San Diego

Just spent 3 great days with Chris & Autumn in San Diego. Left early Wednesday morning and drove straight to Sea World (with a short stop at Vejas Outlet Mall which was not open yet and I then remembered it was the outlet mall in Laughlan I found the wonderful sale on stuff.) Arrived about 10:30am California time and walked & looked....yes they do tell the truth when they say the splash zone is 14 rows up. We were in row 2..wonderful view of the dolphin show but also they could spot us and scoop us the water with their tails. Left about 4pm and found we were a very short easy drive to the hotel. Crashed on the bed without shoes, after a bit of rest and talk ordered pizza to be delivered and relaxed.
Thursday found us up early and breakfast at Denny's before leaving for the Zoo. Arrived just at opening (9am) and headed straight for the new Panda that is only on show from 9am to 11am and just started about a week ago. We saw her..asleep in the tree and "mommie" eating bamboo. then on to other sights (Autumn and Chris can name most of the animals but to me they were more deer, cats, monkeys and birds. Beautiful to see but my memory does not keep up with the country or name. Know one smells like popcorn when surprised (much better than skunk). Rode the air tram over the park, planned on another trip but ran out of time. About noon feet got tired so we took the bus tour of the park riding on the upper deck. Nice view and lots of information about different animals. Lunch then more walking and looking. About 3:30pm we decided time to think about heading home so headed for exit, somewhere to a wrong turn and ended up at top of zoo again, but saw some things we had missed so no trouble. Caught the bus and took it to elephant area then walked back down to exit. Easy trip back to hotel except it was 5 o'clock traffic and had to go from 4 lanes to 1 in merging traffic. Swim, short rest then dinner at the mall hooked on to Doubletree. I then rested and read while Chris and Autumn went to a gaming store nearby.
Friday found us at the two other museums in Balboa Park. One was having The Dead Sea Scrolls but in addition to the requirement for reservations it was $28 additional so I gave it a pass. Many hands on exhibits but we still feel OMSI and Portland Zoo are more spectacular.