is a hot political topic with beach goers on one side and wildlife conservationists on the other.

I didn't know exactly what to expect.  As we approached the beach, I could see several gray little heads bobbing in and out of the waves.  As we grew closer, we saw a few seals sunbathing on rocks.  There were a few seals playing together in the water, but for the most part we just saw dozens of single seals.  We spent quite a bit of time observing and taking pictures.  We walked along the shore line when an old man told us to keep going.  We did, and before we saw more seals we heard them.  Imagine dozens and dozens of seals barking at once.  It was loud.  And awesome.  This part of the beach had many, many seals.  It was breathtaking, almost spiritual.  I'm not sure I have ever seen wild animals like this.  There were a few people swimming with the seals, which is allowed but not advised.  Here's a few of the hundreds of pictures we took:

Children's Beach is another must-see for anyone visiting the area that likes animals even a little bit.  We finished our time in La Jolla by stopping at a couple places for drinks and dessert (creme brulee, which is very popular out here).

Tonight we went to dinner in the trendy Gaslamp district.  Mark picked a Spanish Tapas place called Seville. The atmosphere was cool, but the menu was out of my comfort zone!  I didn't know what any of the food was, and the descriptions of the food used a bunch of words I didn't know!  I was worried.  Mark didn't know much either, so we eventually told the waiter to bring us some of his favorites.  We got lamb chops with Northern Beans, sweet potatoes flavored with something really spicy, and chicken with garlic and peppers. Every one was delicious!

I had heard a pub called Henry's had swing dancing on Tuesday nights.  We walked a few blocks to get there.  A lead singer/guitarist was accompanied by drums and a stand up bass.  They were playing a slow song when we walked in, and Mr. Miller pulled me onto the dance floor.  The second song came on, and Mr. Miller headed to the bar.  A guy asked me to dance, and before I could tell him I had no idea what I was doing, he was spinning me like a top.  It was so fun!  That was the end of our dancing, but we had a blast watching the talented regulars.

Tomorrow is our last full day, and we're going to Sea World!

San Diego Zoo

Today we spent all day at the world-famous San Diego Zoo.  The zoo is on 100 acres and has over 4,000 animals.  We meandered through the confusing trails to see the majority of them, and the pictures tell the story better than I can.  We especially enjoyed petting the oldest animal in the zoo, a 150-year-old giant tortoise, watching the rhinos fight, learning how the zoo uses domestic dogs to buddy with wolf pups and cheetahs (we didn't get a good picture, but a golden retriever was in the cheetah cage!), and watching the orangutans somersault.  It was apparent throughout our visit that the zoo is extremely involved in research and conservation, and takes these roles very seriously.  

A Monday in November was the perfect day to go.  The zoo wasn't crowded at all, and zookeepers were at several exhibits to tell stories and answer questions.  

The zoo is part of Balboa Park, which is a 1,200 acre park in the city- sometimes compared to Central Park in New York.  Balboa Park has fountains, gardens, and lots of museums.  In the summer, the symphony plays here.  The park has a lot going on, and we had planned to explore the park after the zoo.  But after six hours of walking, more walking was the last thing we wanted to do.  We drove through the park but didn't do much else.  We did stop at the Science Museum and saw the IMAX film Born to be Wild, about women who rescue baby elephants and orangutans that have been orphaned by poaching or deforestation.  Good movie, and our tootsies appreciated the break.

After taking a break at the hotel, we went out for a late dinner.  We were looking forward to a nearby pizza place that is rated highly on Trip Advisor, but they were closing as we got there.  Instead we went to a sports bar, which was just so-so.

Here are zoo pictures:

Ocean Beach

We didn't really have a plan for this afternoon.  After resting at the hotel, we decided to head to an area of town called Ocean Beach.  A friend of a friend described this part of town as the land of hippies, with the "scent of marijuana" in the air.  Things we read told us Ocean Beach didn't have a lot for tourists, but at just under 2000 feet, they had the longest concrete pier on the west coast.  People from this area are very proud.  They call themselves OBeachians (O-Bee-Shuns) and display OB bumper stickers on their cars.  We thought we'd give it a try, and if there wasn't much to do we would head downtown for a dinner cruise.

The drive to Ocean Beach took us through residential areas that opened up to a beautiful view.  We set the rules for a game- the first person to see dreadlocks was to yell "Hippie alert, no challenge!"   It didn't take long to spot our first hippie (Mark won).  The main street in OB was lined with antique stores, bars, and smoke shops.  We parked at one end and headed towards the pier.  We liked the charm of the neighborhood and could tell pretty quickly we wouldn't be going on that dinner cruise.  There were dozens of surfers dotting the water.  The sun was setting and it was truly beautiful:

 We took lots of shadow pictures:

And watched fishermen do their work.  There were lots of fishermen.  The pier had built in fish-washing stations.

After the pier we hit up a few of the shops and stopped at a couple bars for drinks.  Well, Mark drank.

For dinner we went to a little joint called Hodad's.  A "hodad" is someone who is a wannabe surfer- like me!  This place is small, junky, and has been around for decades.  They've been featured on national shows of the Travel-Channel type as having the best burgers in the world.  There was a line out the door for most of the night, but it was thankfully gone by the time we got there.

We each ordered burgers, aka heart attacks.  Health food this is not.  The burgers were great, similar in style to Five Guys. And they serve beer in mason jars!

After dinner it was still early- just 7:30.  Mark said "You can do a lot when you wake up early!".  We spent a few minutes looking for things to do, but we had seen everything we wanted to see.  We went back to the hotel and called it an early night.  Day two was a success!

Tomorrow, we go to the zoo.