Zoos tend to depress me. How can you find pleasure in looking at other animals caged and on display? I don't. I wasn't entirely on board with our paying the HUGE entrance fee to visit the San Diego Zoo, but we did. It was the last part of Balboa Park that we explored. And I have to admit I kind of enjoyed it, due in no small part to these creatures...
Flamingos! I finally got to see real live pink Flamingos. It was wonderful.
They were even more beautiful that I thought they would be.
Indeed.
There were lots of these too. Poor guys have to make due with a plastic agave.
Erythrina
They were everywhere in San Diego.
There were lots of opportunites for jungle photos. If I hadn't been so darn tired I would have snapped more.
Sago, over a pair of Johnston's Crocodiles
Another Johnston's Crocodile joined by a couple of turtles.
Wish I would have got the name of this striking fellow.
Oh gosh look, whattaya know, we happened back by the flamingos!
You probably know their pink color comes from their diet?
They were truly, remarkably, beautiful.
Then there was this guy. He was a fat little rock star with a stage and his own human that told his story over and over and over again. He knew he was a draw, and soaked up all the attention. Cameras and flash feeding his ego.
Pretty darn cute though.
I think he was trying to asses a fee for this image, as I turned and ran.
After climbing out of the panda-lands we walked along beside this retaining wall for awhile before I realized just how cool it was.
Planting pockets in a stacked cement product. I like it.
Plumeria? We had talked about Hawaii for this trip (our 10th wedding anniversary) but went with San Diego instead. I'll take this little bit of the islands as a sign we'll make it there eventually.
The day was long and it was getting dark but there was one more animal I hoped to see, and I did, hello Mr. Koala! I fear we disturbed him near bedtime, or maybe he was just resting up before he attacked that bounty of eucalyptus behind him (all the koala had fake (metal) eucalyptus trees to climb and eat in, the "branches" replenished as need be).
As we made our way back to the entrance Andrew spied this little truck, what a great plant hauling (nursery visiting) vehicle for me, if only!
This post concludes my coverage of our visit to Balboa Park. I've got a couple of San Diego-area nursery visits yet to share and then a bunch of stuff from the Los Angeles part of our trip, in other words lots more to come from Southern California!
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