Late in June, Christopher and I went to the Members’ Preview evening for Nighttime Zoo–every year, during the summer, the San Diego Zoo has later hours, which is great for seeing animals awake and we love going there especially during these evenings. Well, this preview evening had fewer people (since it was restricted to members) and most of those went to the special “show” in one of the amphitheatres. We decided to explore the zoo instead, and we had the place almost to ourselves. (note that all pics can be clicked on for larger versions)
We decided to start off with a quick peek at one of our favorites, Diego the Ocelot, in the Children’s Zoo. Then we took the Skyway to the far side of the zoo, so as to work our way back. Right near where the Skyway stops is the Polar Bear exhibit. While they weren’t awake, they were just cute as all get-out and they were right up next to the glass too .

Anyway, we walked all over the place and, while we still didn’t see the tigers (they are almost never out when we’re there), we did see lots of big cats and giraffes and loads of pork variations (the zoo has about a billion pigs of different varieties) and all the usual animals we love to visit.

We also paid more attention to the odd foliage of the zoo (and SoCal in general in many cases). For example, These two odd flowering succulents:

Not to mention the largest Honeysuckle plants I have ever seen! Look at the size of the blossoms that’s Christopher’s hand!

We walked ourselves out that evening, got to commune with the animals, and generally had a wonderful time. It is one of our favorite places here in San Diego. If you come to visit, we do have some passes…