San Diego Zoo

This zoo is amazing. A world class zoo, to be sure. The weather was perfect--not too hot, not humid at all, and lots of sun. After the first half of our trek through the zoo, we discovered that they rent those motorized scooters. By this time Philip was really pooped and much of the walking is uphill. So we went back to the entrance and rented a scooter. With the scooter he was able to truly enjoy himself because he wasn't worrying about whether he could make it to the next exhibit. Next time, we'll know: if there's a lot of walking involved, we rent a scooter. We met a woman who works at the Air and Space Museum here and she told us they have them there, too, because it's very big.

Hopefully at some point I'll get some pictures on here. Then again, it might not happen until we get home.

Balboa Park

Balboa Park is the nation’s largest urban park, and only Central Park has been around longer. The gorgeous Spanish Colonial and Art Deco buildings were built in 1915 for the California-Panama International Exposition. Today they house most of the city’s major museums (15) and eight botanical gardens. The San Diego Zoo is in Balboa Park. The park is huge and beautiful. We didn’t see the entire park, but we did visit several museums (Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego Natural History Museum and the San Diego Model Railroad Museum) and the Botanical Garden and Lily Pond. We also want to go back and see the Air and Space Museum. The zoo we’ll save for another day all by itself.

We’re driving a Prius—thank you, Enterprise! It’s a great little car. We’re getting between 70-99 mpg. Gas prices here are very high, and in California you have to drive everywhere, so it’s fantastic. We’ve gone over 400 miles and we still have half a tank. The car is comfortable, the hatchback holds a ton of stuff, and it drives really well—very zippy and responsive. It’s so great to be riding along and see the display on the dash: “99.9 mpg.”

USS Midway

Today we went aboard the USS Midway, berthed in San Diego Harbor. The Midway is the Navy's longest-serving aircraft carrier. It was commissioned in 1945 and served until 1992 in nearly every war and conflict the US was involved in. It is immense. There are aircraft of all kinds (from WW II through the first Gulf War) on the flight deck.

Yesterday was a little rainy, but the sun is out today and the rest of the week will be sunny and warm.

One thing I find interesting: in Boston, the weather forecast is prominently displayed on the front page of the Globe every day in two places. There is a thumbnail forecast in the upper right hand corner, and at the bottom of the front page, in the index, the page number for the complete weather forecast is listed. In the San Diego paper, there is not a single mention of the weather report on the front page. Nothing. You have to page through the paper and find the weather map to discover it on your own. The fact is, they don't care very much about the weather here, becuase it's basically the same every day. When it rains, it's news.

Day One? Or Still Last Night?

It was after midnight when we checked in, which meant 3am as far as our bodies were concerned. Cranky doesn’t begin to cover it. But we are nothing if not anal, so we unpacked, put everything away and took showers before we finally passed out. Today we mostly slept late, got some info from the concierge and went grocery shopping while we learned our way around the immediate area. In another day or two I’ll start to relax and we’ll start getting our groove on.

The Great Escape

Despite steady snow, our plane did take off with only a small delay so the plane could be de-iced. I was actually looking forward to the flight, figuring I could get some sleep and maybe get rid of the sore throat thing I’ve had for the past week.

It was not to be.

Six hours nonstop to San Diego. Six hours of screaming toddler. ‘Nuff said.