Day 3: San Diego Zoo

 

I’m soooo tired… that is one BIG zoo.  Here are some photos…

Lions! 

Koalas!!  
  

A really cool owl! 


Pandas! 
  

The critter in the middle is fake. 


These aren’t real either (the gorillas I mean)… 
   

HOWEVER… Madi was charged by a REAL gorilla… a scary big alpha-male silverback….

This guy was standing about 20 yards away, just looking at us… Madison was standing on the viewing platform with her hands on the glass, staring back at him.  Suddenly he started running toward us, and I teasingly said “ooh Madi, he’s charging at you… here he comes… oh he’s not stopping…” and he didn’t.  Madison jumped down off the window just before the gorilla ran into it, right where she’d been standing!  Thank heaven for 3-inch plexiglass… he banged it with all his weight and punched with both fists, then gave it a good kick before walking off.  Scared us to death… but HOW COOL!!!  Not many people can (or would want to) say that they’ve been charged by a gorilla…. We learned the next day that staring at gorillas is “impolite” and they feel they are being threatened… so maybe that was what caused his little outburst.

I also have to share a little video… Quito, the singing parrot, had us all laughing.  (She’s actually pretty famous… she was on the Ellen show a few years back!!)  Enjoy.

Day 2: Sea World

Tooooo many pictures to post here…here are a few of the highlights.

San Diego Vacation Day 1

These were taken on Coronado Island, on the road in front of Alexander’s Pizza (voted the best pizza in Coronado for 8 years!) – good stuff!

This little gazebo is a gift from some Irish person… located in the median of the road.  Madi is a camera hog. :)  (“Mom, take a picture of me smelling this flower!”)

My cute family!

Then we went to the beach!

That’s Madison – looks like she caught a fish.  But it’s seaweed.

This is Madison jumping rope… well actually, she’s jumping a long vine of KELP…

… and there she goes again…

These little critters were EVERYWHERE… and they were alive!  First time I’ve ever seen that… They would actually sorta dive and bury themselves in the sand!

Funny thing to watch… the white one here is on its way down….

AND… Cheyenne is pretty sure she saw a baby stingray out in the waves!  We looked them up this evening and apparently they’re pretty common in the San Diego area.  Wish we’d gotten a picture of that!

Getting closer….

More pictures… it’s coming along!  Got the electrical wiring and ductwork in place….

And the window… getting ready for stucco….
 

Phase I, continued….

 

We’re not seeing a whole lot of progress these days because they’re mostly working on tiling the roof and doing the electrical wiring and stuff… but here are a few more current shots.

This is how the east wall of the garage used to look… we had them take the water heater out and put it behind the house, because that fridge conveniently fits right into that little cubby!!
 

See???  :)

The door you see on the left will be taken out and replaced with an arched entryway.  The metal shelving in the pantry will be replaced with wooden shelves.  Lots and lots of shelves.  :)

Here’s where we put the water heater… they’re going to drywall & stucco that to match the house.  (This little closet also houses the sprinkler system control box.)

And this is our awesome new front door.  Brittany calls it our DUNGEON DOOR!  Buaaahhhahahaha…. :)  
 

Here is what the front looks like from the street at this point.
 

The dungeon door….

This is around the back… the other side of the new playroom.  That white door used to be the front door.

And there is the back of the house… with the new hot water heater shed that isn’t finished yet.  The lawn looks awful… but hey, look at that cool gas grill!  Oh… also, we’re planning to eventually make a roof over that patio.  That will be after Phase III.