SoCal Vacation Part 1

Earlier this month, Jerill and I went on vacation to Southern California. A few years ago, we drove from home here in Washington to the coast and then drove down to Carmel, CA along Hwy 101. Now, whave finally completed the Hwy 101 drive down to San Diego. It was a great trip. We flew to San Francisco and picked up a rental car and started our drive south. Our first night we stopped at Pizmo Beach; a very cute village right on the coast.

Here is our rental car. It's a 2009 Dodge Avenger. It sorta sucked but got the job done.

The next morning, we left Pizmo Beach and headed to Los Angeles. I have been to LA before, Jerill had not. Our hotel was great - a Kimpton hotel called the Palomar. It was close to Beverly Hills and Westwood. Here are some photos from the LA area. We did do touristy-things!

Your everyday-LA Sunset

View from Mulholland Drive

The Hollywood Sign, except today, the LA "Save Our Peak" organization was in the middle of changing the sign for a week or so to read "Save The Peak." Unfortunately, we got to the viewing vista when they still had to put up the EAK letters, so it read "Save Y Poo D" - classy.

Jerill overlooking a "Dog Beach" for LA pooches...

This is the Getty Center in LA. It's a pretty cool building/museum. It contains some exceptional art, including Irises by Van Gogh.

The beach where they must have filmed the TV hit Baywatch


The Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills! Surprise.

A typical Beverly Hills neighborhood

In San Diego, we trekked out of town to go to the Wild Animal Park. This was a great park; very big. The temperature was about 75-80. Most of the animals were up and about and we got some great pictures. The birds at the Park were the most photogenic.

This bird looks prehistoric. It's very cool.




Pelican!

How many birds do you count in this picture?

Meerkats.

Roar! I thought about George when I saw this big male lion.

Gorillas. The Male was feasting on a head of lettuce.

Giraffes and other big critters...

You could feed these ducks, so I did. Some eat right out of your hand. I wanted to take the colorful one home with me.




Okay, we got a special treat at the Park this day because on Valentine's Day, the park had an early-suprise! A baby elephant boy. Here is his picture at 3 days old.

And, we went to the Zoo in the City. I've been to this zoo before by myself during a business trip couple years ago but it was Jerill's first time. The zoo recently had a baby panda; we didn't get any pictures of the panda since the line to view him was estimated at 2 hours! Jerill and I saw pandas together a tthe National Zoo in Washington DC, so we were fine with skipping the panda. Plus, we got to see a 3-day old baby elephant at the Wildlife Park!

Dik Diks! How adorable.