Happy New Year!  I made one of my New Year’s Resolutions to blog on a more frequent basis, but I’m not off to a good start!  (I have until December, right?!)

Just before the start of the year, we made a quick trip to San Diego, about 180 miles West of Yuma, to visit with Dan’s brother Gary and his family.  Julia was turning the big 60, so she booked a dog-friendly house just a block from the beach in San Diego, for her birthday/Christmas/New Year’s celebration.  We had a nice time catching up with Gary/Julia and their daughters, Brooke, Jasmine and Carmen (front row, with grandson Simon).  Chris, Gary, Luke, me and Dan in the back row.

We were very close to the famous San Diego Zoo, and spent the day checking out the animals. 

The Meerkats were a lot of fun to watch.

A male Nubian Ibex

For the bird-nerds, a White-fronted Bee-eater…

…and two female Yellow-crowned Bishop (one hanging upside down!)

The zoo has dozens of African Penguins, which are fun to watch.

They have one Andean Bear, which is the only bear that lives in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Shingleback Skink looks like a two-headed lizard

This Cuban Iguana was playing ‘hard to get’ when the zoo keeper was trying to get it back into its cage.

The Gharial, a crocodile, with a very narrow snout.

The zoo has an abundance of flamingos.

The Schmidt’s Red-tailed Monkey, which is also known as the black-cheeked white-nosed monkey.

The San Diego Zoo has a Giant Panda Bear exhibit, but the line to see them was over an hour wait.  With so much to see, we did not want to spend an hour in line.  There is a bridge that crosses over from one side of the zoo to the other, and if you lean over the bridge, you may be able to spot a panda or two.  This is the best photo I could get, as it was a long distance down from the bridge.

If you have been reading the blog for a while, you know I have been in search of a porcupine.  There appeared to be two of them sleeping in this cage, but it was hard to see.  I’m going to continue my search to see them in the “wild!”

Simon enjoyed watching the two hippopotamus that were swimming in a giant pool of murky water.

My favorite animal of the day was the Koala.  The zoo has several of them, and they are known to spend 20 hours a day sleeping, so it was exciting to see one of them awake.

We thank Gary and Julia for letting us spend a few days with them.  San Diego looks like a fun city to explore, and we plan on going back sometime in the next few years to check out more of the sites.

Quote for the Day:  “I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.  Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world.  You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something.” – Neil Gaiman