It was a pleasant relief to be able to put the kettle on and make my own porridge for breakfast, even if the microwave is situated in the most ridiculous place imaginable, almost on the floor. Apart from that, the house is fine for our purposes. The one spooky thing is that the front door is opened by the code 6809, which is exactly the same code we had for our room in Palm Springs.
Anyhow, we were all ready to exit the garage using the Thunderbirds Are Go button at 8.30am for the short journey to San Diego Zoo. Neil had discovered that, as today was Independence Day, the Balboa Park car park, which is right next to the zoo’s $16 car park, was free. I call that a win in anybody’s book.
We were allowed into the zoo ready for the official opening ceremony, which was short but sweet and involved about ten macaws flying off freely and, quite possibly, never being seen again.
Whilst waiting for the bus tours to start, we wandered around the snake exhibit. But, in my view, once you’ve seen one snake you’ve seen them all.
After telling Neil I wasn’t prepared to wait at least 30 minutes for seats on the top deck on the bus, we boarded the next-but-one bus on the lower level. The view was perfectly fine, although Neil insisted it would have been better higher up. Our driver and guide was chatty and informative, even if she was rather heavy-handed at times in describing the zoo’s conservation work. Despite that, we were fortunate enough to see both hippos out of the water at the same time, as well as the tiger.
The zoo is ranked as one of the best in the world and is spread over 100 acres in a large valley. This means there are plenty of steep hills to climb and descend, so we were glad to get our bearings on the open-air bus tour first.
After the tour we agreed to walk slowly through the centre of the zoo towards the pandas. Our route took us past many other enclosures, some of which interested us more than others. We arrived at the gorilla enclosure just as the keepers were throwing out their food. We bagged prime seats to watch them devour whole lettuces and mangoes right in front of us. They had better table manners than some people I know.
Eventually we reached the large Bashor Bridge, which overlooked the panda enclosure far below in a deep canyon. Amazingly, from this vantage point we could already see the female panda sprawled out on a rock.
We took the lift down and joined a queue of about ten minutes to enter the enclosure. The pandas are here on a ten-year loan from China. Apparently, whether they are loaned at all depends very much on the relationship between whichever US President happens to be in office and the Chinese government at the time. These two have been here since 2024. The agreement is that if they have cubs, they are sent back to China to be reared because the Chinese have the greatest expertise.
The queue moved quickly and we had already been warned that pandas sleep for up to twelve hours each day. We were delighted that the male was not only awake but also being playful only a few feet from us. He almost didn’t look real. In fact, he looked so lifelike that I briefly wondered whether it was actually a small man in a costume. We felt very privileged.
Zoos themselves are a controversial subject, and I can appreciate both sides of the argument. Here, though, conservation is at the forefront and the animals are not simply caged for the sake of it. The pandas are constantly monitored, and the zoo works with the Chinese to experiment with different grasses and species of bamboo in order to learn more about panda nutrition. The other bears they keep have all been rescued because they lacked the hunting skills needed to survive in the wild. Surely it must be better to let them live here and educate people than simply allow them to perish?
The enclosures the animals have here are enormous. The elephants cover roughly the same distance walking each day as they would in the wild.
From everything we saw, my opinion of San Diego Zoo was extremely high. Sadly, I couldn’t say the same about every zoo around the world.
Karen and I had our first sit-down of the day whilst Neil wandered off to see some other monkeys, muttering something about missing Barry. We ate our picnic lunch accompanied by the sounds of various animals around us.
Our slow meander then took us to the Skyfari, a chairlift ride across the zoo. It was enjoyable both for the cooling breeze and the views from our lofty vantage point. Karen and I then had another break afterwards as she felt she might be coming down with a virus. She bought herself a coffee whilst Neil went off to see the Galápagos tortoises.
Refuelled, we walked to the Australian section, which amongst other things contained my favourites, the koalas. Once again we were lucky as many of them were perched in the trees almost posing for us. It must be hard being a koala, having to sleep for over 20 hours a day just to digest your food. I still think we could have one living quite happily in our conservatory at home.
We then walked through Elephant Odyssey, where many of the elephants were busy enjoying their enrichment activities, which was fascinating to watch. Karen and I found yet another café so she could have another rest. I went to buy a couple of whippy ice creams but returned with only one because it cost £10. We shared it instead, which was just as well because it was enormous.
From there we slowly made our way towards the exit.
Instead of returning straight to the car, we enjoyed a short but pleasant walk around the ornate buildings and gardens in the main part of Balboa Park. It is quite a remarkable asset for San Diego and was very busy, being both a Saturday and Independence Day.
Eventually we got back to the car and drove back to the townhouse, where we watched some of the New York flypast and sail-past celebrating the USA’s 250th anniversary on the TV coverage.
We were all rather tired after our exertions and one or two of us may have enjoyed a five-minute nap.
Around 6.30pm we were back in the car, driving to the parking space I had pre-booked for San Diego Bay’s Fourth of July fireworks display. We had no idea what to expect. The traffic was surprisingly light and we quickly found our space in a multi-storey car park.
We joined the crowds making their way towards the waterfront. As we hadn’t yet eaten, we came across, just as I’d hoped, a large area of food stalls. We found an empty bench overlooking the bay. I had a large grilled cheese and pepperoni sandwich whilst Neil had tacos. Karen declined anything, as she is very fussy about eating food from stalls because of what she calls “hygiene issues”.
The next challenge was that we now had a couple of hours to kill before the fireworks. Thousands of people were making their way to the waterfront, about half of them dressed in patriotic red, white and blue, many carrying folding chairs. Karen and I realised there was no way we could stand for that length of time, so we decided to stay put on our bench, reasoning we’d have a decent view whatever happened and could move nearer the front just before the display began. So we sat whilst Neil went off exploring.
The time actually passed surprisingly quickly as we people-watched and played on our phones. Just before the advertised start time we moved to get a clearer view. The fireworks were being launched from four barges in the bay. It seemed as though all of San Diego, the eighth-largest city in the USA, had turned out to watch them.
They started late.
For the first fifteen minutes we were less than impressed. Cromer’s New Year’s Day fireworks from the end of the pier were better.
The final five minutes, though, were impressive.
We hurried Karen back to the car and climbed the five storeys to escape the car park before the rush. We managed it, only to hit gridlock on the streets instead. The journey home, which should have taken eleven minutes, ended up taking thirty-three.
The consensus was that we were glad we’d made the effort and experienced the display, but we weren’t entirely convinced it had been worth all the waiting around.
After the usual cuppa, we headed up the many stairs to bed.
