Mission: Spring Adventure at the San Diego Zoo Offers Entertainment, Extended Hours

In the onslaught of constant COVID news, I almost missed this email from San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, but it is kind of exciting. After being shut down for so many weeks in 2020 and almost entirely missing out on the entire Jungle Bells season, we're finally in a place where the San Diego Zoo can offer entertainment and extended hours for Mission: Spring Adventure, with extended park hours running from March 27th through April 11th. Check out all the info after the jump. 

CoViD-19 San Diego Stats (Tier Updates Postponed Until Wed) | Election Day Distractions | Photos: San Diego Zoo

Momma and baby Pygmy Hippo at San Diego Zoo (Taken 11.3.2020)

Today is election day and I'm doing everything I can to avoid the news. I've been reading Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, so that kept me occupied most of the day, then Darren and I went to the San Diego Zoo for the closing hours. I'm happy to report that even though they nearly tripled the size of the health screening line area, there was no wait when we got there around 3pm. Free October is over and while I think it's a fair exchange for how much City money the Zoo gets, I don't regret skipping the last few weeks, when weekend waits were as long as 3 hours. Today I felt like a little kid getting through the gate again, and I had to remember to slow down to take it all in and I can go back any day I want to.  

Tonight is going to be pretty crazy as the election unfolds, I'm trying to just do this update while watching Booksmart until it's time for me and Darren to retreat to the Speakeasy. I'm cautiously optimistic about tonight, but I just can't torture myself watching the minute by minute punditry. Because of the election, there were no new tier assessments today. Dr. Ghaly will be doing the new adjustments on Wednesday.

Support San Diego Zoo's Virtual Food, Wine & Brew Celebration This Saturday

 

This Saturday at 5pm the San Diego Zoo is hosting a virtual Food, Wine & Brew Celebration. You can buy tickets to the virtual party, which also includes one of four boxes for pickup this week, including a Wine Lover Box, a Beer Enthusiast Box, or a Spirits Sipper Box for $50 each, or a $25 Non-Boozer Box. Get your tickets here until noon on September 25th. More information after the jump.

Butterfly Jungle at San Diego Zoo Safari Park: March 24-April 15

I created this blog post before Texas and I thought I set it to post before the Butterfly Jungle actually opened, but alas, I did not. So, below is the press release for the Butterfly Jungle at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Escondido. Last year we took my nieces and it was a great opportunity for them to learn about butterflies and being gentle with the creatures. If you have a zoo pass, it is worth the trip to the Safari Park. The butterflies tend to be drawn to sweet fragrances (lotions, perfumes, shampoos and conditioners) as well as bright colored clothing.
Butterfly Jungle at San Diego Zoo Safari Park:
Be Charmed by Fragile Winged Wonders

What: Once a year, guests at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park are enchanted and spellbound as thousands of butterflies flitter around them in a walk-through aviary. Some may even land on guests' shoulders and heads!



When: March 24 to April 15, 2012.

Who: The 30 species of butterflies highlighted this year hail from Africa, Asia and Central and South America and include the zebra longwing, orange-barred tiger and Grecian shoemaker. Old favorites such as the monarch, giant swallowtail and blue morpho also will be charming guests.Not far from Butterfly Jungle, guests can check out more winged creatures at the Safari Park's new bat exhibit: a cloud of 13 Rodrigues fruit bats.



Extras: Special activities are scheduled throughout the Park during Butterfly Jungle. There will be butterfly-themed foods, such as cupcakes, and a pre-show at the daily Cheetah Run!

Cost: Butterfly Jungle is included with admission to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

The San Diego Zoo Celebrates Panda Birthday Week

Having grown up in San Diego, I have almost always had a zoo pass. Some years I make better use of it than others, but I always love knowing it's there. I think what I love about our zoo is that when you first walk in, you see families and schoolchildren and busses and strollers and it's super chaotic, but once you get away from the entrance, whether you get on a tour bus, head off on any of the numerous trails or paths, you can almost always find a quiet space and really get to escape the chaos and enjoy the animals.

