Sunday, December 1, 2013

THE BEST THING FOR ADULTS TO DO AT THE SAN DIEGO ZOO

Last week I was feeling claustrophobic in the city of Phoenix as a whole. Driving between 3-14 hours every weekend while living in New Mexico has permanently imprinted wanderlust into my biological rhythms. I miss traveling to small, tiny mountain towns in the desert. So I'm excited about our drive to Austin for the stops in-between, especially Riudoso, NM.

I was researching the ETYMOLOGY OF WANDERLUST. It originally means, in German, "hike-lover." Appropriate!





Side note:

Nick and I went to the San Diego Zoo with his family the day after Thanksgiving. It was just slightly chilly, overcast (perfect for photos), and I had a good time being clowns with my in-laws (That is not a sarcastic statement! I love them!). I think the best part about the San Diego zoo is the scheduled zookeeper talks. We went to the MANED WOLF talk. It was fascinating hearing about the animals (especially the evolutionary bits), but even more interesting was hearing about the keeper's career and how she ended up in her position. I expected her to have a BS in some sort of life science field, but in reality there are relatively few zookeepers that have degrees (although it's becoming more common). The reality of a zookeeper's daily work is a majority of manual labour and a minority of face to face animal time. Sounds like public school teaching.

Being at the zoo makes me want to read LIFE OF PI again - and go to Disney World, because most high-end theme parks just get better as you get older.



Nick and I checking out the manatees.
Photo by my brother-in-law's delightful girlfriend Leticia.



Cheers!

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