Took a beautiful drive down to San Diego to visit two of my favorite friends, Melissa and Dave Liu. The drive down the 5 freeway from Irvine (which I detoured to head down the famous Pacific Coast Highway) was full of breathtaking beach scenes. I had more fun letting the cool (about 78F) wind blow through my hair listening to my mp3s on max then I ever thought I would. And with that, I decided that California is living the way its supposed to be and I know I will more than enjoy my graduate studies here.

The weekend started off with a trip to La Jolla for a fun day of kayaking and seal watching. Dave and Melissa are probably the best hosts a poor pre-graduate student like me could ask for and gave me a great tour of southern-southern California along with treating me like absolute royalty. Their house is absolutely gorgeous, along with their very cool stadium seating Element and hybrid Prius. They really showed me what California living was all about. So although I didnt get any pictures of me sporting my brand new rash guard or kayaking (I was afraid of the camera getting wet), I did get some great shots of the beach.

If you look closely at the rocks, you can see sun bathing sea lions enjoying another beautiful day at the beach:

A tour group of kayakers, we are too cool to join such a group and decided to head out by ourselves, but this is a good shot of the kayak and what we had planned. The group is getting a good view of a small herd of sea lions barking loudly to protect their very cute and fuzzy pups (look closely and you can see another lion!):


What a beautiful beach it is! I didnt get any shots of the sandy part of the beach, I am more fascinated by the ocean and all of its animals:


After a great dinner at Todai, we headed back to the Liu's house for a good night sleep with very full tummies! Sunday morning we woke up early and heading to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. I had come to San Diego with high hopes of seeing wildlife and Dave/Mel really knew how to give me what I wanted! I will spare all the pics that I am sure I will treasure more than you guys, but let me tell you the animals were absolutely gorgeous and I left feeling reassured in my environmental, animal loving ways.

A great view of the park. This is not your typical zoo, it is instead is an expansive, naturalistic enclosure that allows many different species to live together, as closely simulated as it would be in the wild. They also aid in helping to release animals into their natural habitats, fighting the ever so dangerous threat of extinction.

Momma (or just a little overweight) gorilla after a morning snack provided by the trainers of oranges and vegetable jerky:

Elephants, can you see baby E born in March? Many of the females were also pregnant...

including this one due any day!

Inspired by Meerkat Manor, the meerkats were a big hit for all the kids. We heard one little girl very loudly giggling about this one's "penis" (isnt this such a cute shot?!):

Melissa and I bravely feeding some very demanding ducks. The zoo pays an estimated $90,000 a month in alfalfa and grain alone! We like to believe we at least paid for the duck food with a required donation of $0.50 for a handful of feed.

A group of giraffes. Can you see the baby?? This zoo has successfully had over 90 giraffe births since its opening 34 years ago.

My wonderful hosts, Dave and Melissa Liu

Ok so even though he/she isnt real, I love animal kisses of all kind:

Me, just being me:

Feeding time...check out all the different animals living happily together!

A view of our safari ride through the African section of the park:

Up close and personal!

This giraffe really liked us! We took a safari train ride around the park and this giraffe got up close to get a better look. I swear he (or she) stared right at me and as the train started to move, continued to stare me down. Such a beautiful animal with long, gorgeous eyelashes.


Headed back to Irvine with the wind once again blowing through my hair, loving my life! Thanks for the unforgettable weekend Melissa and Dave..you guys are truly the greatest!