This week was different, however, because I was one of a handful of bloggers to come out duringPanda Birthday Week to celebrate Zhen Zhen's 3rd birthday. Some facts: the zoo currently has five giant pandas. As you are probably aware from the big deal made about panda pregnancies, especially in captivity, you're probably aware that Giant Pandas only have a three day window per year in which they can conceive. As such, these siblings were conceived around the same time of year and thus share birthdays during the same week. On Monday, Su Lin was given her fifth birthday cake, on Tuesday it was Zhen Zhen turning three, and today (Thursday), will be young Yun Zi's first birthday, with the ice cake being presented by Bizarre Foods host, Andrew Zimmern (who while in town is working on a piece about Food Trucks and visiting my friend Jorge's "Mariscos Beyer" trucks). The other two Pandas that call San Diego home are the mama and papa of the panda bunch, Bai Yun and Gao Gao.

For full story and photos, click 'keep on reading'


It was a fun morning and a reminder that the best time to see the zoo animals is early in the morning on a weekday. We met up in the Zoo admin building, were given welcome gifts, then made our way to a special photo backdrop that is up for this week only. We were driven on stretch golf carts down to the Panda area. The area was relatively empty while we were there, and we got to enjoy Yun Zi being quite active as his mom watched on.













We were being escorted by Zoo Ambassador Rick Schwartz, so while we had some time to kill before the cake presentation, he walked us up Sun Bear Forest and gave us some in depth information about the animals and the history of the Zoo. This is the part where I should mention that I was the only non-mommy blogger at the event. All of the moms (and a couple daddy-bloggers) had their children in tow, so of course I couldn't help but enjoy the display of Macaque morning sex. Rick quickly said, "Well, it's a zoo with wild animals...it's bound to happen," and then added, "let's move along."




We walked up the hill a bit and caught the normally lazy Sun Bears playing around and climbing, so that was pretty cool, too.

Eventually we went back to the education classroom where Zhen Zhen was to receive her cake. The trainers brought out the ice blocks and also her regular bamboo meal. Unfortunately, the bamboo was right near her entrance, so she parked it in the corner, hiding from all of the onlookers. The trainers realized their mistake, sequestered her while they moved her food, then rereleased her where she quickly made her way to the honey drippin ice cakes.













After gawking and taking photos, my sister, God-sister, and nieces arrived, so we had a quick lunch, visited Elephant Odyssey, and rode the skyfari back across the park. Unfortunately we had to cover my mom's daycare, so we didn't get to stay longer, but since I have a pass, I know I'll be back soon.







Panda Birthday Week continues through August 8. The Zoo has stepped up their social media presence with a Fan Page on Facebook, a constantly updated Twitter feed with a #PandaBDay Tweetup happening on Saturday, a Flickr photo contest, and a Foursquare fight for mayor, with the preciding mayor on Saturday walking away with a prize. Huge thanks to Dani, Yadira, and Rick for giving me the opportunity to enjoy the special day.

Elephant Odyssey Opens This Weekend At The San Diego Zoo!!

For most of my life I have been a member of the Zoological Society of San Diego. I remember begging my mom to buy me a red panda shirt when the very first pandas came to the zoo. I remember buying the 7" vinyl of a song dedicated to Ken Allen, the zoo's notorious oranguutan who seemed to manage several enclosure escapes, and I remember crying when Chester, the Alaskan Brown Bear that would wave to tour busses passed away. I also remember that my first concert ever was seeing Andy Gibb (in his foxy red leather pants) at the Wild Animal Park. Most notably, however, has been watching the zoo change in my 32 years from the kind of zoo with cages and faux enclosures to one with a genuine focus on conservation, breeding, and creating comfortable habitats. There are still some areas that could use modernization, but one that was desperate for space was Elephant mesa, and have they ever fixed that issue.

This weekend marks the opening of Elephant Odyssey, the new elephant habitat and education center where the zoo has made painstaking modifications for the comfort of the elephant herd. The habitat will be open to the public on Saturday. I'm gonna catch the media opening with Natalie and we'll be posting photos and tweeting from the event (@sddialedin & @toosunnyouthere). You can also follow zoo news on twitter (@sandiegozoo) You can read all about Elephant Odyssey here.

