1. We started the day with a 2.5 hour drive to San Diego. We drove past some bridges that were damaged from the recent earthquake.

2. Old Town San Diego. A small (2x3 blocks) area that was the original San Diego and that now recreates the setting of California life in the mid 1800's. Some buildings are originals others are reconstructions. It was very pleasant to wander around within this setting. In some ways it reminded us of walking around in Williamsburg, Virginia. Some of our outstanding memories:

• Eric running after pigeons and around the central grassy plaza
• Meeting an actor portraying Abraham Lincoln (though Lincoln never got that far west)

Eric, Missy, and that guy on the penny

• Having a huge, delicious Mexican lunch at La Casa de Bandini. It used to be a large private house, then a hotel, store, pickle factory, and motel annex before it became a restaurant.

Eric getting standing nunnie from Missy

4. Museum of Man, Balboa Park. Though it is not especially large

Replicas of humankind's ancestors in the Museum of Man

and we only had about an hour to spend in it, we rated this a four star museum. The first floor is largely devoted to afflictions of man and includes photographs and bones of people with all kinds of diseases (e.g., leprosy and syphillus) or who mutilated themselves or their children for some cultural custom (e.g., head shaping, body piercing, lip and ear stretching). The second floor had a wing for the evolution of man. It was easily the most extensive exhibit on that subject we've ever seen.

5. We hung around Balboa Park in the early evening, after all museums were closed, because it was so peaceul and beautiful. Eric made friends with a large dog. They played run and catch with a slobbery ball.

Scanning the horizon from the precipice

6. While it was still light, we drove to Sunset Cliffs and watched the surfers doing their thing and waves crashing into the steep cliffs.

7. We got to Ocean Park Beach in the twilight and roamed along the beach playing with the waves.

8. In our hotel, the only one we stayed in during our vacation (and that for just three days), we settled down to a dinner of peanut butter and banana sandwiches. That was our main food throughout the vacation. We must have eaten it ten times.

1. San Diego Zoo. We got a combination ticket for the zoo and Wild Animal Park which Curt promptly lost. Fortunately, he discovered it was missing and retraced his steps finding it on the ground near the zoo entrance. This may be the most highly regarded zoo in the world and properly so. The emphasis in the zoo and park is on reproduction of endangered species; both animal and plant. They had many species we hadn't seen in any other zoo. The animal enclosures are spacious and include places for the animals to hide if they don't want to be bothered by people. Memorable experiences include:

• A double decker bus tour of the zoo that enabled us to pick out the places we wanted to see on foot
• A children's zoo where we could pet and feed goats, sheep, and pigs. One goat tried to eat one of our cameras. Eric was so happy he ran around kissing many of the animals.

One of the non-human animals Eric kissed

• A playful, jumping monkey that liked Eric
• Tiger River which gave one a sense of being in an Asian tropical rain forest
• Pygmy chimpanzees (bonobos)
• An aviary in which Eric followed a large, blue Victoria crowned pigeon imitating its walk (head jerking) and walking "quitely and carefully" behind it so as not to scare it
• Missy nursing Eric quite often (he did little napping)
• An elephant giving herself a dirt shower
• An elephant dancing with Eric. The elephant was as close as she could get to Eric within her enclosure when she started swaying back and forth. Eric mimmicked her movements. The elephant appeared to be keeping an eye on Eric as they moved. (Such swaying movements in captive animals are indications that the animal has been psychologically damaged.)
• One giraffe playing ring around the rosie with a second giraffe (one of Eric's favorite games)
• A rhinocerous leaving an atrocious smelling poop
• Eric climbing on steel gorilla statues and getting nunnie from the mommy gorilla.

Getting nunnie from a mommy gorilla

2. We sat down for dinner at a fancy vegetarian restaurant, then decided to get it to go since Eric was wanting to be active.

3. We ate a wonderful dinner at a playground in Balboa Park.

1. We spent the day in Sea World; arriving before the gates opened and leaving when they closed. The shows and exhibits here are nearly identical to those in the Sea World in Orlando, Florida. Highlights:

Petting a dolphin

• Feeding and petting dolphins
• Feeding and petting manta rays
• Feeding sea lions
• Holding starfish
• Watching the Shamu show twice (Eric slept through it the first time). After our vacation, Eric told his friend Marta about Shamu, "Shamu jump out of water, splash people, all wet."
• Seeing a team of Clydesdales
• Moving through the pyrex tunnel surrounded by sharks.

Look at the size of that fish!
(The one behind the glass)

© 1999 frantzml@juno.com