Sweet, Sad Day at the Zoo

Today we "slept in" until 7:30, had breakfast and hiked from our hotel to the SanDiego Zoo. We spent the whole day there, and saw some pretty cool animals.


The orangutan habitat was pretty cool, but in my memory it is a place of sad irony.



As I was watching through the glass, a hummingbird hit the glass from the orangutan side. I thought it was dying, but then it righted itself and began to get its wings back. As I watched this, the big mean orangutan strolled over on its knuckles to investigate. She picked it up, put it to her mouth, started playing with it, then took it away and faced the other direction. I can only assume she ate it. I was mad at that orangutan. There was a little girl in a stroller that started crying, and I knew exactly how she felt. I had a moment of silence for the poor, helpless hummingbird.



We saw pandas, polar bears, all kinds of cats, birds, and reptiles. We capped off the end of the day by sitting in the hummingbird exhibit to memorialize my little friend. It was actually a really cool, secluded place. Nobody else came through the little garden with a waterfall and lots of tiny birds, including other small birds that sang and flew right past our faces.

Tomorrow we're off for a whale-watching boat tour. Let's hope for some whales!