Pictures- Wild Animal Park

After a late night Saturday night --some friends came over after the Sweet & Tender Hooligans show--it was nice to sleep in and chill out before my family picked me up and we headed to the Wild Animal Park. Every year, they do a Park at Dark Holiday Lights thing, and this was the last day to catch it in 2007. Of course, my camera was mainly focused on my niece, Johanna.





The entrance to the lot was packed, perhaps poor planning on our part, but it was fun and a nice way to spend the late afternoon. It was funny how everywhere you walked you heard people talking about the recent tiger attack in SF. When we realized the wait for the tour into "The Heart of Africa" was nearly two hours, we decided we would see what we could by foot. As far as the animals go, it was only exciting to see the lions enclosure, where one lion really did just look like the kind of the jungle.



As we were about to leave his area, the crowd kinda roared. The lion was stretched on his perch, then quickly jumped down and ran to where the people were looking through the glass and he began to roar. It was so loud, we thought it was one of the prerecorded boxes making the sound, but it was the lion growling, and his roar caused all of the other lions, who were in the adjacent building put away for the night, to roar.

Once the sun dropped, it became harder to see much of the animals, but we still wandered around, looking at the lights, watching some kids use sleds on an artificial snow hill, some other kids sing some Christmas songs on a karaoke machine, and various other activities in the village area of the park before we ran out of things to do and we headed back south.



It was a beautiful night in Escondido, and I made my mom stop at a little taco shop to get some of the awesome Mexican food that Escondido is known before we said our goodbyes. Any San Diegan who doesn't have a Zoological Society membership is really missing out on one of the best things San Diego has to offer.

Spanky, Alaskan Brown Bear, dies.

With all my zoo visits lately, I thought I should mention that Spanky, an Alaskan Brown Bear at the San Diego Zoo, has passed away. If you grew up in San Diego, you remember Chester, the Alaskan Brown Bear who would wave at the tour busses as they passed by and how sad we were when he died. Shortly after his passing, a pair of orphan cubs were found in Alaska and were soon moved to the San Diego Zoo. Spanky and Sheena were 8 months old in 1986 when they were brought here. Sheena passed last year and sadly, Spanky passed a few weeks ago. He succumbed to sarcoma, but his 20+ years is considered a longer than normal life span.

This might explain why bear canyon had so many empty enclosures lately. Apparently the zoo hopes to adopt more Alaskan Brown Bears in the future, however there are plans to refurbish Bear Canyon enclosures before that happens.

Nighttime Zoo Comes To A Close

If you have a chance this weekend, head out to the World Famous San Diego Zoo for the final weekend of Nighttime Zoo. The Festival de las Caras ("of the masks") ends on September 3rd. Special zoo hours are currently 9am-8pm (stay on the grounds till 9:00 p.m.) but will go back to regular hours (open till 4) after Labor Day Weekend is over.

I had the chance to head over with my mom, my brother in law, my sister, and my niece.



Did you know the zoo serves bottled beer? While I didn't actually pay the $5 or so for a bottle of Corona, I've considered packing my own, though I like to feel I'm kinda one with nature as I walk the hills of the zoo. But I'm just saying, it wouldn't be a bad idea.



Nighttime zoo is such a different experience than the zoo by day. I mean, for one, it was a Thursday night, so the park was pretty empty. There are also festivities and bands playing. As I walked in, there was a band playing a merengue version of the chicken dance and there were about 20 toddlers all dancing along.

I also had never seen a flamingo sleep. I thought they were dead until they looked as us when Johanna started to cry. I always thought they slept on one leg. See, you can learn something new every day.


There's also a live painter doing "Splash" painting. He starts with a blank canvas and in about 15 minutes has a full painting of some animal, all the while dipping his hands in the paint and "splashing" it to the canvas for effects.





