San Diego Zoo and Aquarium

I had never visited the San Diego Zoo before this trip to San Diego.  My good friend Sara made sure I got there.  Twice.  And also took me to the Scripps Aquarium.  I have never been to an aquarium before.  I was stoked to see so many cool animals and marine life.  And even more stoked that Mellisa was able to come out and join us Sunday afternoon at the zoo.  Woot!

Here are my favorite pics from the aquarium and my second trip to the zoo.  I hope you enjoy them all :)  And I couldn't start off without posting a pic of this sweet chunk of a baby.  I held him.  A lot.  :)

Okay, this isn't the aquarium or the zoo.  It is the mooring for boats next to the bridge into Coronado where we went for lunch one day.  My friend Sara's mom lives in one of those boats.  I can see it on google maps and it makes me smile almost as much as driving by in person.

This guy had the nappiest dreads hanging from his body.  I don't recall seeing such a dark brown camel, but he was just gorgeous.

I was initially pretty irritated with the fencing blocking my view of the flamingos, but it turned into bokeh in this pic.  So now I'm not irritated any more :)

I really wanted to grab his nubbies and pull on his ears.  He might have liked it as much as Little Horse loves for my to grab his snout and pull on his ears.  Maybe.

Palm trees make me happy.

We rode in the skybuckets from the back of the zoo to the front.  And then walked a ton more.

Mr. and Mrs. Birch were the founders of the Scripps Aquarium.  They were friends with Ted Geisel.  Dr. Seuss's drawings weren't too far from reality.  What a great inspiration for him to see these guys, some of which were kept in the Birch home.

LOVE the combination of the stripes and all the teeny tiny pin dots.

He's waiting to be triggered.

Who knew sardines were such scaredy cats?

This ginormous eel looks quite friendly and inviting, don't you think?

I loved these jelly fish.  I think I may need to print this off big.  I'm in love with the colors.

Last November, I stood on that far reach of land looking into the cove at the sea lions.  It was fun getting the opposite perspective this time.

Lionfish have the coolest fins.

I know my boy child would have loved this fish the best.  He is fascinated with mohawks and this looks like the longest one ever.

The sting rays have such happy faces.

This was an awesome room with floor-to-ceiling glass and bleacher-like seating to just sit and watch the many different kinds of fish in this tank.  Look near the bottom and you will notice some fish that liked to hang out vertically.  Strangeness.

And in the bottom left of this large tank was a little shark parking lot for the ones needing rest...

Octopi must prefer red lighting, because that's what was blasting away in this tank.

That is all for my weekend of photography and friends new and old.  I am taking another vacation day today from work and spending much of it at the torch.  I already have a couple dozen new beads soaking away in the kiln.  We will be back to our regularly scheduled programing of bead pics come tomorrow and a shop update this Saturday afternoon.

I Petted a Zebra!

We decided late Saturday night to take a drive up to Dahlonega on Sunday afternoon to visit a wildlife nature preserve.  It was about an hour and a half drive, which we thought by driving North might earn us temps a few degrees cooler.  We were wrong.  :)  It was just as hot.  But in spite of the heat, we had sooooo much fun!

Driving up, there were very few clouds in the sky.  Maybe you can see if you look at the reflection on the mirror?

Once at the Chestatee Wildlife Preserve, we were greeted by zoo and World Famous Zedonk signs.

Here is the baby zedonk.  She was so cute.  She had striped legs just like my daughter has several days each week!

The baby was very sleepy.  Mom stayed close to her baby at all times.

Meet Dad.  Dad has already been introduced to a new donkey, who is keeping him company in the neighboring pasture to Mom #1 and the baby.  Before we left, he let out a loud, long whinny.  But it was nothing like the whinny of a horse.  It was almost like fingernails on a chalkboard.  One of the strangest sounds I have ever heard!

Here is the South end of Dad traveling North (thanks Chris!).  I love how perfect the stripes are as they wrap around his back end!!!

The preserve had several emus.  Can I tell you that emus creep me out?  At first glance, I think they are ostriches and love the long legs leading up to this massive body before another equally long and skinny neck lead upwards.  But the face and the eyes and the crazy hair/feathers on top?  Creeps me out.  It was breathing through it's mouth (probably because it was so hot!), so the beak was open and we could hear it breathing.  It looked at me with plotting eyes, like it wanted to eat me for a snack and wouldn't feel the least bit guilty afterwards.  I had no desire to try to pet this guy.  I just knew he would take a finger!

This big fat billy goat was in the same pasture as the emu, the fluffy feathered goose and a few horses.  It was really neat seeing such different animals all thrown together in one living space.  I love goats (aside from the fact I constantly refer to the girl child as a goat), I think they make the coolest sounds.

I loved the big fluffy feathers on the back of this goose.  She was pretty, although slightly dirty.  I have a history of being chased by geese, so I didn't try to pet her.  Sad, considering my Dad nicknamed me Goose as a child and still calls me that.  I'm kin, you silly goose!  Don't chase me!

The horses let us pet them as they ambled around.  They were really hoping we were going to feed them, but all we had were a couple of slim jims (which the kids discovered they liked this weekend) and that just seemed wrong to off a little petrified cow to a horse.

There was this one peacock who refused to pose or give me a face shot.  He also did not cooperate upon request to fan out his tail.  Unruly guy!  But aren't the blues and teals just gorgeous??

KJ, this one is for you!  There were about eight of these beautiful cockatoos in a large fenced in area together.  One of them kept telling me "Hello!".  There were McCaws close by and they wanted to talk about Crackers.  I suppose they were hungry, but we couldn't get close enough to offer them any crackers.

The McCaws were guarded by two of these guys.  They didn't stop walking (and rather fast, I might add!) for the ten minutes we stood watching.  The snappers paced 20 feet, back and forth non-stop.  I wondered if they were nervous, or just health conscious and wanting to keep up their muscle tone to support their big shells.  They were not quite as big as my friend who came to visit a couple of months ago.

Here is the sweet girl who let us pet her.  The whole time I couldn't stop thinking to myself "I'm petting a ZEBRA!!!"  Who gets to do that?  Her hair felt the same to me as a horse.  She was a sweaty girl because it was so hot.  She just wanted some loving and made it easy to rub her ears and her face from her forehead to her nose.  I didn't want to leave.  But there was coughing and shuffling coming from a very hot and sweaty husband letting us know it was time to walk, if only to create our own breeze.

They also had a grizzly bear, who appeared to be very hot.  His mouth hung open and that poor bottom lip just stuck out even farther as he breathed through his mouth in our heat.  He was the favorite animal for both of my kids, but I just felt sorry for him.  So much fur, so hot and no companion.  Sigh.

There were two white tigers in a large field surrounded by lots of chain link fencing.  The female charged one end and stood on alert when two Harley's pulled into the parking lot nearby.  She must have thought their roaring was a challenge to her territory.

Here is a picture of kudzu.  A quick growing vine that covers fields, forests and homes seemingly overnight.  It is a pest in the South with its fast growth and then the ability to blog out light with its large leaves, thus killing whatever is underneath.  All of the green is pretty and turns anything into the appearance of a lush jungle, but it is generally considered a nuisance down here.

It is late now, while I am writing this.  After 11pm.  I worked until 10pm Tuesday tonight.  I missed picking up the kids and having dinner with them, although I did get to put the girl child to bed.  I say this only to lead into this --> when my husband gets tired, he rubs his eyes with his fist like a little kid.  It makes me smile and think about how much I love this man for so many reasons.  He just walked past me rubbing his eyes and my heart melted.

There are some new cobalt eggs in the kiln now.  I hope to be able to share some pictures of them with you this evening!