Birthday on a Boat

It just so happened that Julia's birthday fell during our run in San Diego. Brett, being the good boyfriend that his is, thought of great present to get her. He rented a small boat for the day and took Julia and a small group tubing and water skiing.

Showing off the fact that I can still fit in my German Disney t-shirt. (I apparently needed an XL)

San Diego has a great skyline!

Free World...I Mean Sea World

Occasionally being a part of the touring company of a musical has its advantages. In this case it just so happened that our set designer for Beauty and the Beast had also designed the set for one of the shows at Sea World in San Diego. Because of this, he was able to set us up with free admission to the park!

If you ask most people what their favorite show at Sea World is, their response will probably include either dolphins or killer whales. Mine was the sea lion and otter show!

The beginning of the show was all the sea lion, and I mean who doesn't love seeing a sea lion give mouth to mouth. The whole thing changed though when the otter made his first appearance!

Now I make no secret of the fact that I love river otters, but never have I wanted to kidnap an animal like I wanted to leave with this otter!

I mean is that not the most adorable thing ever?! And it is trained to sound the alarm in case of ghosts! (It was Halloween)

While I am at it, I will take one of the sea otters too!

I know otters are not soft and cuddly like they appear, and they are also not very friendly towards humans. But obviously they can be trained!?

The set for the dolphin show is the one that Stan Meyer created.

Like the pandas at the zoo, the killer whales are the marquee attraction at Sea World. Sure they are impressive, but they are no river otters!

...and for those German speaking visitors...

San Diego Zoo

The one San Diego attraction that I was determined not to miss was the zoo. After visiting many smaller somewhat depressing zoos, I was ready to see the one that regularly tops the lists of best zoos in the US. Not only that, years of seeing Johnny Carson terrorized by animals from the San Diego Zoo subconsciously added to my desire to get to the zoo!

Thankfully the zoo lives up to its reputation.

This kangaroo was determined to get out!

Wallaby

I was very excited to get pictures of the koalas. Of course the only one doing anything was not in a good camera angle!

I will spare everyone the classic pooping warthog pictures that I got, but suffice it to say the camera was on rapid fire at the time!

The pandas really are the star attraction at the San Diego Zoo, and the lines to see them prove the point. With all the people waiting to see them, it is difficult to spend enough time to get good pictures. I suspect they started to do kung fu the minute we had our backs turned.