Our last day in California we once again set out after breakfast to go on another adventure, this time at the San Diego Zoo. We once again got stuck in heavy traffic on Interstate 5 so it was a little after 9 before we made it to the zoo.
At first I was not too excited about this particular outing just because we are frequent visitors to the local Salt Lake City Zoo but due to the popularity of the San Diego Zoo I was willing to give it a try. We were all pleasantly surprised by the variety of animals they had and the amount of space those animals had to live in. Plus just the way the exhibits were built, it seemed like we were able to get a lot closer to the animals.
I am always a big fan of the bears......
and of course all the different varieties of greenery.
Lucas once again proved to be quite the photographer.
Although Steve never did order a beer, he was very excited to see that it was at least an option. Something we most definitely don't have at our local zoo.
Landon liked the koala's, especially the baby.
Lucas liked the little white Arctic Wolf who was very playful.
We again snacked our way through lunch so the boys were allowed to pick yet another stuffed animal. For Landon it was a koala and a wolf for Lucas. It only took us one time of paying $40 for 2 salads and 2 hot dogs to learn our lesson.
Back at the hotel the boy went swimming with Steve while I picked up dinner from our favorite local Mexican restaurant. 
After dinner we once again walked across the street to the ocean to watch the sunset. We made sure to bring bags so we would have somewhere to put our seashells and rocks.
We stayed up late playing ping pong by the pool and eating as many free, warm, chocolate chip cookies from the front desk as we could possibly handle (something we really did every night). We were all sad to see our fun family vacation come to an end.
We were slow getting out of the hotel the next morning and did not get on the road for home until about 10:30. It was a long ride where the boys and I got lots of sleep before we made it home around 11:30 at night. Here I am a week later and still wishing we were on the beach watching the sun set on the Pacific Ocean. It may have been my first trip to California, but not my last.
Lucas and Landon decided to pose like they were being eaten by this huge set of shark teeth.
Just before noon we headed to the Blue Horizons Stadium to watch the dolphin and bird show. We got pretty warm sitting in the stands during that half hour but it was sure worth seeing. I don't think I heard a peep from the boys the whole time as they just sat there mesmerized by the show.
We convinced Lucas to ride the Skytower Ride so that we could get a better view of the bay. Once he saw how slow moving it was he was ok with joining us.
Since we saved money by eating the snacks we brought rather than purchasing an over priced lunch, we told the boys they could each pick out a souvenir from the gift shop. Landon picked a stuffed Polar Bear and Lucas picked a Seal.
Cold water but lots of sunshine to warm us right up.
After I did some souvenir shopping in downtown Carlsbad I again picked up dinner from another Mexican restaurant that was super yummy! Later we enjoyed the sunset from the same beach we had spent the day at, as Landon got a head start on bed time.
