grandlidbom san diego christmas. last day.

for the last (full) day of the grandlidbom san diego christmas extravaganza, the world famous san diego zoo was on tap. before we even entered the gates, we happened upon our first “animal”… there were hundreds of bees buzzing around a (rather peculiar) plant. i don’t know if this pic is from my phone or my new fancy zoom camera that derek got me for christmas, but it gave a pretty good view of the pollen pockets on this guys legs. so cool.

once we were through the gates, we decided to hit the tour bus before the line got too long. anna and i started on the left side.

everyone else on the right. (we were told this was where the views would be, but we wanted to be able to move around to see anything good on either side).

derek mostly had the fancy zoom camera and took a bunch of great shots from the bus, but i won’t attempt to caption them all, i’ll just show you some animals and stuff.

after the bus tour, we picked out some spots that we wanted to revisit and some spots that the bus doesn’t go to. firstly, we walked past this exhibit. a lab and a cheetah, who are bffs. the tour guide even said that the lab is the dominant friend in the relationship.

bird of paradise plant. they were everywhere and so cool.

this rhino showed off a little. mostly his butt.

the annababy brought along some new art supplies and did a bit of sketching. 🙂

we tried to walk to the panda exhibit, without realizing that it was like 10 stories beneath us and not so easily accessible as it seemed on the map. but we could see one furry guy from a bridge above. only it was a LONG way away. but. fancy zoomy camera to the rescue.

hazel’s favorite part of the bridge. dangling. (this pic also gives a good indication of how far below the pandas were).

fancy zoomy camera pic of a sleeping lion face.

cutest animal at the zoo.

elephant friends.

secretary bird. he pranced back and forth and it was funny.

swimming turtle friends.

attempting to capture an epic camel video for my one second everyday.

he wasn’t super interested in being epic.

vandalized vegetation. we all grumbled. humans are terrible.

spider monkeys. the baby was the cutest thing ever.

lazy orangutang, watching us, watching him.

all the lidkids. interested in something. it’s a boxing day miracle!

the paparazzi, capturing pics of crazy cool birds in the aviary.

like this guy.

and a toucan sam!

lazy hippos, swimming fish.

staring contest.

flamingos.

at this point, we were cutting it close to being able to make it to our second planned adventure. derek’s dad had purchased tickets for the model train museum and time was running out. so we made a quick exit, rolled over to the museum (the zoo and the museum are both in balboa park). hazel approves.

most of the place was a scale model of the california countryside (and trains tracks), so it was a lot of open desert, but there were also a few really cool little details.

then. we happened upon the kids room. which was AMAZING. the kids loved it.

especially hazel.

outside, we stopped for a photo op to commemorate the trip, and it turned out to be a pretty good one, if i do say so myself.

then, we went BACK to the zoo, so the kids could pick out a toy from the gift shop, to complete their christmas bounty from the grandlidboms. we debated going to see the tigers, because anna was bummed we never made it, but it was getting late and dark, so we promised her to go to another zoo as soon as possible.

then, derek and i had one last date night, and we chose zorbas greek buffet, where i stuffed myself with feta cheese an hummous and pitas.

the next day, we packed up the camper to hit the road. we packed up some stuff to send home with the grandlidboms. then we went to a park to have a picnic lunch before the final bittersweet goodbye.

and the grandlidbom san diego christmas extravaganza came to a close.