San Francisco Zoo...

We drove to San Francisco Zoo and back last weekend, and went to inspect a restored Mustang a few miles down the road, that Brendan's Dad is thinking of buying. (see next post for this one.)

I currently have a yucky cold, and am partially losing my voice. But we'd planned the San Francisco Zoo trip for a few weekends so we were determined to go this time. We were hoping to take Onita but she didn't answer her phone, maybe she was asleep.

I drove the 75 miles there, and Brendan drove on the way back. We took the freeways the whole way, which meant it only took us over an hour, rather than closer to an hour and a half. And traffic wasn't too bad. It's always best when navigating freeways if one person drives and the other(s) direct and look at maps, since time between seeing the sign for the exit and time given to get across several lanes and to the exit (even if you're in the far right lane) are often really short, or the exit is really well-hidden. Not to mention knowing whether to go north or south is often extremely vital. It's written in tiny signs just before you enter or leave the road.

The Zoo was really crowded, even at 3.30 on a Sunday. We paid $11 for our tickets each, and were surprised that no-one collected them. Parking was $5 but worth it to avoid horrible San Francisco parking woes. It was actually quite cold and foggy, situated on the edge of the city by the ocean.

Little kids ran about everywhere, screaming. Harried parents tried to quiet their children around the animals, and still take hordes of pictures every time one of the usually sleeping animals scratched itself or yawned. (Yes, I'm guilty.) And there were peacocks everywhere - people were more impressed when one of the male peacocks displayed his tail, and sparked a rush of cameras to the head, than for many of the surrounding exhibits. When did peacocks become the main event at a zoo?



One of the funniest things at the zoo was one of the rhinos. He had a new toy: a tyre on a short chain. He spent a long time banging the tyre around and picking it up with his nose. He kept trying to put it on a special rounded spike on top of one of the fences.



We also spent a lot of time wishing humans were as agile with climbing, as monkeys. The really cute little monkeys looked like Dr. Seuss characters - they had tiny brown faces with bright black eyes, and wide, white handlebar moustaches.



The polar bear was obviously very hot - he was stretched out by his pool, panting slightly. We were a bit cold.

We were also treated to the rather strange sight of bears "kissing" with tongue - everyone thought it was sweet and ooh-ed and ahh-ed. Disturbingly, the sign on the enclosure said the bears were sisters.


Brendan and Alex were disappointed. They didn't get to see the snakes.