Lions and tigers and polar bears - oh my!

Firstly, thanks everyone for the comments on yesterday. Hallo to Bridget, I'm so glad you're enjoying it. Congratulations to Shonagh for being the first to swear, as ever I love your style! And if you are implying that I smell of fish by comparing me to a penguin, you will be so sorry when I get home, missy! Kate, I'm loving the idea of you as a donkey, though if I was a penguin, do you think we'd ever meet? Gorgeous Lisa Clark, everyone notices that I always refer to you by your entire name - I think it's because you're my celebrity friend. Everyone, you do know my friend Lisa Clark has written a book, don't you? No? Oh, well fear ye not, you can buy it from Amazon, order it in advance - go on, you know you want to - click here, if you order it now, she might sign it: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0007234015/026-4803415-1278050?v=glance&n=266239&s=books&v=glance

Yesterday we went into Balboa Park - check it out at http://www.balboapark.org/ - to visit San Diego Zoo, which I really enjoyed. The zoo's conservation ethos is much more up front than Sea World was, which eased my aching conscience somewhat (I was still a little concerned about the size of the reptile houses, but I'm not going to go on about it). It's so hard to think about which part was my favourite, because there were so many beautiful and amazing creatures there - I think the meer cats just about topped it. We took this fabulous bus ride around the park so that we got to see everything and sit down at the same time - we're really starting to absorb that whole American ethos now - and that took us all around the elephants, flamingos, tigers, lions, so many types of deer it makes your head spin (and, as Dad said, deer don't come cheap), polar bears, giraffes (they are huge! like really huge!), camels, llamas, pygmy hippos, rhinos, and we can't think of any more between us as I write this but there were loads. Trust me.

My friend Amelia has been telling me for years that flamingos are only pink because of the shrimp they eat and I always thought that that was nonsense, but it turns out - it's actually true! Really! In the zoo, they aren't fed shrimp, most of the animals are fed pellets that contain all the nutrients they need, but they give the flamingos special pink stuff (yes, that's it's scientific name) to ensure that they don't turn all dull and non-flamingo like. I know, despite my high morals and ethics about keeping wild animals captive, that if I was chief-in-charge of the flamingos, I'd be messing with their food all the time; today, the flamingos are blue, tomorrow they'll be purple, and by the end of the week I'll have them singing 'I can be a rainbow'. Ah, the power. And talking of colours, look at the polar bear - it's that dirty brown thing on the rock there. Apparently, polar bears aren't technically white, their fur can be more accurately compared to our finger nails, kind of transparent. That one had been rolling around in the dirt, and he didn't seem to mind the sun too much either for reasons I can't fathom. Maybe there are loads of polar bears hanging about on icebergs just wishing to be picked up and taken to a zoo. Bet they're hoping they get San Diego and not Marwell though.

I was strangely intrigued by the reptile house, I loved the lizards and geckos, the kimodo dragons scared me a bit because they're so big and the snakes were beautiful all the time they were behind glass. I tried to avoid their stare in case there was a Harry Potter moment and I discovered I could speak Parceltongue, I successfully avoided it, so that was a relief. But I did discover that the Common Cobra has two spots on each side of its hood that are thought to be the Buddha's fingerprints, left when he thanked the Cobra for using his hood to shade the Buddha from the sun as he slept. So they're not all bad, snakes, are they?

Dad and Amy went on something called the Skyfari which took them in chairlifts (well more cabin lifts really) across the park, but I felt slightly hysterical just looking up at it from the ground, so I left them to it and went to do some shopping. Got a great present for Bean and a lovely Monkey notebook for myself to take some notes on the slavery reading I have yet to touch!!

The zoo tells you which animals on display are endangered, which are vulnerable and which are on the verge of extinction. There are some species of which there are 50 or less left in the whole world and some that only the zoo have, like some of the African deer. One species of deer they didn't even realise was on the verge of extinction until someone went out looking for them and there were none left. Now the only ones that exist are in captivity and part of breeding programmes. We didn't get to the pandas, or the world famous Su Lin, but they don't come out til the evening, the attendant told us. Check out my friend, the orangutan, loved him, could have watched that little colony all day. What's your favourite monkey?

On the way home on Interstate 5, I started to have a good look at the housing, and it's really interesting. We're very close to the Mexican border here, with Tijuana only 8 miles away, and there are a lot of Mexican neighbourhoods. What is most noticable about the housing here is how variable it is, I'm assuming that people have literally been allowed to design and build their homes to their own specifications, as there are literally rarely two alike. The roadside graffiti is stunning, really colourful and often there is a lot of religious imagery built into these heavily urban designs - artwork in itself. I'm going to try to get some photos when we head back to Balboa Park today but it's hard because we're moving so fast when we pass it. Amy's promised to have a try today for me. I think she has given up on taking the front passenger seat since our little navigating disaster in LA left us stranded, as Elvis once said, in the ghetto.


We all had a good chat last night when we got home about working as a team, and trying to pull together a bit more. It was good because we all got to say how we felt without it turning into a bit of a blue, and it seems like every day we learn a bit more about each other. It's only now that I start to consider the amazing thing that we have done here: I haven't lived with Dad since I was about 8 or 9 years old, and I've never lived with Amy (and now we're sharing a bedroom) and Amy hasn't lived with Dad since she was knee high to a grasshopper. So although we are all family, this is a completely new family experience, and it comes with its highs and its lows, like any family living together. I think we are all learning new things not only about each other but about ourselves, too. I, for instance, have learnt that when I'm tired, I get really really tetchy and fantasise about killing people. Despite this, I also have a real resistance to going to bed at a decent hour and often stay up very late working on the blog long after Dad and Amy are asleep. But this is also often my favourite part of the day, when the camp is quiet. Sometimes I forget that I'm in America at all!

Big hallo to Hilda, Amy's mum, who said wonderful things about the blog in her email to Amy yesterday, including comparison with Bill Bryson that I was delighted with! Thank you lovely and we all send our love. Ok, Englanders, over and out. Speak to you tomorrow with news of Balboa Park and more about San Diego. Sorry I'm running behind, but we're cramming so much into our days as well as the mundane details of being on the road that we often don't get much time on the web. Plus Amy and I are getting really addicted to Shamu.com as there's a webcam where you can watch the orcas. Link is in the last post if you want to share the orca obsession. Goodnight America, wherever you are (bonus point goes to the one who can name that show and the name of the DJ who was its star).

Oh, and before any of you say it, see if you can guess which ones in the picture are the gorilla and her baby sister......