We started this year's vacation as we had many others; following Shane while he worked. He had a portable floor to install in San Francisco. Tacey has been in San Diego for the last 2 weeks, going to girls camp with my Mom's ward and then just hanging around to be spoiled by her grandparents, aunts & uncle. We had Dallin & McCade & Koda and not enough hours to get there with adequate sleep. So, off we went! When we arrived in San Francisco, the complex that had bought the portable floor let Dallin & McCade step in on a basketball camp. It was coached by a former NBA player, I honestly can't remember who! (SO DON"T ASK!!!) Later through the day we left Shane there and went to our room, rested and left late the next morning after Shane finished. We were near the airport so we took a nice walk by the water and watched the planes take off. It was nice. We ended up breaking several speed laws to end up in San Diego in time to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in IMAX 3D.
(In addition they installed twice as many speakers in the theater as they normally have. Basically it was a body-shaking experience!) We made it into San Diego with only 5 minutes to spare: literally! If you can see ANY movie in IMAX 3D, I highly recommend it!The next day was Sunday. It was nice to have a day to just rest. Per Shane's request, my family did their famous BBQ. Monday we headed off to use our year San Diego Zoo/Wild Animal Park passes. We LOVE being Zoological Society Members. It is all for a good cause, we love our monthly ZooNooz Magazine and just have an all-around great time at the parks.
We are very familiar with both of the parks, so we hit our favorite stuff, check on the baby animals we have watched grow over the last few years: but this time we wanted to go see the Brand New Elephant Mesa. We have actually donated money to this exhibit!!! Not a lot of money, but enough to where we felt a little bit of ownership in the new homes for the animals!!!!!
This exhibit took a lot of time & care to show the prehistoric animals that are the ancestors to the animals we see today. They had life-size models! 
This is a life-size model of a pre-historic eagle. I'd hate to be on the business end of THOSE talons!!!Tacey was known as the 'girl-who-stood-sentry-so-no-one-would-tangle-with-the-rattlesnake' girl at camp. This is a picture of the nasty little creature she was smart enough NOT to tangle with!
As far as the baby animals we watch, we were happy to see the baby Meerkats doing so well! Aren't they cute? 
The next day we went to the Wild Animal Park. We headed straight for the tram that takes you on a 'Journey Through Africa'. Then we headed out to cool off. If you look back at last October, you see us cooling off at the same place! 
Across from the cool-off zone, you could be an archaeologist: Tacey & Dallin decided to do this BEFORE they cooled off. They found LOTS of Dinosaur bones!!! 
This kind of looks like a random picture, but the animals are SO funny sometimes. This monkey was just hanging out, (literally) staring back at the people staring at him. I just HAD to take a picture! 
We LOVE Meerkats. We headed to the Meerkat enclosure to watch them get fed. The Zookeeper usually comes through a door to feed them. About 60 seconds before the allotted time they started staring at the door. (They are obviously NOT dumb!) 
They were fed all sorts of Yummy goodness; including ice cubes for the heat (which was substantial!) 
After this, we hiked up to a short-term exhibit called Dino-Mountain. They had HUGE animatronic Dinosaurs. Dallin & McCade REALLY liked it; Tacey, not so much. However, we now know how they would look if they were about to be eaten by a Pterodactyl! 
All in all, it was a WONDERFUL DAY!
More vacation to come!
Danielle
