San Diego Zoo & return to LA

16th October 2018

I had an awful night - probably caused by too much chocolate cake and too much  food generally. I tossed and turned till way after 3 am and felt unwell in the morning but needed to get moving because it was my last day in San Diego and I wanted to see the Zoo!!

Two things hit me as soon as I saw the zoo. Firstly the sheer size and secondly just how immaculate it is. I rode the sky rail and took two different buses tours around the grounds and walked for miles seeing as much as I could. 

The sky rail was extremely high!!

My favourite animals were the Gorillas closely followed by the very cute Pandas.

This guy weighs about 300 lbs

Absolutely magnificent

This fat old boy didn't move but
he weighs approximately 450 lbs.

So Cute!

Then there were the elephants. I've been to a few zoos in my time but the elephant enclosure was the best - plenty of space and things to do to keep their brains active. This is actually a retirement home for elephants. The other elephants are at the San Diego Wild Life Park roaming free.

Mary

Just gorgeous

If I had to pick fault at all it would be with the terminology used to describe the Australian area.  It wasn't remotely like the Outback but having said that it was still a nice area.

Polar Bears    .....  Soooo Biiiiiig!!

Every animal seemed larger than life

Lunch was peppered steak and veggies and rice from an Asian Restaurant - luckily I was feeling a lot better by this stage.  Good grub!!   

The day itself was perfect - about 23 C with blue skies and even though it was a week day there were a huge number of people there. I'm so glad I went,  I doubt whether I'll ever see another zoo quite like it.   Although I was feeling a lot better by the time I got home a nap snuck up on me again so I think I'm caught up lol.

17 October 2018

Up and at them early this morning (after a good night's catch up sleep) to make sure I got to the Amtrak Santa Fe station ready for my return to LA. This time the trip was perfect and just as I remembered from my  previous visit to USA.

Thank you Susanne and Lachlan and Madison for my stay at your house. It was lovely to see you all and Thor helped me deal with my homesickness for Trevor.

I got to the station in plenty of time and checked my bags. Another glorious day weather wise in SoCal.

After my disastrous train/bus ride on the trip TO San Diego I was hoping for a better experience on the return trip. That's exactly what I got. It was wonderful - great views - great trip.

This is more like it :)

The trip is just long enough to
catch a Netflix movie and a coffee or two

The view of the Pacific Ocean  is one of the things that makes this trip special for me. Sometimes the train gets VERY close to the beach. On one of my previous trips the Navy base at San Diego was holding  exercises out at sea and we were treated to views of battleships and all sorts of navy vessels and helicopters lifting personnel from the ocean. It was a terrific show.

These are some shots from the train. Beautiful coastline.

 I finally arrived at Union Station LA and what chaos!! The MLB Playoffs are on this afternoon in LA and there were thousands of Dodgers fans pushing their way through the station and spilling out into the streets. One A**hole was face to face with me as I was going through a fairly narrow doorway. I was towing a suitcase in each hand and another bag under my arm so he decided to push me out the way and climb over my bags. All this rather than wait 20 seconds.  There are some jerks about.

By mid afternoon I finally arrived back to the same hotel I stayed in my first week in LA and decided to have a quiet afternoon and catch up on my blog and send out for dinner.

Again tasty but WAY to much