Well, this whole crazy adventure started off at the San Diego zoo, before I even started my road trip north on Highway One and saw all that other crazy stuff.
Let me say again that if you are ever coming to San Diego, and planning on going to the world famous zoo, sign up for the animal experience thing. It is freekin’ awesome. I have been to the zoo hundreds of times, but this was a first for me.
It starts off slow. You see some really cool animals on a little stage. Fun, but not that exciting. Then, this big door slides open…
And up walks this adorable little guy.
And you get to feed him! You get rhino saliva all over your hand. My daughter Mollie is good with animals, like me, and seemed to bond with the rhino.
Or maybe he was just hungry.
Either way, if you want to see that smile on your kid’s face, you should do this.
It isn’t that expensive.
And you get to pet a zebra, and feed flamingos out of a cup while they walk all around you.
Go with someone you love.
The San Diego zoo really deserves its reputation. They are at the forefront of the breeding programs to bring back endangered species.
And they pioneered the more natural environments for the animals. No more cages with cement floors.
I think a zoo pass includes the San Diego Wild Animal Park, which is fun also. So go to the zoo and meet some animals. I did.
We have reached the end of my most recent adventure… except for this post, and two more, that deal with the zoo part of the adventure on the first day, before I even started driving north.
Seriously, if you are ever in San Diego, and are thinking about going to the zoo, look into the animal experience thing.
So, after my mishap in the tidepools on Monterey Peninsula, I decided to forgo more sightseeing on the coast and head straight to the Bay Area. I had a dinner planned at the Circus Pub, an English pub just down the hill from my mom’s house. I was waiting with one friend for another friend to show up, and glanced out the window and saw a third friend and his family walking up to the pub. That is how I ended up having dinner with three guys that I have known for decades.
While I waited for everyone else to get off work, I killed some time down by the bay.
I think there is a bridge over there somewhere.
I go to that park every time I am in the Bay Area, because it is a dog park, and I miss my dogs. So I pet other dogs. I am funny that way.
I told you there was a bridge over there.
I decided to stay with one of my friends, because my 97-year-old mother was still recuperating from a granddaughter visit.
My friend Chris got a new toy.
Yeah, must be nice. I have never even had a new car all to myself.
This thing was straight out of the Halo video games.
I have known Chris since he moved to the street I grew up on when we were just kids.
He makes really good giant pancakes stuffed with fruit and nuts. I also made him and his wife listen to some of my podcast episodes. That was fun.
So was having two dogs spend most of the night in my bed.
Yup. So, that is almost it for this adventure. I have a couple of videos and one more post, about the zoo adventure that started this trip off. See you soon.
I love that photo, taken on the last day of the Highway One part of the adventure where I explored the coastline of California.
One my way back to Highway One, I stopped once more on the Monterey Peninsula, just to get some shots of the tidepools.
A curled-up anemone. Do they decorate themselves? Is it camouflage? Or do bits of shell and small rock just end up sticking to them?
Somebody should Google that.
Hermit crabs in a small pool.
Baby kelp and… uh… other plants.
I found a spot where the tidepools were surrounded by an almost alien landscape. It wasn’t easy to move around.
And there were so many crabs scuttling about that between the waves you could hear their pointy little feet clickety-clacking on the rocks all around you.
Free range starfish.
And then my foot hit a slimy patch as I stepped over a rock, and I slipped, and ended up jammed between some big rocks. I twisted both ankles, and wrenched my right knee, while getting my legs all torn up by barnacles. But the camera was fine. I saved the camera. And only got a little wet.
So I limped back to the car, popped some Ibuprofen, and headed through town, back towards the highway.
Still very early morning on day 5 of the adventure. Still doing that ’17 mile drive’ scenic road.
That is, until I got distracted by some rocks.
Most of the rocks I had seen so far on this adventure had had the common curtesy to not be piled on top of other rocks.
But not anymore.
Yes, I know that rock stacking is a thing now. You see it all over the place. Californians seem to love it. I guess this is where they go to learn how to do it. Rock Stacking University… good old RSU… home of the Fighting Rockpiles.
This cormorant was unimpressed.
As was this seagull.
It was a beautiful morning, and no one was awake but me and the birds.
Just enjoying the view.
There are a bunch of seals on that rock, just waking up.
Seals and cormorants. Gotta love the telephoto lens.
Pouring My Art Out by Arthur H. Browne is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.Based on a work at https://pouringmyartout.wordpress.com/. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Pouring My Art Out 