San Diego, part 3 --- This Place is a Zoo!

Roger here.... On this day we spent four hours (ok, 3 hours 47 minutes) walking six miles (ok, .04 miles short of six miles) at the world-renowned San Diego Zoo.  If you don't like pictures of animals, you might want to skip this post.

Deciding which pictures to post and how to logically organize them has caused me endless stress. If you look at the opening picture of our walking route, it is obvious that I would not be able figure out which animals we saw in order.  (Actually, that is something I could do, but I have no desire to spend that much time.)I finally came to the conclusion that the photos would have to be random, except for the first one.

These flamingoes were the first animals to greet us at the entrance.

This big boy is taking a nap.  As I have mentioned before, my chief photographer (Dianne) has an eye for interesting things.  Get a load of the gorilla's hand.

Speaking of big boys, here are couple...

Our favorite animal was this Maned Wolf.  We watched him walking through his large enclosure for quite a while.  Neither of us had seen one before.  They are sometimes called a "fox on stilts."

This guy is definitely related to wolves, dogs, fox, and coyotes, but he is a unique species.  He pre-dates the development of all the other species. He and his kind are ancient.

He is one of the few mammals that survived the Pleistocene extinction.  Wow, very cool for a former science teacher.





We saw some big cats...

... including this mountain lion, who startled us by leaping from a hidden place to pounce on a couple of dead rats that the zoo-keeper had left for him.  I had never seen a mountain lion move before, let alone pounce on its prey.  Dianne here:   We both jumped.   If we were in the wild and a mountain lion came for us, we'd never see it coming - boy, was he quick!

Speaking of large cats. I was able to utilize my dog-walking skills to prevent this monster from attacking Dianne.

Dianne had trouble photographing this regal Orangutan on her throne.  She kept turning her head away every time Dianne attempted a picture.  Shy girl.  Patience eventually paid off.







We had never seen a panda before.  The San Diego Zoo has some very unique species....

... The zoo also has excellent features like this underwater viewing window enabling visitors to watch this pygmy hippo lope around under the water.  They can stay underwater for up to five minutes.  This is one of my favorite pictures --- look at those eyes.

This peccary from South America is a very close relative of the javelinas that we regularly see in extreme south Texas.

My mommy thinks I am stunning.

Any ideas about what this ugly guy is? We can't recall.

Hey! Give me back my hat!

Life lesson... Sometimes grown-ups (even small ones) are too big to fool around in small spaces designed for children.  Dianne kept telling me to stick my head up higher.  I was not able to because my massive shoulders got in the way.

The next post will have a laze-around-the-campground theme.

Pet Picture of the Day...  This is Dianne's new baby gorilla.  There are no restrictions in our neighborhood regarding the number of gorillas one can have, so he is hers.  

OK, the adoption did not go through.  Mr. Silverback strongly objected.  

Colorado Springs --- This Place is a Zoo

Well hello there!  Do you happen to have any lettuce?

Roger here...  We continue to enjoy our time with Chuck, Cindy and Sophie.  This post takes us to some very unique places.  But first, watch this video of a deer leaping over fences during one of our morning walks.

Olympic Training Center....  The USA Olympic Training Center is in Colorado Springs.  I love the Olympics.  So do Cindy and Chuck.  Dianne considers it extra uninterrupted time to do genealogy research.  Cindy did the background work for us to take a tour of the facility.   

It was a cloudy day so the timing was great for a tour that was mostly inside.

After watching a short film about the facility, our guide, Chris, led us outside to a mezzanine surrounded by the flags of countries of our planet.

We toured several areas.  














One of the  training rooms has the capability of altering various atmospheric pressures so that the athletes can train appropriately for the host sites.  Another space has two zero-gravity treadmills which allow athletes with broken legs to continue training without putting undue stress on the fracture.

The dormitory facilities can house up to 260 athletes between the ages of 17-24.  The nutrition center for the athletes allow for specific diets for specific sports.  The facilities are funded through donations and television rights.  No government money is used in the operation of this state-of-the-art facility.

