~ San Diego Zoo ~

07 June 2004

we woke up late. i think Disneyland day drained our energy so much, that we needed longer time to recharge.

the driving from Anaheim to San Diego was… well, boring. there is nothing to see along the freeway 5. my dad was snoring on the passenger seat. i was trying my best not to yawn.

so i was pretty happy when we arrived at the zoo. it was located next to a school. i always thought the zoo was located in the remote area or at least on the outskirt of the city. but it wasn’t. strange.

the zoo was packed with elementary school kids. there was at least 6 to 7 school buses parked and hundreds of kids scattered around the entrance area. crazy.

the first thing we headed to once we’re in was the Panda Valley. i’ve been following the Mei Xing story and watched the Panda Cam. so i really wanted to see the star of the zoo… but, of course, most of the San Diego Zoo visitors are Panda Cam followers. so the line was unbelievably long. and we only got to see Bao Yun (the mom), munching bamboo while sitting on the ground for 10 minutes. Mei Xing was on the top of a very high tree, mostly hidden behind the leaves. the dad, which was also munching bamboos (i think that’s what pandas do most of the time anyway), was located on a different area. i guess they don’t allow the male and the female on the same living area, or they could be violent to each other.

there were so many visitors that we couldn’t help but rush in seeing the pandas… how disappointing.

my mom was excited, though. it was her first time seeing a real panda in person. turns out that this whole time, she has only seen pictures of pandas or on TV. i’ve seen pandas once when i went to the zoo in Holland. but i still want to see more pandas… more!!

anyways, San Diego zoo was a very nice zoo. it has more animals than most zoo i’ve ever been. the area was huge and very hilly. they even have travellator to ease the visitors… and those travellator was on the side of the hill, out in the open. i thought it was neat.

my dad is not a walker… he was huffing and puffing by the time we got to the tiger area, so we decided to take the bus instead. we got to see capibaras, which is another animal i want to see in person. cute! a little dirty, but still cute.

… this entry is not finished. but i’m too sleepy to finish it. so i’m going to bed. and maybe one day, i’ll finish this up…. *yawn*