You can catch up with the first few days of our California trip here, but keep reading for details on the San Diego Zoo and our afternoon on the beaches of La Jolla. Spoiler alert: it provided one of our favorite meals!
If you’ve been to San Diego, you’ll know that everybody’s number recommendation is the San Diego Zoo. We did a ton of reading and tried to decide whether to spend multiple days here and if we should hit up the zoo and the safari park. Ultimately, we decided to spend a single day at the zoo only, and not feel terrible if we couldn’t fit every exhibit into our day.
We got up early enough to grab brunch in Encinitas (details in our previous post) and still wound up in the zoo parking lot about twenty minutes before they opened the doors. We grabbed our tickets and spent some time reading through the daily activities and using their map to make a game plan. These three spent much of the day exactly like this. The girls loved reading the map and making a plan for our day, so we left them to it. The phrase map me was frequently shouted by both girls when they were ready to head towards a new destination.
We were all a little excited about meeting the Pandas and headed there first. We had read that leaving it to later in the day might mean crazy long lines. I’ll admit to being slightly disappointed to find the exhibit only housed two Pandas and they were really far away, but I’m so glad that we saw them. We visited again later in the afternoon, but these two guys were right where we left them that morning.
Everyone’s favorite exhibit was the Koalas. We spent a ton of time here and spoke with a volunteer about the exhibit and about Koala life, in general. They looked so sweet and snuggly and we all wanted to bring one home with us. See how excited Sophie was about the Australian outback?
We also loved learning about the California Condors. I have to admit that we met so many lovely employees and volunteers who spent so much time sharing about the exhibits. The girls loved posing in front of this representation of the Condor’s wingspan — even standing arm to arm, they couldn’t quite match up!
One thing we were super impressed with? How close most of the animals were to the viewing area. This is something we weren’t quite as used to and it made for some great photographs and viewing experiences.
One of our favorite things to do at the San Diego Zoo was the sky tram. The girls were a little nervous, but the view was amazing and it served as a nice (and sunny!) break midday.
After we hopped off the sky tram, we hopped into the photo booth and later grabbed a quick bite to eat. For a beautiful Saturday in February, we were quite surprised at the crowds. We never waited very long for any exhibit (or for lunch) and we didn’t have to fight crowds during our visit. The weather was mild and everyone was happy while we explored.
We stopped by the Tasmanian Devil exhibit twice, but both times they were hiding inside their dens. Sophie opted to pose with the statue outside of the exhibit instead, because we couldn’t miss out on a picture with Taz times two!
We couldn’t believe how much we were able to accomplish in just six hours and we only missed one exhibit that we meant to visit (sorry, Penguins). We decided to drive a bit along the coast and find a beautiful spot to catch the sunset, since we got out of the zoo before dark. Is it any surprise that the girls were exhausted and promptly fell asleep?
We headed north to La Jolla and managed to find a parking spot right on the water. We decided to let the girls nap until right before sunset, so we cracked the windows, had our first adult conversation of the week, and enjoyed the view.
Sophie wasn’t thrilled when we woke her up, but Ella couldn’t wait to take in the view. We took some stairs about halfway down to the water and then climbed out onto the rocks for a better view. We saw plenty of surfers and photographers dodging waves, but we were far enough back not to get soaked as the waves rocked the shore.
I’m not the most gifted of photographers, but I snapped a shot every 5-10 minutes while we waited and they are some of my very favorites of our entire trip!
Things to See:
San Diego Zoo – Don’t panic when you see the price — we’re used to spending $50-65 for a day at our local zoo (which happens to be pretty amazing), so the $200 price tag was tough to swallow. The animal exhibits were amazing and both the sky tram and the double-decker bus tour are included in your ticket. We were most impressed by the amazing staff. We had multiple encounters with zookeepers and volunteers and they were all extremely knowledgeable about their exhibits. As wonderful as the animal exhibits were, the stories we heard from volunteers were the highlight of our day.
Windansea Beach – A beautiful spot to catch the sunset and people watch. We sat for more than an hour and watched families, dog walkers, and surfers on the beach. Find a spot to park right along the shore and enjoy the view from the warmth of your car!
Things to Eat:
The Taco Stand – I had been looking forward to this meal for weeks after doing tons of California restaurant research. Sophie wanted leftover pizza and Josh wasn’t feeling too well, but Ella and I stood in line for the standing-room-only restaurant for a full thirty minutes and we both agreed it was well worth it!.We enjoyed soft tacos, carne asada fries, chips + salsa, and glass bottle cokes. I’m a firm believer that restuarants with the simplest of names are always the most delicious!
