Day #8 - San Diego Zoo

Today, as you can imagine, started very very late. After everyone got going, we ate (I fed everyone breakfast with what I had here in the room.), cleaned up, straightened up, and headed out. I had asked the front desk the best way to get to Balboa Park to see the Zoo, and he had said it would be best to drive. Well, I wasn't so sure! It took us 20 minutes to get out of the "Comic-Con area." There are just SO MANY PEOPLE here!

We finally made it up to the zoo, parked, paid and went in. And, of course, the first thing I heard was "I'm hungry." So, we stopped for lunch, and then began our tour of the zoo. We really didn't want to zig zag around the zoo like we did with Sea World, so we tried to map out a logical plan. It worked out for us pretty well! We did the children's zoo area first, since Pete REALLY wanted to pet an animal (goats). We saw snakes and spiders, frogs and geckos. We headed onto the Monkey trail where we saw a lot of different types of monkeys as well as a orangoutangs and gorillas.

This zoo is really amazing. And it isn't too spread out. They have it well mapped out so that you aren't walking for miles to get to the next exhibit, and yet the animals all have plenty of space. The highlight of the day were the Pandas and the Koala bears. You just don't se

e them in many zoos. The koalas were so cute sitting up in the eucalyptus trees, sleeping. We ended up timing it so that we were at the back of the zoo by the time we were done so that we could take the tram back to the front. Peter was thrilled.

After the zoo, we headed back into the craziness of the Gaslamp District (definitely THE hotspot of San Diego and where everyone heads after a day at comic-con) and Steve dropped us off at The Yard House, a restaurant the kids were wanting to go to. He drove back to the hotel and then walked back. It took him awhile, so we had appetizers and waited. After a very yummy dinner, we walked back towards the hotel with a brief stop at the grocery store for pastries for breakfast tomorrow.

When we got back to the hotel, Steve and the kids went to the car to get a few things, and Pete and I headed upstairs with the food. I couldn't believe it. I got into the elevator with all the guys from the show Steve loves! (the ones that we were at House of Blues the night before to see) I was DYING!

Of course it would be me and not him! AND, I saw that they got off on 6! As

soon as Steve was back in the room I told him to go get ice on level 6 and perhaps he'd see them! He did!! I was so glad. He didn't say anything to them and seem like a crazy fan or anything, but he was able to walk right past all of them as they were going between rooms down there.

Meanwhile, Pete and I heard fireworks going off over the bay, but they were on the other side of the hotel! So, he and I ran back down to the lobby to try to see them, but we missed them. Hopefully they'll do it tomorrow too. After getting him to bed, I quickly passed out. What a day! Hopefully tomorrow will be more sane.