22nd July - San Diego

Got up early - 7.30am Free breakfast on 3rd floor (why is it that we always seem to get the top floor of a hostel when we have heavy baggage? - no elevators - we have to walk up 4 flights of stairs.) The breakfast was only sugared cereal so I headed to the room and got one of our packaged porridges to fill the gap.

Wandered to broadway and caught the #7 bus to the Zoo. On the way we saw lines and lines of homeless people - many of them elderley, queueing up for food at the Salvation Army soup kitchen. Very very sad.

Arrived at the zoo at 9am. it's simply huge. We got in for half price because we were deaf. I like playing this deaf card when it works like this. We purchased the full ticket and got the audio tour first. I couldn't hear anything that was said, but we got a good overview of where everything was from this tour. Started walking, starting with the rare Francois Langurs. The panda exhitibition was fantastic, and the aviaries were great too. Needless to say I took many many photos. I"m not sure how I'm going to fit everything on my computer when I get home. We got lunch about 2pm, then took the gondola up to the Polar bears. Like the hippo exhibit, you could view the underwater which was interesting. Back down the gondola, we were going to leave, but found the reptile/snake pit so ended up going through that as well. Saw a huge Burmese Python which was albino so a gorgeous yellow and white colour. Would make lovely shoes (Just kidding!)

Out of the Zoo we then walked through Balboa Park. By this time it was 5.30 so none of the museums were open, but still gorgeous to walk through the spanish architecture. We needed to find our way back to the hostel, so caught the free trolley back up near the zoo, and found the bus stop. We were told the hostel was miles away so should catch the bus, not walk, so
we did, but ended up that we could have walked as our stop was only two blocks away. We got back to the hostel at 8pm - I was too tired - so just had porridge for dinner and headed to bed, while Mike once again pounded the pavements in search of something more substantial. He found it in the form of Tiffany at Hooters!!! I'm sure I'm going to get Scurvy as I haven't been able to find suitable fresh fruit and vegetables while I've been away. I think I'm turning into porridge!