SP At The SD Zoo.

Nicole was working on a gig in San Diego this past weekend, so Sean Patrick and I came down to hang out. We'd spend the afternoons in or near the pool. The water was nice, and Sean Patrick continued his indifference to swimming, sticking with his floating. Getting out of the pool and to the warm towel was the challenge. There was quite a breeze blowing off the bay. Each time, Sean Patrick's forearms turned blue before we got there. Still fun though.

We spent the mornings at the San Diego Zoo. Nicole and I purchased a "Dual Diamond Membership" which gets two adults into the Zoo and Wild Animal Park free for a year. Not to mention 2 free guest passes to each (Matt, let us know when you want to go). This way, I could walk into the zoo three times and not have to feel bad about leaving at noon.

Which is what Sean Patrick and I did. I packed him into the backpack and hiked all over the zoo from 9AM to noon. Here are the highlights...

Sean Patrick had a lot of fun. He liked the big cats, and we even had a run in with a couple of monkeys (more on that in a bit), but he especially liked the giraffes. Here are two reasons to come to the zoo early; 1- The animals are awake and walking around. Most are being fed by handlers so they're also active. The reverse is that there are also cages being cleaned so some of the animals are put away for that. Here's reason #2. Not a soul around the giraffe exhibit. Sean Patrick and I stood there for at least 15 minutes before another couple showed up. In that time, Sean Patrick and a giraffe had a staring contest.

Sean Patrick stared. The giraffe stared back. Sean Patrick stared. The giraffe stared back. Sean Patrick stared. The giraffe stared back. The giraffe won.

We also went to the petting zoo too check out the scene. They were building a new one in the front, sponsored by Fisher Price I think, so you had to go through a small maze of back trails to get to the part that was open. All they had out were some goats. They were very tame even with some of the kids pulling and prodding at them. Sean Patrick liked to watch the other kids pet them, he didn't seem too interested in the goats.

I wish there was an invention called "smell-o-vision", that way you could understand why I called these the STINK flamingos. These birds smelled bad. It's funny to me that this is probably the first exhibit you see at most zoos, including L.A. and Honolulu. Why? They always smell so bad! Probably to make everyone think the rest of the zoo smells better.

And finally, the story of monkeys. One morning, I walked down a small side trail where again, nobody was, and we ended up at the Spider Monkey exhibit. Here's a picture I stole off the Internet of a Spider Monkey. I wasn't able to get a picture of the monkeys at the zoo and here's why... I pulled up to the exhibit and there were two sides, one was your standard cage and the other side was a large pane of glass, so I stepped up to the glass. I didn't see any monkeys close to the glass, when all of a sudden, two Spider Monkeys came swinging out of the darkness and perched on the vine right up against the glass and stared at... Sean Patrick! It was the most bizarre thing! It was like I wasn't there, they just stared at SP, pressing their little hands against the glass. They stayed there for about 5 minutes exchanging eyeballs with SP, I was getting out my camera to take a picture when an older couple showed up and the monkeys ran away.

What is with the animals liking SP? He must be the new Dr. Doolittle.

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