I feel like streamers should go off after someone says “the San Diego Zoo“, or it should be read aloud in Morgan Freeman’s voice. It definitely did not disappoint, and I’m so glad that we were able to go during my sister’s last visit. Logan was working, as usual, but it was great having Ryan there to fill in as “father figure” of the day.

I have always had a strong love for animals and taking pictures. My parents would give me a disposable camera to take on school field trips to the zoo and I would take a picture of every animal that I liked until I couldn’t wind the dial anymore. I was always so eager to have my pictures developed and show them off to my family. Those photos never made it into the National Geographic magazine, but they did make for some good laughs when I found them many years later. What was I thinking? Oh yeah, that they were awesome photos and I was an animal photographer. Anyway, moving on, I promise that I will not post a million photos of cute animals (I never take a photo of slimy animals) in this post. I will sort through them and only post a few of the really good ones. Pinky promise.

And with that said, we are off on our journey through the San Diego Zoo! And let me emphasize the word “journey.”  This zoo is huge! We weren’t able to see all the animals, but lucky for me, I bought a season pass. Active duty military get in free and kids under 3 are free as well. So I just had to buy myself a yearly membership (because I know we’ll be going back many times and all our visitors will likely want to go here too).

Group photo, minus Ryan, the photographer, of course. Thanks, Ryan!

Deciding which way to go was probably the toughest decision all day. We chose to walk through a few aviaries which had beautiful waterfalls and pretty birds flying all around.

After almost being lulled to sleep by the waterfalls, we stopped by the monkey exhibit and let Easton watch them swing around for a bit.

Then it was off to the arctic world. We got there early, so all the animals were out and playing. This female polar bear entertained Easton for quite a while.

They had many fun interactions set up beside many of the animal exhibits. In the arctic world, Easton got to see how much he weighed compared to a polar bear and ride in a helicopter.

The elephant exhibit was very pretty. They had a trainer talk setup in the back of their exhibit where you could ask questions and see the elephants up close.

It was snack time while this elephant got checked out by the vet.

Most of the exhibits allowed you to get very up close with the animals which was awesome. The only downfall was walking up and down all the hills.

We saw animals big and small…

…and large and spotted (it’s a Jacksonville Jaguar!).

I decided to group a few cute and funny animals pics together. I couldn’t resist!

There was quite a line to see the pandas. The panda cub was only 18 months old.

After a few hours of roaming the zoo, we were exhausted. The only thing I missed at the San Diego Zoo that the Jacksonville Zoo had was an exhibit where you could feed the giraffes. Otherwise, I’d give it 4 stars! I highly recommend going in the morning and on a week day though. And wear your walking shoes!

I’m so glad Kylene and Ryan were able to join us in our first trip to the San Diego Zoo. Love you guys!

I’m looking forward to taking Logan with us next time and exploring all the things we didn’t get to see. I’m sure it will take us a while.