There are five other training center locations across the country.  In this center we toured the facilities for mens' gymnastics, wrestling, pentathlon, volleyball and others.  During one of my drives to hike in the mountains, I encountered a group of Olympic cyclists riding up one of the mountain roads.  All of the para-Olympic training takes place here in Colorado Springs.

The common area for weight and endurance training is housed in the building shown below.

The huge 50 meter swimming facility is designed to minimize waves bouncing from the sides of the pool.  The yellow cylinders in the picture are connected via pulleys to the swimmers when they do resistance training.  The amount of resistance can be adjusted.  When I coached high school swimming, I used giant elastic bands stretched around the ankles to prevent kicking for resistance work.  The above technique is obviously superior.

It was a memorable experience to see where many of the best athletes in our country train.

Tunnel Trail redux....  This was one of our favorite earlier hikes prior to the arrival of Chuck and Cindy.  We thought they would enjoy it.

Chuck is walking toward the first tunnel at the start of the trail.

Tequila says, "Hey, I think we have been here before.  I seem to recall chasing some lizards.

Since most of you have seen the pictures from this hike in a previous post,  I will just add a few pictures of our hiking crew in no particular order.

The Walk of the Ants

On the way back to the rv park we stopped at the Cup and Cone in Canon City for ice cream.  Bandido and Tequila prefer vanilla.

Back at our motor home Tequila found an appropriate place to rest her weary head.




Cheyenne Mountain Zoo....  The stop here yesterday was a highlight of our stay in Colorado Springs.  Chuck's nephews, Andy and Alex, drove down from Denver with their wives and young kids to meet us at this very unique zoo.  All of the exhibits were built into the slope of Cheyenne Mountain.  When it looked as if we had reached the end of the displays, it was time to change levels.  The options were steps or elevator.

The giraffe compound near the front of the zoo was exceptional.  These guys are obviously "fake" giraffes.  However....

 the display of "real" giraffes was amazing, mainly due to their proximity to the people.  Dozens of adults and kids were simultaneously petting and feeding lettuce to multiple giraffes. The animals had a huge outdoor area in which to roam. This is the best giraffe exhibit I have ever seen. 

During our visit we saw all the typical zoo animals: Lions and Tigers and (grizzly) Bears, oh my!  They were all easy to see, but in very large outdoor areas. There were many spaces that allowed for face-to-face contact.  Get a load of this male lion just two feet from my face (behind glass).

What a magnificent animal!

A definite plus was that most of the animals were animated and active.  Sleeping in a corner behind a rock was a rarity.  

Dianne here:  Cindy and I couldn't tell whether or not the lions could see us through the glass, but then a man walked near with a service dog and this male lion immediately zeroed in on the dog.   If that glass hadn't been there, I'm sure that dog would have been an afternoon snack for the lion.  It was creepy!

When we weren't gazing at the animals, we were gazing at the city of Colorado Springs below and the Rocky Mountains above. The entire zoo felt as if it was a part of the mountain.

Oh, and we finally saw that moose that we could not find during last year's travels to Canada.  Too bad that it was behind a fence, but what an interesting and gigantic animal.

We all laughed out loud at the representation of a rhinoceros peeing to mark its territory.  This was a big hit with the kids (and adults, too).

I must rate the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo as one of my favorites.  It is well worth an entire day of exploration.  The fact that we were able to enjoy it with friends and their family (including some very cute young children) made this a memorable day.

Stay tuned for more adventures from Colorado Springs.

Pet Pictures of the Day....  Chuck and Cindy's dog, Sophie, tends to disappear in the background of many of our pictures due to her dark brindle coloring.  I finally got a decent picture of her resting at our campsite.

I took this picture of Tequila at the same time.  It has turned out to be one of my favorite photos of our loving girl. 

Hatfield Marine Science Center, Oregon Coast Aquarium, and Dinner with Retama Friends

Hi all, Dianne here.  As we explained in our last blog, both of our Canon cameras went on the fritz (our fault), so all of these photos were taken with my iPhone.  Not bad, huh?   No color enhancing; the starfish and anemones were really that colorful!  

