California Trip - Day 2 - San Diego Zoo and more

Still on Atlanta time, I awoke pretty early. Since Crimson was still asleep I decided to take a walk and some pics in Embarcadero Park behind the hotel.

Instead of opting for the outrageously expensive $23 hotel breakfast buffet, we went around the corner to Café 222, a great decision. Excellent eats at a very reasonable price. From there it was off to the San Diego Zoo and more animals.

We started out taking a bus tour of the grounds. It's a 40 minute guided tour that allows you to see a lot of the park although not that close to the animals. The wait for the bus was a bit longer than I had hoped but it was a relaxing way to see a lot.

From there it was on foot to explore the zoo. It certainly lived up to its billing as the one of the world's best. The zoo is huge and the collection impressive. Many of the habitats are quite well done. We saw a lot but still only covered about 2/3rds before most of our group was too tired to continue. My highlight of the day had to be watching 4 or 5 people jump just because a lion raised its head behind the glass.



Mom, Elise and Sam were ready to head back to the hotel but I wanted to keep sightseeing and Crimson opted to go with me. Our first stop were two old bridges in the area. First was the 375 foot long Spruce Street suspension bridge built in 1912. When we got within a couple steps of it we realized Crimson had found a limit. There was no way she was going to cross it. I ran across, snapped a few pics and we moved on to the next bridge. This one was the Quince Street wooden trestle bridge built in 1905. However, there was no crossing this bridge as a section of it had broken away. Perhaps Crimson was on to something.

Next we headed out to Point Loma for some great views back at downtown San Diego and even a glance at Mexico. Checking out Ocean Beach and its amusement park on the way back turned into a bit of a mystery that was finally solved when a quick trip to the Internet revealed the amusement park had been closed for years.

For dinner, the crew headed to Old Town and some authentic Mexican food at the Old Town Mexican Cafe. The wait was long and food only average but the company was good. Sam picked up a Mexican wrestling mask that he was determined to wear everywhere.