Sun is in the sky, oh why oh why would I wanna be anywhere else

We weren't quite done with California after our LA adventures, so we slipped down to San Diego for a quick visit. I didn't really know what to expect from San Diego. I heard it was gorgeous, and I knew it had the greatest zoo in the world. I like gorgeous places and I love the zoo so I figured I would be fine.

We pulled up to Chiz's friend Charisse's house and had barely put our stuff down before she had us back out the door and on a whirlwind adventure around the city. I handed her our car keys and enjoyed the backseat of the car for the first time on this trip...after we had uncovered it from a layer of stuff. First stop was burritos at a gas station. Fine, the burritos were at a restaurant...that was at a gas station. No matter, they were fantastic. More importantly we tried horchata, a cinnamon-milk drink, for the first time. That was pretty yummy, I could get used to that.

After lunch we went down to the harbor where we saw tall ships and a series of sculptures. Charisse and Chiz, both bio majors, eagerly posed in front of a sculpture of a DNA double helix. Not wanting to alienate me, Charisse offered to take my picture in front of some urban development. I declined, but quickly snapped a picture of a cool art deco building immediately after she said that.

We walked up to San Diego's Little Italy after that. This allowed us to see a bit of the city. It was a weird city because...no one was there. Apart from a group of skateboarding youth the place was empty. Little Italy was decorated with banners of famous Italians. While I assumed they were famous Italians who are somehow associated with San Diego...they weren't. Even more perplexing was their choice of celebrities. They led off with architect Cesar Pelli...a strange lead off choice especially when you consider that he's Argentinean.

After our brief exploration of the city Charisse announced that it was time to go to the zoo. YES! For those of you who don't know me, I love the zoo. I love any zoo. I think they're fascinating. From their layout to the animals to the people who go to the zoo. I could spend hours...days even...in zoos. The San Diego Zoo is widely cited as the creme de la creme of zoos. It's so elite that my zoo pass doesn't even work there. There are no words to describe how excited I was to go to the San Diego Zoo.

The most surprising thing about the zoo is how hidden away it is. For such a famous zoo, it's tucked back behind a middle school with an free parking lot out front (Philadelphia charges 12 bucks for parking). We bought tickets and discover that with our (really expensive, makes up for the free parking) admission, we also have access to the zoo bus and skyride. Aw crap, that sounds like a fancy word for ski lift. I really hate ski lifts.

That ski lift was the first thing we did once inside the park, because otherwise we were going to have to hoof it across the park to see the elephants. That's how big the park is, you need sky transportation to cross it. Our jaws dropped at the sheer size of this park as we flew over it. It was clear that we were not going to get to see everything and that we needed a plan. Basically the extent of our plan was elephants...pandas....whatever is in between.

We crash landed (almost literally, they need a better descent plan for those things) at the station and rounded the corner to the elephants. Their elephant enclosure was a thing of beauty. The Philadelphia Zoo recently sent their elephants away because of the size of their own enclosure. It was for lack of better words, terrible (I loved it, but that's besides the point). This enclosure had plenty of space, trees with barrels of hay hanging from it and a giant indoor area. All in all I believe they had 13 elephants. 13! Fantastic! The elephants seemed generally happy as well, chomping away on hay and playing with their toys.

After staring at the elephants for awhile we began to explore the zoo. The San Diego Zoo suffers from the same fundamental flaw as the National Zoo and that is that it is built on a hill. Walking it is murder. As a result even if it were a smaller walkable distance, the hills would destroy you. Getting to the monkey exhibit involves an elaborate system of escalators. Once at the monkeys we made a bee line for the gorillas. A gorilla exhibit can either be incredibly boring, with the gorillas hiding or sleeping, or the most entertaining thing in the world if the animals are doing something (anything).

At first glance there were no gorillas, then as if scheduled for an appearance, one came out and went through a series of poses. He even sat on a rock and turned his head from side to side as if to say "let me give you my good side". I swear I saw him look at his watch before leaving 5 minutes later. I think these might be trained animals.

After the gorilla we wandered over to the chimpanzees. Again after a few minutes of staring a giant chimp emerged from somewhere, sat on a rock, and posed before leaving again after his posing time was up. This zoo is filled with professionals.

