Month: February 2010

I took off on my own to do a little exploring and, after exploring the Patagonia store (again), I ended up at Swami’s Meditation Gardens.

The gardens are open to the public and are full of quiet places to sit and think. I saw a couple working on a drawing together.

There is also a view over the ocean and I could see the many surfers at Swami’s Beach. In black wetsuits, they looked like a gathering of seals in the water.

We’ve decided to spend a few more days in San Diego since the weather is so nice. We went back to walk on Ghis’s favourite beach at low tide. It’s the same beach where I lost Morgane’s shoe, but we didn’t see it anywhere.

A comment I keep hearing lately is, “Doesn’t anybody work?” There are always lots of people on the beach.

I love the sandstone cliffs. There are caves in spots, but it’s not wise to get too close. Sometimes they can come crashing down.

We made it out onto the little island and got to see crabs running around in the tidepool. I almost stepped on one while climbing down, too.

Morgane drew clocks in the sand and devil hearts (?!) and even a snowman. Then she made an upright sand snowman. I think she misses the snow!

Morgane and I are lucky when it comes to seeing the pandas. The first time we went to see the baby, there was no line-up and he was sleeping in a tree. When we got there he woke up and did all sorts of cute things.

This time he wasn’t in the same enclosure. We went looking and found out that it was his first day in a new spot. There was no line-up because the mother and baby were both sleeping.

As we were watching the older sister, a voice announced that we should come over very quietly. The mother was awake and eating bamboo stalks. Shortly thereafter, the baby woke up and came out, too. Then he climbed all the way up the big tree for the very first time.

The panda keeper told us that the baby panda might fall but that we must keep quiet and not gasp. She said that pandas can fall from sixty feet and be okay. Luckily, he didn’t fall while we were there.

We saw a lot more of the zoo and it was much less busy than on the weekend. We saw a jaguar, a snow leopard, and koala bears.

We dropped in on a monkey who was throwing a tantrum and was being separated from some smaller monkeys. Morgane said, REALLY LOUDLY, “I can throw a much bigger tantrum than that!” Finally the monkey-keeper left him alone and after throwing himself at the walls a bit, he put himself in a time-out in his hammack. Morgane stayed and watched him for a long time. He peeked out of his hammack now and then.

We also saw an excellent bird show that began with an owl who wouldn’t fly. He was supposed to fly up to a pole and get his treat, but he just kept making a peeping kind of noise. Finally, he did fly for us. Morgane thought it was hysterical when the host said the hawks kept all the mice away. Behind him, several mice came out of a little hole and ran across the stage.

The finale was a parrot who did animal noises and sang the song, Old McDonald Had a Farm. Very impressive. At the end of the show was a very convincing environmental pep-talk and then nobody could resist donating money to the birds’ cause because of the talented crow who collected the bills.

As usual, we paid 25 cents to use the foot massaging machines. It really makes Morgane laugh.

I went to the zoo on Monday with the three kids.

We spent time in the children’s zoo area and then saw the sea lion show.

After lunch we walked around a bit, but it was super busy. I guess a holiday Monday is not the best time.

Sunday afternoon we went with Jean and the kids to the beach. Because of the warm weather, it was busy. There were even lots of kids boogy-boarding. I put my feet in the water and it was not warm. I’d like to try it if I can get a wetsuit!

Morgane was happy just to dig in the sand and play in the park.

Afterwards, Jean drove us up Mt. Solidad so we could admire the view.

We made some new friends here who have both dogs and horses. We got together for breakfast at The Potato Shack where the pancakes are “manhole cover” sized.

Then Carrie and her sister introduced us to their beautiful horses. The kids fell in love with them and fed them carrots, then hay, sugar cubes and alfalfa. Probably the horses liked them, too!

One horse liked Ghis a lot and Gabriel commented, “He loves that horse so much it’s like his wife!” Don’t worry. I was not too jealous. 🙂

Sometimes the neighbouring horses would stick their noses out and surprise us. I guess they wanted pats and treats as well.

We had a great time hanging out with the horses. Being outside and being with animals are two things that make us happy and our friends feel the same.

Ghis and I stopped by the beach in the morning. There were already lots of surfers. We are enjoying soaking up the sun these days.

The flowers seemed to have sprung up when we visited the beach in La Jolla near San Diego. We spent a nice afternoon in this great area.

First we visited photographer Peter Lik’s gallery. Ghis loves his pictures and I can see why – great scenery shots, almost luminous.

Then we ate lunch at George’s on the Cove, a super popular lunch spot – the tables are on a patio very high up overlooking the ocean and the beaches. My fish tacos were good, but the drinks were even better.

Then we walked down to the beach to see if more seal babies had been born. We saw three babies with their mothers. They were three or four days old and very cute.

Carmanah stayed very still watching the squirrels running around on the hillside.

We found another beach free of seals where Morgane built a sand castle and enjoyed peeking in tidepools.

We finished the afternoon with ice cream at the Haagen Daz ice cream spot. There’s more great weather in the forecast for us in the coming week.

The three of us spent the day at the Wild Animal Park in Escondido. It’s really part of the San Diego Zoo – just at another location. The zoo seems to have many locations – in some places they breed animals as part of an effort to prevent some breeds from becoming extinct.

The park is huge and you can take a bus tour to see the area with the giraffes, rhinos, cheetahs, gazelles, etc.

Morgane loved feeding the lorikeets. You can buy nectar and then you have to hold it tightly and the birds will come and drink it out of the cup. She was patient with the bird that wanted to sit on her head.

We saw young elephants, giraffes and even a rhino. There was a petting zoo with different African deer-like creatures.

We also saw one of the animal ambassadors – a cheetah whose best friend is a dog. The dog was raised with the cheetah and the dog always comes along and makes the cheetah feel safe. He figures that if the dog is okay, he must be okay, too.

We went to LA for a quick tour and to meet and stay with Ghis’s mom’s cousin, Pierrette. It was a treat – they took good care of us and Carmanah got to hang out with their 14-year old dog. She immediately adopted his igloo in the backyard! Morgane also loved their toys and craft supplies – she was always busy with something.

We drove through Hollywood, down Sunset Blvd, since it was something I wanted to see. We didn’t know what else to see, so we kept driving through Beverly Hills, Bel Air and all the way to the ocean. We backtracked to Santa Monica and then began the drive back to Glendora, a suburb of L.A. It was pretty rainy, but I did get a quick glimpse of the white hollywood letters on the mountainside.

L.A. was pretty much what I expected – the worst traffic ever! No matter what time of day we went out, the highways were jammed. It took an absurd amount of time to get anywhere and we were in the HOV (high-occupancy vehicle) lane! I am a saddened by how car-dependent Southern California seems to be.

Our second night, we got to meet Pierrette and Jerry’s kids and their kids and we had a good time. The next day we said goodbye and headed back towards San Diego to go to the Wild Animal Park.