Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Polar Bears

Polar Bears

On Friday, my granddaughter had a half day of school, so we went to the San Diego Zoo arriving around 1:30pm. When asked what she wanted to do, my granddaughter picked the Polar Bear Exhibit. Since I had been there a short while ago, I remember seeing that it was closed for renovations. However, just to make sure I was right, I asked a Zoo representative standing by the entrance. The woman told us that the exhibit reopened at noon that day. How excited we were. We were getting to see the Polar Bears before most of the public. We did miss the dignitaries however. Later that evening, my daughter called me to say that Tori Spelling, her husband and children were there. Also, Denise Richards and her children. If I had been looking at the people, I might have recognized Tori Spelling, but that is about it.

We took the Skyride because the Polar Bear exhibit is clear across the park from the entrance. When you enter the exhibit, you go into a cave-like building where you get a view of above and underneath the waterline. So, if the Polar Bear was swimming, you could catch it. Or, as in our case, he was just laying around. We left that enclosure and went around the corner to another viewing area. There we saw the other Polar Bear pouncing on a piece of wood. After he finished, he went for a fresh carrot snack and then lay down for a rest. The new exhibit has a constructed cave for children to explore and places for photo ops. Also, in order to give an idea of just how big a Polar Bear is the exhibit provided a few sculptures, a baby Polar Bear on a rock, a medium size one, and then, an extremely tall one. Next to the sculptures, were two refrigerators. When you opened the door of the first, there were displays of portioned meals for toddlers up through adults. The other refrigerator contained a display of raw meat that looked like hundreds of pounds. This was the diet of the Polar Bear.

We walked back towards the Zoo entrance riding the moving stairway and stopping at the Owens Aviary, which consists of two levels. There, we were able to closely view a beautiful multi-colored lorikeet eating some fruit. We checked out both levels, but missed the other birds that were probably hiding. Usually, there are many different species of birds there. My granddaughter was quite taken with the waterfalls within the exhibit. Then, on to meet my daughter and grandson at the entrance. My granddaughter chose to walk up the hill as opposed to returning to the moving stairway. We both found this very tiring. She really, really wanted to visit to the Children’s Zoo. We ventured over there so that she could climb the large tree house with stairs and slides, etc. I have a suspicion that it wasn’t that much fun for a six year old. When we all met at the entrance, after some ice cream, I asked my granddaughter if she wanted to be the tour guide and take everyone back to the Polar Bear exhibit. So off we went onto the Skyride. This gave us the opportunity to see a duck with about 10 very small ducklings. Our “guests” enjoyed the tour this time with climbing into a real helicopter (motor removed) for a photo op. My grandson didn’t want to get out.

After another hour and a half, it was time to go home. We all enjoyed the Zoo and our time together.

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