The San Francisco Zoo

We finally went there today. I've been wanting to go there for some time now, and so we took the stepdaughter down with us to check out the animals. We got kind of a late start, about 10:30, so I was worried we were going to hit a lot of traffic -- though I thought more people would be driving Friday, yesterday and then probably Monday/Tuesday. We were in luck -- never hit any traffic going to the Bay Area, not even on the way to the bridge! It only took us about 5 minutes to get through the toll plaza. We skated around the city and arrived at the zoo shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, every single parking space at the zoo was taken. Obviously, we weren't the only ones who thought going to the zoo was a good idea. But their parking lot was surprisingly small! I mean really small. Probably smaller than the zoo in Sacramento. Luckily, Ocean Beach is right across the street so we parked over there (for free, no less) and walked into the zoo.

It was also surprisingly cold. It was probably 64 degrees and cloudy -- I was generally okay, but the husband in his shorts was king of hating it. Luckily I always carry a windbreaker in the car so he was able to wear that and the stepdaughter and I wore sweaters we brought. But it was chilly. I thought it would at least be upwards of 70 and sunny, being JULY and all! There was a 30-degree difference between there and here today.

We checked out all the animals -- literally lions and tigers and bear (and a 10-year old child running around saying "oh my" for the full effect). So we saw giraffes, ostriches, penguins, kangaroos, koalas, grizzly bears, polar bears, a bald eagle, a rhinocerous, hippos -- about everything you would imagine at a zoo (though we'd never seen a bald eagle in person before). There was also a family farm (the best part!) where there were goats, lambs, donkeys, horses, ducks, etc. We got to feed the farm animals. I loved the donkey! For some reason my camera failed on me when I had a great shot of him -- a few great shots! My camera would not take the shot. Piece of junk! I got a picture of the husband with the donkey, though.

We ate some overpriced snacks and drinks, mutilated a penny so that it now has a gorilla and "S.F. Zoo" on it and were on our way. It's hard to believe we've already been down and back!