Warning: for my Mum, pictures of snakes. Will hide them behind a cut.

Warning: for all parental figures: Don’t read after when I tell you to stop. Trust me, you don’t want to know.

Warning: for friends, I don’t care if you read below the Parental No-Go zone, there’s nothing bad there, just naughty

Ants and I sold our Sea World tickets for US$80, which was great for us, because we got some of our money back which we wouldn’t have used otherwise, and the people we sold them to got entrance to Sea World for much cheaper (tickets are $53 each).

We went to San Diego Zoo today with Anthea, Zoe, and Kathy. We had that expectation of it being really fantastic, but it was just cool. The enclosures weren’t as great as we though they would be. Many of the animals seemed to be a little crammed in. We didn’t get time to see the whole zoo, mostly because the bus got us there late, and

we took a bit too long having lunch. But we got around most of it.

Flamingos!

First up were the reptiles

Mum, Don’t look for a while….

This one is my favourite photo

Albino Python that would never have made it in the wild

Quack

We took the skyline ride, which takes you up the hill to the back of the zoo. It’s pretty high up, and no good if you’re afraid of heights. Starting at the back was good though, because there was less crowds.

Highlights were:

• Seeing the polar bear playing
• Seeing the elephants, which I think is the first time I’ve ever seen a real live elephant.
• Seeing this weird creature called a Okapi, which is a cousin to the giraffe, but looks like a cross between a giraffe, a zebra, and an anteater.
• Seeing the Kiwi enclosure, even if we didn’t see any Kiwi’s. I remember vaguely something about San Diego being a sister zoo to Wellington zoo, hence the Kiwi’s. We had to give Kathy a lesson on them because we didn’t see them.
• Seeing the albino python.

“If I were a young warthog”

Polar Bears! Was very excited about this.

Zhen Zhen the baby panda had climbed high up in the tree

“ook ook”

An Okapi

cool hippos. I hadn’t seen them before either

This elephant was intent on getting carrot out of the ball.

Kiwi’s love kiwi’s!

Bears!! A bit more exciting than the honey bear in Wellingtron zoo

We were picked up by the bus and taken to Mission Bay. It’s meant to be a big surfy pier, and reminding me a bit of wellington, apart from the white sand. It was cloudy, slightly windy, and threatened of rain. Some of the tour boys went for a swim (and were visibly shaking afterwards). We got to know Ally a little better, especially after her and Ants had a “my sandcastle is bigger than your sandcastle competition”.

Panorama of the beach. Larger version here

While wandering up and down the pier, we came across a bar called the Wavehouse. It was pretty novel because it didn’t bother having flooring, just sand on the ground. There was also a big wave machine there, where people were practising their surfing. The strength of the wave could be changed for experts or newbies, or cut off very quickly if somebody got in trouble, or, like when we saw it, a tweenie girl wouldn’t get off the wave when her mum said it was time to go.

Further down the pier we spotted Kathy, Zoe and Anthea having a hot tea. I really wanted a hot chocolate, but decided against it for fear that it wouldn’t be prepared properly. We sat there and warmed up until it was time to go back to the bus.

After getting ourselves sorted, we met with Nathan, Brendan, Mel, Anthea, Zoe, Nicole (all Auzzies) and Maia (Aucklander) and went to the Rytham lounge for $2.50 margaritas. Cheap margaritas and ‘free pour’ without a decent dinner goes a long way to getting a girl drunk in half an hour. The bartender was lovely, and she commented that they often get the Contiki crowed in the bar because of the hotel being just across the road. The toilet didn’t have a lock on it however, and when I mentioned it to the manager, he said “I can’t, it’s law not to”. Weird, because we totally know it’s not law, and he’s just a lazy ass.

We were on our own for dinner, so somebody suggested we go to Sizzlers, an all you can eat buffet place. We went there for dinner, and piled our plates high. We wished we’d just ordered the salad bar though, because, unlike NZ salad bars, this included pretty much every thing you could want to eat in it (including pastas, chips, meat etc). Ants and I got a steak and a Malibu chicken as well, only because we didn’t realise that the salad bar meant all the other food in the buffet as well.

After dinner we were off to Kristy’s up the road where the rest of the Contiki were. Ally shouted me a drink, Ants got up and sang “Blaze of Glory” very badly with Nicole. Ally dropped her glass all over the floor (and begged me not to tell anybody).

Parents stop reading here, you don’t want to know where we went after drinking.
So then went home to the hotel for sleeps.
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Weather: Freezing, about 16º-18º

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Nicole managed to get us free entry into Hustler. It was pretty lucky actually, because the manager of it was over at Kristy’s and heard Nicole asking the bar manager for any coupons.

Ants and I were on our way back to the hotel when Nicole asked us if we wanted to go with her, and had we seen Nathan and Brendan because they wanted to go as well.

The club itself was pretty average. Nathan and Brendan were there (and Nicole told them how we got free entry, if only they’d waited 5 minutes). The Brit boys were also there.

LA has a law where if the club serves alcohol the girls won’t get fully naked. This was fine, because as the girls wouldn’t get fully naked, they worked extra hard to please their crowd and get tips.

One of the Brit boys (Dave) brought a lap-dance. The story we got told later was that he had ‘extra benefits’ in his dance (was allowed to touch her wherever) but wasn’t told that he had to pay extra for that. He’d only paid the usual amount, and then he high-tailed it back to the hotel. The rest of them were on their way out, and the bouncers realised that Dave wasn’t with them, so they kept one of the boys’ hostage until they paid the extra. Dave then had a nickname for the rest of the trip; Jipper-Dave.

Current Mood: dorky & cold

Tags: Mission Bay San Diego, San Diego, San Diego Zoo