This was "aquarium day" for us.  After our beach time with Bandido and Tequila, we hopped in the car for the short 1.7 mile trip to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.  As we drove up we said "Uh-oh...  a whole line of school buses."  We managed to time our visit during the end-of-school-year field trips!  

Oh well, we enjoy watching kids having fun and learning new things, like these kids who jammed into the hurricane simulator to experience what it would be like to stand out in a hurricane.  

We jockeyed for position with dozens of little kids around the various tanks to get photos of the exhibits.

 This eel made it easy by giving me the "evil eye" while staying perfectly still.  He was a favorite with most of the little boys in the school group.

The walk-through tube was suspended eight feet above the water floor, enabling us to look at fish swimming above, beside, and below us.

One of the most interesting things I learned from this visit is illustrated in this photo:  

It may not look very interesting until you learn that these halibut spend their lives swimming sideways to the point where the eye on the bottom side migrates to the other side of its head!  

 This placard explains the phenomenon better than I could.  The fish in the photo is showing his "blind side" toward the bottom, so the eye is gone and the color has turned white.  Next time I eat halibut, I'll remember these sideways-swimming fish with two eyes on the same side of their head! 

Another good photo taken with the iPhone, this one of the jellyfish tank. 

This sea lion was entertaining all the school kids by swimming up next to the tank to let them "pet" him:

We walked outside through the outdoor exhibits, including more sea lions  and a nature trail.  

I have trouble walking past brightly-colored flowers without a photo, so here are some poppies....

We were searching for the Giant Pacific Octopus exhibit.  Finally, in a small alcove, we joined a small group to view the octopus's antics.

We timed our visit to the Oregon Coast Aquarium so that we could go directly from there to the nearby Oregon State University Hatfield Marine Science Center for the 1:00 feeding of their Giant Pacific Octopus.

We arrived a little early for the feeding, so we walked around and viewed the exhibits.

Once again, the place was teeming with school kids, but we enjoyed watching them get hands-on experience using the Tsunami simulators.  

Soon it was feeding time, so we took our places and waited for the show.  While waiting, I snapped a shot of this sunburst starfish, who shared the tank with the octopus.

They explained to us that octopuses have the intelligence of a house cat, so to make feeding time more fun and challenging, they put its food into a toy for it to play with and eat from.  

Food is in the pink plastic toy

They also only live a few years, so each octopus on display is held in captivity for only a short time before being switched for another, to give that octopus a chance to mate and produce young in the wild. 

Despite the noise and commotion of busloads of school kids sharing the experience with us, we enjoyed our visits to the aquarium and the marine center.  Roger had spent so much of his working life participating in groups like this, either as a chaperone, teacher, or principal that he left with a renewed appreciation of retirement!

Each summer when we leave our winter home at Retama Village in Texas, we manage to cross paths with friends and neighbors from there. 

 This year is no exception, and after exchanging a few e-mails we met up with our friends Walt and Mary, who retired from the Newport area a few years ago and are back visiting their children.  We met at one of their favorite restaurants 
 (Arr Place) for a delightful meal.  We were joined by Amanda and Ted (Amanda is Walt & Mary's daughter).  What an impressive young woman!   I can see why Walt and Mary are so proud of her.

There might be a pause in our updates here, for Sunday we will move north to Nehalem Bay State Park.  We will be joined for the first week by our dear friends Jay and Nancy, who will fly out from Indiana to spend a week exploring the area with us.  We'll update when time permits! 

We want to welcome Greg and Diana Jones to the ranks of full-timers.  I've added a link to their new blog Keeping Track of the Jones' at the sidebar.  It's always fun to keep track of folks just starting out and follow their adventures.  Greg and Diana both graduated from the same high school that Roger did, Pendleton High School in Pendleton, Indiana.  We crossed paths with them at the RV Dreams Rally in Kerrville, Texas last spring.  It was one of those "small world" moments -- Roger had not seen them since high school.   Welcome to the ranks!

The pet photo of the day is one that we took when we were in the RV park at Winchester Bay.  I call it "basketing in the sun."