We made our way down monkey trails and through various aviaries. The animals are a little bit more alive at night when the air has cooled a bit. We brought flashlights and were able to see the cats stalking around their enclosures whereas usually they are just sleeping somewhere in a corner. We finished the night watching Talamasca, a show of how storytelling has been carried on through the ages with dancers, martial artists, and Cirque su Soleil type acrobats. The show had all the kids in the theatre wide eyed and engaged.

After the show the park is pretty much closed, so we made our way out having enjoyed San Diego's gem in the heart of our city. Try and catch it if you can before it is gone. It is also the final weekend of Park At Dark at the Wild Animal Park if you get a chance to head up that way. Membership is inexpensive and benefits the Zoological Society and their focus on breeding and conservation programs and are well worth the cost.

Sorry Excuse For A Blogger: Visiting the San Diego Zoo, Superbad, MTV

A great deal of my personal and free time is spent enjoying music. For me, as many people, it's about the escapism of it...lyrics and music I may or may not relate to, accompanied by a few cocktails to help me forget about the hum-drum of working a 9 to 5. The funny thing about that, is that now that I'm unemployed, there's nothing to escape from. I mean, I will have to buckle down and find a new day job, but I've really thoroughly enjoyed this week, spending time with my family, particularly my new niece Johanna, and haven't been spending all that much time in front of the computer. I'll get back on it, post my pics from Monday (maybe when I get home tonight), but it's funny how much living there is to do in this town.


Today, my friend Darcy, my sister, Johanna and I started our day with an early lunch at Ponce's (always delicious), then we spent the day climbing the inclines of the San Diego Zoo. Let me say, if you're a softy (like I am) and all in love with the wonder of life (as clearly I am these days), then this is a great time to go to the zoo. There are babies EVERYWHERE. Not just the typical mom's with strollers, I'm talking about all that winter lovin the animals made has produced results.


From the second you walk in and see the dozens of flamingo chicks, to the duck chicks, all the way down gorilla tropics to the baby monkeys in Ituri Forest (where did the otters go?), to the ridiculous line hoping to catch a glimpse of the pandas (though easier to just check the panda-cam) to the new baby giraffe that was born last Thursday and is already 6 feet tall.

My only regret was that we didn't stay into the nighttime zoo action, when all the animals go kinda nutso. It's nice to be a tourist in my own city.

I was home by 4:45, enough time to shower and head down to get in line for the screening of Superbad. Daye sent out the e-mail this morning, and being free with my time, I took my laptop and iPod down and sat my ass in line by 5:20 for the 7 pm showing. It wasn't long before the line was wrapped down the street and several of our friends showed up. We were able to secure almost two full rows for the screening. I was up late last night watching various stars of the film promote on late night shows and with 3 different clips, knew this was a movie I'd want to see and it didn't disappoint. It is funny. People are calling it "the funniest movie of the year" though I would argue that there's not really that much competition in the arena. This movie was hysterical, despite the absolute OBSESSION with dicks, fellatio, tits, booze, dick, dick, and more dick. Behind all of it, there is a good story about how we deal with the transition from high school to college, knowing we'll have to part from some friends and life as we knew it. There were moments that reminded me a lot of other movies in the high school/college party genre...Garden State in some of the party and cop scenes, American Pie in some of the "shocking" sex moments, Napoleon Dynamite in the dorky language of high school, but those are all good places to draw from and the movie was hilarious. My only disappointment is that in a packed theatre, you miss a lot of the dialog from people laughing so hard...but for me a problem because I know I probably won't see the movie again till I buy a DVD after the release...which could be 6 months away. If you're not averse to theatres, however, I highly recommend seeing the movie when it is released on August 17th, or if you're lucky, catch the screening next week. If I get info on that, I'll pass it on. And a special shout out to the uber sweet girl who sat in our row. "Those seats are saved," we said. "Too bad." Aww, I love the kindness of strangers.

Anyway, I was deciding on where to go and what to do tonight and then quickly changed plans when I discovered that the new Real World is on, followed by the new Hills that I missed. omg. I don't really care that I'm 30. I love this shit. Maybe I'll hit the Ken Club after, but for now, I want my MTV. (ps- actually the Hills are reruns that I never saw. New episode on Monday)