In sunshine or in (rain)sha-adow...
Mar. 8th, 2010 08:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperanceI may have read too much Gerald Durrell as a boy. I've always had a thing for zoos (of the protective captive-breeding sort: I never was interested in circus or exhibition. It's why I liked Durrell so much, because he was all about the backstage, the how-do-we-make-this-happen?).
San Diego Zoo, then. In the rain. We did get very wet; but Karen had been a couple of times before, in nice warm sunny weather, and she said she'd never seen so many of the animals out and active.
I may have taken a thousand photos, of which a couple may be good enough to share. I'm a lousy photographer who hasn't learned to use his kit. I should probably read the manual. (At the moment I'm still carrying it with me.)
Also, San Diego Zoo apparently likes to close its catering facilities and general indoor areas when it rains. Keeps the punters out there punting, I guess...
Whatever. Fun was had, critters were seen. (Baby koala! Just out of pouch!! Too small to photo. Also, tiger too far away to photo; and I was scolded by a bus for going where I oughtn't to photo big maney lion who was grumping round the back. Adventures with Camera, pt 1.) Dry socks were bought.
Then we had to take Karen to the airport and send her away, boo! And I don't get to see her again till Saturday. The carseat next to mine felt very empty.
So we went to the harbourfront and parked, and put money in the meter, and realised that no one else had put any money in their meters, and read the sign more closely and saw that parking fees were only enforced Mon-Sat. Hey-ho. And then we covered the waterfront for the rain had stopped, and saw Big Ships, and took more photos for I was all about the visuals yesterday; and eventually wandered up into the Gaslamp district and found a nice bar with a microbrewery where a nice waitron sold us pints of microbeer.
And then we walked all the way back to the car, and drove to the hotel in order to take a taxi back to the Gaslamp district (damn this alcohol and its interference with driving, or else - in its absence - its interference with fun!) to eat fudz and drink more beers and wines and whiskies.
We ate Persian, which was nice-but-enormous; I had Cornish game hen, which alas I have never seen in Cornwall. Not sure if Cornish/Persian is multicultural or inauthentic, but hey.
I spilled my waterglass, for I am clumsy and embarrassing.
And then we wound through various bars and ended up back at that same nice bar, with that same nice waitron; and in the end a taxi brought ushome back to the hotel. I may have slept from midnight till 6am, yay: sensible hours! Or perhaps it was a little later that I got to bed.
Someone tried to let themselves into my room at 7am, but was foiled by Chaz'z Patent Anti-Sleepwalking precautions (for one must be careful in strange places, 'specially where the room door just leads straight outside into the World Beyond). Prob'ly just the housekeeper, but I wish people wouldn't do that.
And now we are going to the beach, to see the sea; and then to breakfast; and then over the desert to Palm Springs, and people are once again promising me warmth and sunshine, and I shall be increasingly bitter and twisted if I don't get a bit of it.
San Diego Zoo, then. In the rain. We did get very wet; but Karen had been a couple of times before, in nice warm sunny weather, and she said she'd never seen so many of the animals out and active.
I may have taken a thousand photos, of which a couple may be good enough to share. I'm a lousy photographer who hasn't learned to use his kit. I should probably read the manual. (At the moment I'm still carrying it with me.)
Also, San Diego Zoo apparently likes to close its catering facilities and general indoor areas when it rains. Keeps the punters out there punting, I guess...
Whatever. Fun was had, critters were seen. (Baby koala! Just out of pouch!! Too small to photo. Also, tiger too far away to photo; and I was scolded by a bus for going where I oughtn't to photo big maney lion who was grumping round the back. Adventures with Camera, pt 1.) Dry socks were bought.
Then we had to take Karen to the airport and send her away, boo! And I don't get to see her again till Saturday. The carseat next to mine felt very empty.
So we went to the harbourfront and parked, and put money in the meter, and realised that no one else had put any money in their meters, and read the sign more closely and saw that parking fees were only enforced Mon-Sat. Hey-ho. And then we covered the waterfront for the rain had stopped, and saw Big Ships, and took more photos for I was all about the visuals yesterday; and eventually wandered up into the Gaslamp district and found a nice bar with a microbrewery where a nice waitron sold us pints of microbeer.
And then we walked all the way back to the car, and drove to the hotel in order to take a taxi back to the Gaslamp district (damn this alcohol and its interference with driving, or else - in its absence - its interference with fun!) to eat fudz and drink more beers and wines and whiskies.
We ate Persian, which was nice-but-enormous; I had Cornish game hen, which alas I have never seen in Cornwall. Not sure if Cornish/Persian is multicultural or inauthentic, but hey.
I spilled my waterglass, for I am clumsy and embarrassing.
And then we wound through various bars and ended up back at that same nice bar, with that same nice waitron; and in the end a taxi brought us
Someone tried to let themselves into my room at 7am, but was foiled by Chaz'z Patent Anti-Sleepwalking precautions (for one must be careful in strange places, 'specially where the room door just leads straight outside into the World Beyond). Prob'ly just the housekeeper, but I wish people wouldn't do that.
And now we are going to the beach, to see the sea; and then to breakfast; and then over the desert to Palm Springs, and people are once again promising me warmth and sunshine, and I shall be increasingly bitter and twisted if I don't get a bit of it.