Thursday, Friday & Saturday - April 7, 8 & 9
We packed up and left Casa Grande on Thursday morning
after a great winter in the desert. We'll miss all of our friends who
are like family! But it's time to go home to other family and check on
all of our kids. We were really looking forward to that. We saw
Colleen at Thanksgiving and were looking forward to sharing a few days with
her. We haven't seen Kharli and Isaak since last August 8, and we
haven't seen any of our other family since the end of October. Can't
wait to get our arms around all of them!
Chula Vista RV is where we hang our hats when we're in the
San Diego area, and Colleen was Janey on the spot to come see us shortly
after we arrived. It'll be great when she moves back to Washington
toward the end of August and is closer! She and we had dinner at the
South Bay Grill. Good food and great company!
Friday was a work day for Colleen. Gotta keep
our social security checks coming, ya know. :=) We drove up to her
place where Clarence and Jane joined us for dinner at the
Gordon Biersch
restaurant. That was also an excellent dining experience and the
company made it an exceptionally excellent experience.
Bruce, Clarence and Mark went golfing on Saturday to
the Salt Creek GC. After having pouring rain all day on Friday
and Friday night, the guys got a break and the sun came out! Luck o'
the Irish! Clarence won the Championship of the World on hole 1 as was
the bet last year. ;=) They have a whole lot of fun together!
Colleen and Geri went to see Lincoln Lawyer, which was a
good flick, and were going to go out for lunch. As it turned out, Geri
wasn't hungry, so Colleen grabbed a slice of pizza before we walked back to
her apartment. That's the fun part of living in the city; she walks
all over town and the Gaslamp area is not to be missed by anyone who visits
San Diego. It's a hoot! We've been there more than once and
enjoy it every time.
The whole crew gathered at Colleen's for dinner that
evening. She served a delicious dinner of Stuffed Pasta Shells, salad
and two veggies! Yum! Geri will be fixing those shells for
guests in the future! Clarence and Jane were in charge of dessert.
No one said no to a slice of lemon cake and/or chocolate pie! Good
stuff! It was really fun to spend so much time with our extended
family. Hopefully, we'll get to visit with Clarence and Jane in our
neck of the woods now that their son, Michael, is stationed at Bangor and is
a proud submariner.
And maybe we'll get to see Mark at some point in the future, too.
Sunday - April 10
Colleen treated us to the day at the San Diego zoo! To sum up the day ...
Fantastic! By the time we left, we saw every animal at the zoo except
the Pandas and snakes. We don't do snakes! The line-ups to get
into the Panda exhibit were way long both times we passed it. Yes,
BOTH times! We wound up going up and down and around ... and up and
down and around ... and ... more than once in some places, because we were
lost! LOL Their map isn't the easiest to read, in our humble
opinions, and we didn't all agree on which directions the arrows on the
signs were pointing. ;=) As someone put it, the "re-landscaping"
done by the zoo produced more ups and downs than we remembered from previous
visits. The real story is, we're getting older and are a lot more out
of shape. That'll be a two-dayer if we're ever back that way so we can
go only in the morning before the crowds arrive and before the animals are
being fed and napping in the warmth of the sun.
A few pictures follow and are not meant to share the full extent of our
viewings. We walked the same path more than once because we were lost
while trying to find the tigers, for example, and only saw the head and tip
of the tail of one. Boo hoo! You'll also notice that we have an
affinity for the birds and that there were
baby critters everywhere!
It was awesome!
Doesn't this guy remind you of the turtle(s) you had as a
kid with the red stripe?
Much bigger, of course, but still ...
Baby ducks are so darned cute!
Pretty duck!
A variety of Pintail duck
Ruddy duck!
See? Baby turtles!
Beautiful fountain behind the pond!
These guys are Colleen's favorites! She couldn't
wait to see them. :=)
How do they sleep like that? We would fall off so
fast!
This Wallaby wasn't very happy that day.
T
They say the fat of a camel is stored in his humps.
This guy must have been lacking, but look at the neck of this Bactrian camel! He's huge!
This one has the two humps in tact but looks to be much
younger or
possibly a female.
Okay, all your Meerkat Manor fans, these are for you!
"Ya, I'm cool ... so your point is?"
"Hurry up, you two! I can't hold this boulder all
day!"
"Just exactly what are you lookin' at?"
The other kind of camel is a Dromedary.
Imagine what this big boy's tusks would look like if they
hadn't been whacked!
A Secretary bird! Beautiful colors!
This baby Wombat put on quite a show! First he played in
the water ...
then he took of running and playing when mom moved.
So ugly they're cute!
King of the jungle, indeed, and
his queen.
Another baby! Yea!
Standing tall and in the shade.
Look at the water distortion! This Polar bear is
really not in two places. ;=)
But this one is sure into the ZZZZZZZZs!
The colors displayed on birds is so interesting and fun!
Looks like the same hairstyle as some of the women today!
Check out the teeth on this dude!
A Great Blue heron in the Flamingo exhibit.
"Yummmm, those look like dinner!"
Here kitty, kitty, kitty!
We're not the only Old Timers out there!
Gorgeous feathers!
Baby hippo! Adorable!
Baby otter!
Who can resist watching otters play? Not us!
"I love you, Mom!"
This bear made me sad. He just rocked back and
forth,
back and forth.
Some of these animals have been around for years and
years. Look at the length of her claws.
This Speckled bear was probably there when visitors fed them,
and all she does now is sit and wait for something to be thrown her way.
She has allergies is why her coat is so rough, and "they're" trying to fix
that the sign said.
Introducing the Stud! He/she just sat and posed like
this the whole time we were there.
The baby giraffe was born March 22 and apparently doesn't have a name yet.
We could see the dried umbilical chord still attached. Whatta dolly!
Mom, Dad and Junior?
Puts the baby's size into perspective.
These guys and elephants get manicures at regular
intervals!
Maybe he just got his and it's nap time now.
"Fred, Fred! Are you okay, man?"
"I'm tellin' ya ... my work is never finished!"
"This is really my best side!"
The three Musketeers! We survived the San Diego zoo!
Our day finished off with fish and chips at the
Tin Fish restaurant. Delicious! Their clam chowder is
second to none! We would definitely go back there again.
However! We have found out there is a
Tin Fish restaurant in Mukilteo, and that's a whole lot closer. Yea!
Thanks for a superb day, Colleen! We'll gladly repay
the favor when you move back to Washington!
