Enjoying San Diego

I had the weekend off after my class ended so I started looking for things to do. I quickly discovered the San Diego Zoo and Sea World. The real deciding factor was the discounted prices for military. To be more specific admission to both places was going to be free for all members of the military. I decided I could not pass up the opportunity to see both worldwide attractions. For five bucks you can get an all day pass to ride the San Diego public transportation system, this was also a very good deal that I could not resist.

I went to the zoo first. At one point in time the San Diego Zoo was the largest in the world. I am not sure if that still holds true today or not. I had been to the Indianapolis Zoo quite a few times growing up near there and taking field trips and behind the scenes tours. The San Diego zoo was of course, different in it's own ways. I loved seeing the koala bears and pandas, and they had some interesting bears and cats that I had never seen before in zoos.

The next day I decided to go Sea World. This was a little more out of the way since the zoo was right outside the city and Sea World is on the coast. What stood out at Sea World were their amazing shows. I went to a sea lion show where the sea lions imitated popular people and shows like American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance. Then I saw Shamu perform in his show, that was an awesome experience. I took most of the rest of the day exploring the park and looking at the exhibits. Sea World is a bit more touristy than the zoo. Some of the exhibits like the shark tanks were awe inspiring but others seemed somewhat small and a little diminished. I saw one last show before I left and it centered more on interaction between people and animals. It incorporated divers and trapeze artists as well as birds, dolphins and whales. It is really impossible to describe everything that happened during the show and something you need to see several times to catch all the details.

Visiting the parks was a great way to relax before my flight out to Japan early the next week. I was glad I was able to find the time to get out and explore the city. I wish I had a few more days because there are so many other places worth exploring. Next time though, I am wearing copious amount of sun screen, I got really badly burned for about a week afterwords.