Saturday Tour

As self appointed ambassador to the city of San Diego, I hereby present you with this weekend's tour: The San Diego Zoo. Weather was great today; we started at 9am and left at about noon. The Zoo was much more crowded than normal..I prefer my Zoo scantly populated with humans. I realize that some of you may never have a chance to visit the San Diego Zoo, so I am going to treat this post as if I were driving my own tour bus...someone get me a Mr. Microphone..here we go:

Peacocks roam freely near the entrance of the zoo...this always makes me a little nervous...they don't really strike me as a "friendly" bird and their cries are really loud...enough to make you duck for cover when one flies overhead. I don't recall any news footage of anyone actually being attacked by a peacok at the zoo...

This handsome guy is called a "Guanaco"..he looks friendly. I am continually amazed at how up close and personal people are allowed to get with some of the animals. Pay no attention to the small child in the background yelling, "Sheep!"...this is indeed a Guanaco.

In the Koala pen today, everyone was asleep. It was really weird to see almost every Koala curled up in a little ball on their branch. No movement at all no matter how many flashbulbs and children came calling..

This guy was the only Koala not in a ball...yet still fast asleep.

I am really amazed at the botanicals on the zoo grounds and in the neighboring Balboa Park. Every plant is so beautiful..well worth the price of admission in itself.

This Hyacinth Macaw is the largest flying parrot species in the world. Their popularity as pets has reduced numbers in the wild...I think this may also be the most expensive parrot as well. While these birds look so calm and peaceful, they require a ton of maintenance. Trust me....living with a parrot is no walk in the park- for you or your neighbors. Think twice before shelling out the $10,000 for one of these!

Tall drink of water...look at him..I can't even touch my knees..

So beautiful! It amazes me how every hair is in place and how these animals are so well taken care of!

Well....maybe not his hair, but he looks really happy!

Again...I can't believe how close I was to this majestic elephant! No fancy zoom equipment was used on any of these photos! This is one of my favorite pictures from today..I love the black and white conversion.

I am pretty sure this is Zhen Zhen, the newest Giant Panda cub. Just hanging out looking really cute in a tree today... but her relatives on the other hand were very active! The most active I have ever seen a Giant Panda:

When we arrived in the Panda enclosure today, this panda was really playful! Jumping up and down out of the trees, playing with branches and swinging around. I think he/she was happy for the holiday weekend too!

I hope you enjoyed your free tour today! Happy Easter weekend...I'll see you on Monday for the final 3 journal page countdown!

(All of these pictures were taken with my Canon Rebel Xti; I ran various photoshop actions on all of them for color enhancement.)