Starting off… San Diego

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We flew out of Charlotte, NC on Dec 12th at about 10:30 in the morning … with a quick layover in Dallas, we arrived in san Diego, CA at about 5PM local time. Virginia’s cousin Kelly picked us up at the airport, and took us to his family’s house outside the city of San Diego. Unfortunately, when we hit the ground, it was raining a bit, and it was also already getting dark, so the trip to the house didn’t exactly provide any great views. After a lovely spaghetti dinner, Kelly and Scott took us out to look at some of the local Christmas lights…

Several things stand out… for starters, people seem to love icicle lights… in a area that has most likely never seen an icicle. Also, Penguins, Polar Bears, and all sorts of snow-flake looking items.

Above is one of my favorites… Lots of lights, snowflakes, wreaths, and of course, who can forget the Christmas Helicopter. There was an entire street of amazing gloriousness.

The next morning, the rain had drifted off, and it was sunny and warm. Of course, the Mahon family thought it was cold… but to us, the mid 60’s weather was simply amazing. We went to church with Kelly and Aunt Liz, then a quick lunch, and off to the San Diego Wild Animal Park!!!!!!!

We started off with a walk through the petting area… Where Virginia was accosted by the deer. Meanwhile, Kelly had a deer who followed him like a puppy.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the Wild Animal Park:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the top down :

• Birds were awesome, but the bird-keeper girl was weird. The girl would let the birds land on her finger.. which for some reason was next to her face. The bird would then reach out and bite her lip…or tongue… and she was absolutely fine with it, and allowed it to repeatedly happen.
• Next up a shot of the surrounding area.
• The next 2 are of some awesome deer. They were these long-necked things…that could stand on their back legs…and the male had some awesome horns.
• The cheetahs… these little kitties were awesome. 2 were sisters, and were born and raised in captivity. Interesting fact: Cheetahs have feet / claws like a dog… not like a cat. Their claws are not retractable.
• Giraffes – there were TONS of these guys… to include some “baby” giraffes. That were over 6 feet tall.
• Finishing up this post is a baby elephant. The little thing was awesome… it was playing around, pulling up grass, throwing it around…doing little dance steps… all sorts of awesomeness.