San Diego

Mike and Jeannette were invited to San Diego by our good friends Kevin and Sarah.  Jeannette had been to San Diego before, but it was Mike and Brownie's first time.

This is Mike at the Bloomington airport on our way out.  We always fly out of Bloomington instead of Champaign because it has more connection flights than Champaign.

We arrived in San Diego late on Monday night.  Jeannette got up early the next morning and took a few pictures of snails outside our condo.

On the first day of our trip we went to the San Diego Zoo.  It was huge and really amazing.  Here's a picture of a sleeping koala.  Because koalas are nocturnal, most of them were sleeping when we arrived late in the morning.

Speaking of sleeping... so were the camels. 

This is Brownie with Sarah's pet sheep, "Fleece."  She brings her on trips to share her stories with her nieces.  

 It looks like a vulture, but it's a nearly extinct California Condor.

 Here's Brownie riding a fake snake outside the reptile exhibit.

I'm not really sure why Aunt Jeannette took this picture, but the background is an elephant butt.

More elephant butt. (Aunt Jeannette says, "It's a picture of a dust bath!")

This male elephant is about 60+ years old.  The zoo keepers were trying to call him into his cage to get his nails trimmed, but they say it takes about 45min for him to make his way into the cage.  He's definitely not in any hurry.

 Just a statue!!!  But look at the size of a full grown male polar bear!

Jeannette poking her head through the ice with a seal!

Zebra butt(can you see it?).

 Brownie waited in line with us for 30min to get a glimpse of the giant pandas.  There are very few giant pandas in the United States, which is why there was such a long wait to see them.

This female panda has given birth to at least 6 panda cubs since she came to the United States.  She is called a "rock star" of pandas because it's so difficult to raise panda cubs in captivity.  She's part of a animal loan project with China, which means once her panda cubs are grown they will be shipped back to China to live in one of their zoos.

 Here's a hippo resting her left cheek against the aquarium glass.

 Uncle Mike saw this statue of a mother gorilla and thought it looked perfect for a funny martial arts picture.

This is a napping gorilla in the primates exhibit.

 We arrived at the orangutan exhibit just in time for their feeding.

This orangutan is walking across her enclosure to fetch some sweet potatoes and romaine lettuce.

The sweet potatoes are the first veggies to be snatched up during feeding time.

One of the most interesting sights at the zoo are the giant tortoises.  Some of these dudes are over 100 years old! They are very curious creatures with highly social personalities.  But don't get too close, their beaks are very strong.

Jeannette and Mike took lots of walks on the beach.  Here's a picture of Brownie while they were walking along the shore.

 Another view of the beach.

 Here's a picture of Mike and Jeannette in front of the setting sun.  Because California is on the west coast the beach faces the sun as it sets.

 Mike and Jeannette on the hanger deck of the U.S.S. Midway.  They gave us audio players and headphones so we could take a self-guided tour.

 When you're on the deck of the aircraft carrier, sometimes it's hard to remember that this whole thing is a giant boat.

Here's Brownie and Uncle Mike inside a helicopter.

 Mike doing the "King of the World" thing from the movie Titanic.

 An overview of the landing deck.

Another picture of us on the landing deck.

 After we visited the U.S.S. Midway we went to La Jolla beach.  Here's a picture of Kevin and Sarah on a stone cliff near the shore.

 And here's a picture of Uncle Mike.

Uncle Mike and Aunt Jeannette

Uncle Mike overlooking the beautiful and dangerous waves crashing into the shore at La Jolla Beach.

Aunt Jeannette taking a selfie and trying not to panic after climbing the cliffs at the beach.

One of the best parts of the trip was seeing the wild sea lions at La Jolla beach.  Here's the side of the shore where the seal pups were resting.  It's hard to express how special and interesting it was so see the seals relaxing on the beach.  You'll just have to go there and see it for yourselves.

This photo doesn't convey how beautifully colorful and violent the waves were as they hit the shore.

On our way back home.  Here's Brownie balancing on a ledge overlooking the food court at the San Diego airport.  Uncle Mike was worried that Brownie would fall but he's got great core strength.  Kids, don't forget to do your exercises.