I have to move upstairs this morning - only had the pier room for one night, but upstairs is even nicer!
And the view is superb! Even with the fog.
I had read some review of this place and some of them said the staff were rude and unhelpful, I can imagine that was the woman yesterday. She was very accommodating to my request for a pier room for the night but when I asked her about public transport to the zoo - the San Diego Zoo - one of the main attractions of the town, she just sort of shrugged and said, "Taxi, I guess."
Mr Google said there was a bus (which I had found, just wanted confirmation from her, really) and this morning I asked the guy behind reception to confirm where the bus stop was. Easy as pie. The stop is literally go to the lights and tour left and there it is. Odd that she couldn't tell me that. If you're running a hospitality business, surely you'd know that sort of thing!
So it's down to the bus stop... Love Modern Family...
..to get the number 30. Very nice bus driver who was quite amused by my pronunciation of B Street, for some reason. She kept chuckling over it. I wanted to go to the main Amtrak station to see about storing my luggage there tomorrow. Very nice lady in the not-very-helpful information booth told me they don't do that. Really?! A major train station doesn't store luggage?! She gives me a brochure from somewhere that does, so I might have to do that. She shows me how to get to the zoo.
There's a sign at the office next to the restrooms saying, "we don't have nothing to do with the restrooms." I want to ask a restroom-related question just to prove that their sign is a double negative, meaning they DO have something to do with the restroom but can't be bothered with their puzzlement.
Unhelpful information lady puts me onto a trolley and then I have to take a bus - a bus I could have taken directly from the station. A lady asks me how to get a ticket, which I actually know the answer to. We start chatting and she is interested in my accent and travels and says Australians she knows are so relaxed and laid back.
Onto the trolley and we're still chatting. I ask if she thinks the fog will lift. A guy a bit further up tells me it's clearing and then tells me I need to take the number 7 bus to the zoo. He asks where I'm from and when I say Melbourne, a guy up the other end of the trolley asks if I know Brian Johnson. I say no... Funny ride.
Off the trolley and onto the bus which is full of special needs kids on their way to a party. There had been a lot of them on the first bus too. They're all dressed up for Halloween and are so sweet. One man/child tells me he's dressed up and guess what he is. Thankfully it's obvious and I can say a fireman, making him beam.
Finally here...
And of course, the queue I join is the slowest with more people asking questions and being slow in general. The people in front of me in the queue I stood in originally were long gone by the time I got to the front. In we go...
For those who have seen Anchorman, there was a bit of that going on at the new Tasmanian devil exhibit. Lady in green is the journalist.
I grab a sandwich, cos I forgot to have breakfast and then stroll to the place for the Backstage Pass, which I had booked from home. I'm looking for animals along the way and the first one I see is this...
Great. This is the Australian Outback section. There's a cafe I stop to get water and they have this out the front...
Another sign I'd like to correct. Last line - you don't have a g'day, you say it as a greeting. And not many of us do, really.
There's someone in line for the Pass at 12:30 so I figure I should line up too to ensure a good spot. Ad it worked, I'm in the front seat...
..and ready to go.
The first animal out is Baprang, the binturong, also known as the bearcat because even though not related, it's like a combination of the two. She smells like popcorn, likes the smell of shampoo, likes to be around people. The photo with her was part of the deal. Here's a photo of the photo...
Next, we walked through to see Surat. He's a young male who was born at the wildlife reserve - good for the breeding program!
Very big and powerful. They have bad eyesight and charge things - charge first, ask questions later. We got to feed him. It took a while cos he wasn't interested at first and kept wandering off. And you can't force a rhino to do something he doesn't want to do. I got this photo too cos it was very unusual thing to do...
We got to give him a scratch too. Very armour-like.
Then we're off across the way to the companion section. Here is Zahrii, the zebra, and Sophia Loren, the miniature donkey.
They are very cute and good buddies. The zebra has a kick strong enough to fend off a lion and a flexible spine to look around while kicking. We got to pat the zebra...
..and it felt deceptively powerful. You could feel the muscles under the coat. All their markings are as individual as fingerprints and when they are all together in one big herd, it's harder for predators to attack as they look like one massive stripy animal.
Back we go to the Backstage arena and next we have Kenaii, the Arctic wolf. Wolves are the precursor to every dog breed now. And they are a very big animal.
They can survive 50 degrees below (that'd be American temps, I'm thinking). They can run 100 miles in a day and their howl can be heard 10 miles away. They got him to howl...
Now we have an Asian marsupial, Colley, the cuscus - I've not seen one before (that I'm aware of). Very calm and happy enough - probably out of it cos it is a nocturnal animal.
We did pat this one too - very soft fur. I didn't get this photo.
They had a fridge of refreshments to help yourself out of. I noticed one that I'd been wanting to try...
It was okay-ish...
Jabari is next. A serval cat that is an amazing jumper, they can jump up to 10 feet from a standing position. They have long legs and ears and a short tail and can be called the giraffe cat. This photo is without zoom - the animals were this close!
Our last two animals were companions too. Miley is a rescue dog who lives and plays and keeps company with Baka - the cheetah. Miley is just very cute and loving, Baka is magnificent. He can get to 45 miles in two seconds and can run for short bursts at 70.
He makes very cute little kitten noises - little chirrups - especially if he can't see Miley.
We got our photos taken with Baka and Miley but because of new OH&S rules, you have to have a keeper between you. Of course, they choose the keeper who could be a runner-up on Top Model. I didn't get this photo, cos I look terrible and would pretty much photoshop myself out, so why get it at all?
And that's the Backstage Pass done. Loved it lots. All types of animals up close and personal.
The bus tour was included also so I went on that next. It was good, driving around the zoo with narration along the way - even with the kids who squealed and carried on and the Jewish couple who commented on everything loudly.
We went past the grizzly bears - I am a big bear fan - and he'd just gone for a swim...
..and was heading indoors to sleep it off.
Went right round. Took about 40 minutes. Then it was off to see the polar bears and pandas. Went past another favourite - the sun bear...
..and to the pandas. The queue here was ridiculous and I wasn't prepared to do that, especially when you could stand outside the enclosure and see this...
The polar bear is my favourite and after the poor Central Park bear dying earlier in the year, I was very keen to see one. This display is excellent. As you come in, there are interactive displays - look at how much a bear eats compared to humans. Measure yourself against a standing 11" polar and try your weight against theirs.
Spied the bear in it's cave and waited a while.
She finally came out and had a good scratch.
Before climbing the rock to have another nap.
So beautiful.
Now it's pushing 5:00 and the zoo closes then so it's time to head towards the exit. I'm at the far end so decide - what the heck - to go on the chairlift!
You queue up for 10-15 minutes for a 4-minute ride...
I think you could see more animals if you moved to the sides but I wasn't going to do that. Went to the photo booth to pick out my photos then down to the bus stop to wait. There's a guy there wondering if he's going the right way. We both commiserate with each other and get onto the bus.
I'm going to follow the long, weird way I came, just to be safe. I ask the lady who sits next to me where this bus ends up, to make sure I get off at the right place. The lady yells out to the driver that I want the number 30 bus and how do I get there. He says he'll tell me when we get there, which he does. And the 30 is there so the 7 driver honks his horn to make sure 30 waits for me! So very cool!! So it's easy and no waiting - straight from one bus to the other. All the public transport people are lovely in San Diego.
I get back in time to have a walk on the beach and to watch the sun go down (behind fog and cloud so not much to look at but still nice).
I get a mushroom burger from the shop on the corner for dinner. Great day!
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