Making out way out of the monkey exhibit was rough but we eventually made our way down to the pandas. The National Zoo panda always looks sort of sad and depressed but these pandas were having a lovely time chomping away on bamboo and posing for pictures. I think it was because we were told to keep our voices down. They don't tell you that at the National Zoo and I think that makes a difference. Clearly I am an expert on these things so you should listen to me.

We left the panda exhibit and swung by the sun bears. Chiz was sad that we hadn't seen any bears at Yellowstone or Yosemite so the sun bears were a bit of a compromise. They were fantastic. The exhibit consisted of one exhausted mother and two cubs with endless energy. We watched as they raced up tree limbs and slid down waterfalls. Fabulous.

After the sun bears we decided to leave. Unfortunately we were in the exact middle of the zoo and had no idea how to get out. After following the maze of paths we stumbled upon the exit and were able to beat the exiting mass out of the park. The San Diego Zoo is fantastic, but incredibly overwhelming. It's great to visit, but I'm sticking with my allegiance to the Philly Zoo.

Charisse drove us over to the beach where we met up with her sister to watch the sunset and get some fish tacos (or as they called them, feesh tacas). The beach was alive with surfers and pot heads all with nothing better to do with their lives. I would judge them, but I had nothing better to do with my life either. We had seen a bunch of sunsets on this trip, but it was still mindblowing to see the sun gradually drift below the horizon, leaving a trail of pink and orange.

The bar where we got feesh tacas was right on the beach. The place was packed and people were circling the bar like vultures waiting for people to get up from their tables. We almost got into a fight with a group of people over a table before we noticed a better table in the corner. The tacos were incredible. One was grilled mahi mahi and the other....I forget, but it was fantastic. San Diego was really winning me over. The carefree lifestyle of watching the sunset then chowing down on fish tacos was one that I could get used to.

Charisse was ready for more fun after dinner while Chiz and I were ready to crash. After discussing multiple options we decided on cupcakes in the city's Gaslight District. This would have been great, except finding a parking space was like finding a needle in a haystack. We finally found a spot...right as the cupcake store locked it's door. That's how cupcakes in the Gaslight District turned into rice krispie treats back at Charisse's apartment. That sounds perfect to me.

We stopped at the grocery store on the way home where the checkout lady was appalled to learn that we didn't have a value card for the supermarket. Rather than type in her own number as is the protocol at most supermarkets, she asked the young gentleman behind us if he'd like to give us his number to use. Oh, I see what you did there. The check out woman tried to hook us up. Touche, my friend, touche. He didn't have his card so he had to use his phone number. That's right, we got his digits.

The night ended with delicious rice krispie treats, youtube videos, and general sleepover fun. At one point I had to run out to the car to grab a sweatshirt and was greeted with five cop cars and a man watching the action who gave me a quick "You're gonna wanna go back to your apartment" look. I decided the sweatshirt could wait and went back to Charisse's apartment...and locked the door behind me.

We had a long drive to Arizona ahead of us in the morning, but Charisse wouldn't let us leave until we had pancakes at the Hash House. We are ALL for pancakes, so we eagerly agreed. As we drove there Charisse told us that "we should probably only order two pancakes for the three of us". Wait...what? We usually are good for three pancakes each. What sort of super pancakes are these?

Pizza sized pancakes, that's what. Legit pancakes the size of pizzas. Out of control. Even more out of control were the flavors, we got banana and brown sugar and butterscotch almond. WOW! It was an explosion of flavor in my mouth. It was almost overwhelming. Actually no, it was overwhelming. It was so delicious yet only after the fact can I realize how much I enjoyed it. At the time eating that pancake was a mission that I had to accomplish. I failed on that mission and was thus disappointed. Now...I want another one, immediately.

With our stomachs full of pancakes we hit the road. As San Diego was the half way point, we were officially heading home....by way of the entire southern United States. San Diego was fantastic. Beautiful, comfortable, and filled with fantastic people. While I found the rest of California a bit overwhelming....I could definitely see myself in San Diego.

God I hate ski lifts
Elephants!
Charisse and Ch'nel with the elephants
Posing
Posing
These guys are pros
San Diego Surfers
Glorious

PS. It's my birthday. Do whatever you please with that piece of information.