First stop - La Jolla, where we got to see seals lounging on the beach, at a little cove called Children's Pool (it used to be for the kids to wade in the water, before the seals took over). Very cool, figuratively and literally - the sea wind is freezing cold. We lunched at a cafe called the Cottage - very yummy. You'll have to take my word for it, cos I didn't manage to get any pictures. The food looked so good, we just dug in straightaway. Who has time to take out the camera?
We spent Sunday afternoon at Balboa Park. J was a very happy camper because he got to do all he loved - riding on a miniature train (which was built in the 1940s, I think), riding on the carousel and playing in front of a fountain. Check out his big grins!
And in the evening, just before dinner (at The Fish Market), we got to look at an aircraft carrier. The boys were, naturally, fascinated.
Monday was spent at SeaWorld, which was fantastic. A few firsts - feeding dolphins (not cheap, ok. Each tray of fish cost US$5; there were FOUR fish only!), getting to see the Shamu show (a little bit cheesy at times, but still pretty amazing), getting to see walruses and beluga whales up close.
You can see J feeding the dolphins above - he actually picked up a little dead fish to throw into the dolphin's mouth! So proud of him. In the middle picture above, E just turned around to catch a walrus' belly as it did a dive right up against the glass. The sight of that thing made her scramble, I'll tell you that. Quite funny to see her scurry off. *grin* J's taking a close-up look at a beluga whale in the pic below.
Our last day was spent at the famous San Diego Zoo - you can imagine how excited J was. Naturally, his favourite exhibit was the elephants. He also loved the cable car, and wanted to keep going on it. Unfortunately, E had just fallen asleep, so she missed out on this one.
By far the most hilarious moment of the trip: while visiting the panda enclosure, we had told J that he had to be quiet so as not to scare the pandas. But even after leaving the pandas, he kept insisting that we all had to be quiet and would shush us if we tried to talk. We had no choice! So there he was creeping up on the different exhibits, where he would suddenly shout or scream cos he was just too excited to contain himself when he saw the different animals. Unfortunately, at one of the exhibits, a little old lady didn't notice him creeping up, until he was right behind her, when he let out a blood-curdling, at-the-top-of-his-lungs scream: "Bird!!!!!". The poor lady got such a big fright, she said J almost sent her to heaven too early. I tell you, we're still laughing about it now.
J didn't want to come home... When he realised that we were nearing home, he kept insisting on going back to San Diego to make his home there...
I personally felt SeaWorld was the most impressive, maybe just because the animals that they had there were a little more unusual. I mean, dolphins, killer and beluga whales, walruses and manatees don't pop up in any old zoo. How awesome is God, that He made them all.
1 comment:
Laughing! haha, funny bt that old lady getting shocked by josh's "Bird" outburst! your blog's bringing me laughter and tears too. Like when Keith shared bt being so "estranged" and it being like repositioning to being more dependent and aware of God. Our life here in Perth has been quite a fast as well, and great for our spiritual lives, but tough emotionally definitely! Sigh.
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