The Last 2 Days in Review: San Diego, Aminals, and Slime

Thursday morning Matt and I drove to San Diego. It rained on and off on our way down, but by the time we got here it was beautiful. In fact, the sky looked like this: We scooped up his parents at the airport after their flight came in from Denver, enjoyed a long leisurely lunch on the beach at Island Prime, checked into our hotel, played a rousing game of Phase 10, and then all collapsed into our beds. See how committed I am to being better about blogging??? I'm out of town on vaca and am still taking the time to post. Kudos to me. Yesterday we had a phenomenal breakfast at The Mission. (I had the most scrumptious cinnamon french toast with berry puree, artfully presented and oh so delicious. Wish I'd taken a photo.) Then we headed off to the Wild Animal Park where we walked and walked and walked and walked . . . . and saw a whole mess of aminals. I mean animals. This isn't an animal; it's my husband. But moms out there, bring your kiddies 'round the computer screen, because here are some beasties. It was pretty unique and dare I say spiritual to see all the different species roaming freely together--which is something we usually see only on the Discovery Channel or something. Of course, the guide assured us that they only house herbivores together. After all, they don't want a tram full of tourists coming upon a bloody zebra carcass or anything. This is one of only 8 remaining white rhinos in the world. How sad is that? And only one of those remaining rhinos can still reproduce, so they will be extinct, for sure, in our lifetimes. This old timer is already a few years beyond the average life expectancy. Thankfully, the park has stored their DNA, so perhaps one day science will allow them to bring the species back. He's all, "Hey, I'm nearly extinct, move out of my way." "Don't give me the evil eye, water buffalo. I weigh more than twice as much as you, too, so look out." "Thanks for keeping this spot warm for me, losers. Zzzzzzzz . . . " Ooh, now check out my attractive in laws. I was really taken with this giant yellow hot air balloon. Isn't it a happy color? And so big? They didn't have it operating, though, because it was too windy. Did I mention that we walked a lot? Gads. My legs were jelly by the end of the day. We felt bad for all the moms and dads we saw pushing their lazy kids in strollers up and down all those hills.Hmm, thanks for the warning. I took like a million pictures of these gorillas, and the whole time I kept thinking, What the heck am I going to do with all these pictures of gorillas? And then one of them would scratch its head or--wowzers--inhale, and I'd snap away. Click click click.I'd been staring right at these guys for like 10 minutes when Matt came over and said, "Hey, Hon, did you see the sign about not making eye contact with them?" Uhm, no, I didn't. Then suddenly they were all looking right at me. See what I mean?Seriously, it freaked me out and I had to leave. But the highlight of the day was this baby elephant. CUTENESS. "Hey, Mama, pay attention to me!" "Didn't you hear me calling you? Here, I'll lie down right on top of this pile of hay you were trying to eat." The mama says: Sigh. I never get a single moment to myself anymore.(Matt would say this kind of behavior reminds him of a certain gal he's married to, but he's a fibber. You can't believe a word he says, for crying out loud.) I bet right now you're thinking, What a fabulous day you had, Denise! Whatever do you have planned for today? Well, let me start by saying that it took me two hours to write this post. Why? Because I had to sit with my eyes 4 inches from the screen so that I could see it through the layer of goo and slime that is covering my right eye. Yep, that's right. I woke up this morning with PINKEYE! So while Matt and his parents are out exploring Coronado Island and Balboa Park, I'm hiding out in our hotel room like a leper, squirting liquid sulfur into my eyeballs every two hours, developing hand-washing OCD, and disinfecting every surface of our room with Lysol wipes.