A Day in San Francisco!

Saturday, I was able to spend the majority of the day in San Franscisco, getting my first taste of the city from Full House, as I went to zoo and to Haight Street with some other interns from NASA. I also got to break in my new camera, but no pics of the city as I was driving the whole time! And, while I did take about 200 pictures at the zoo, I have only selected a few to post, so that I don't bombard you or the server with 30+ pictures of river otters....Oh how I love otters.....

(The picture above only includes a small part of our group)

We first went to a small cafe called Java Beach Cafe for lunch before going inside the zoo, and that was one of the priciest little cafe/coffee stands I have every been too! Though the food was great, a cup of soup and toasted bagel should not have cost $8! Seattle was pricey for a small town girl like me, but I've learned where to find good, cheap food there, so San Francisco was another small shock.

Then we finally made it into the zoo (where they offer no student discount or really any discounts of any type) and started exploring. While we had a relatively large group, about 20 people or so, we quickly, and kind of accidently broke off into smaller groups that viewed the zoo in opposite directions, so we kept running into people at only certain points. On of the coolest animals to see up close was the giraffe, as I don't think I have every seen one of those so close before. This zoo had two females, one male, and two babies. And we got to see a giraffe feeding, which meant they were less than 10 feet away from us! (Don't worry, the fence was high and they couldn't reach us, though one little girl got to pet one, and I really wanted to.) 

I also got to see kangaroos for the first time, but they didn't do any jumping, as much a we tried to mentally encourage them to do so. They did however seem to move kind of awkwardly with their long back legs and could fold themselves up pretty well when laying down. I was once nicknamed 'Princess Pretzel' for the ways I could fold my legs when sitting down and immediately though these guys deserved the nickname even more! 

There was also this cute little baby monkey that reminded me of Curious George, that had been born just a few days earlier. The mother held her baby the whole time and moved up and down and all around their cage while still holding on. Granted, monkeys are not my favorite of animals, but this one was pretty great. The babies are orange when they are grown, but eventually become black when they are full grown. 

There also were these tiny monkeys that had long white mustaches and even the baby monkeys had little mustaches too! There was two of them who were riding around on the back of a larger monkey, and just looked as us, very cutely. However, the plexiglass and sun's glare was such that I was unable to get a good shot. :(

Also, mom and dad, I saw some prairie dogs and something that started with a 'M', which I couldn't tell apart, but who looked like the little guys who sun themselves outside of the Thrall road exit to our house in Ellensburg. They were so fun to watch, scurrying about and then suddenly stopping and standing straight upright facing the sun. Also I watched a baby go into one of their tunnels and it was very interesting to see how they used their legs and arms to get down the hole. I took lots of pictures of them, but I'll only post one here.

There was also an animal that looked like the king character from 'Madagascar', but as I have not seen the whole movie, and forgot to look at the sign saying what the animal was, I am not sure what to call it. But, it was almost posing for us, and it was at the very top of a steep peak, just sitting there, turning his head this way and that way. He was fun to watch. 

We also got to see lions and tigers and bears (oh my!), some of which were very close. I was surprised to see the polar bears here, but they were huge! And the brown bears just looked like overgrown dogs with ginourmous paws. Their enclosure, and where they apparently liked to hang out was in a spot where you could easily see them up close, and they were up against the plexiglass divider! 

There was one tiger that was sleeping when I passed by it, a siberian tiger, and the other tiger was not out and about, but I noticed it was from Indonesia, even though they only had a map of the area and no name. (All thanks to Charis teaching me some Asian geography!) The zoo also has two prides of lions, but I didn't read the sign closely enough to figure out where the other pride was housed. We did see two African lions, but they were asleep (like every other animal at the heat of the afternoon). I tried to get some shots of them, but they were kind of blurry because of the plexiglass viewing wall. 

There was also a peacock hanging out around the rhinos, between the fence for the rhinos and the fence for the humans, so it was really close to me. I don't think it was actually supposed to be there, as we found the area for peacocks a bit down the road. Regardless, I was able to see it's beautiful feathers close up, and take some awesome shots. They are such elegant birds, though their call sounds like small children! (trust me, I know, we have neighbors in Ellensburg with peacocks...) I didn't end up taking any pictures of the rhinos because the peacock was so amazing to see up so close.

The zoo also had these fun posters around the park where you could stand and a part of the animal that was significant to it would be photographed and cut out, so that you could stand against it and make it look like you had those appendages. Ears for the kangaroo, wings outstretched for the eagle, and feathers for the peacock, etc. The only one I took a picture with was the peacock, mainly because I love their feathers and it looked fun! (However, I don't think my eyes are open here...typical)

One other animal that I had never even known existed was the black swan. It was gorgeous and graceful, and had really interesting wing feathers. The were curled and did not lay flat. There were also a few straight white feathers hiding underneath that we only saw when the swan was facing away from us and lifting her wings a bit. They also had red beak and are some of the few animals who mate for life. Overall, they were beautiful creatures. 

Sorry, mom, didn't take the time to see the penguins, they housed far to close to the otters for me to go over to look at them. I probably could have spent the whole three hours we were there watching the two river otters that the zoo housed. I love otters! They were in a fun mood as well, zipping in and out of the water, swimming around each other, turning barrel rolls, and generally showing off. They would oftentimes come up directly to people standing around the perimeter of their cage, as if seeing if they were interesting and then deciding that maybe we weren't so great (maybe because we didn't have any food for them?) Once an otter came up to right where I was standing, paused to look at me with his cute little head poking out of the water and then zoomed off to swim more. They would swim for maybe thirty seconds to a minute, then get out the water, go huddle down in a small area, and then thirty seconds later were back in  the water again! It was funny to watch the constant in and out of the otters. And, neither otter would go in the water or out of the water themselves, they always did it in a pair. I love otters!

I had a great time at the zoo, and it just reminded me over and over again of the creative of our Creator and how varied the animal species are. Also, I was so thankful that we now have the opportunity to see these animals up close, albeit not in an entirely natural habitat, but otherwise I would probably never see polar bears, lions, tigers, giraffes, and monkeys! 

After the zoo we went to Haight and Filmore streets in San Francisco. Since my GPS doesn't do street address, I tried to use google maps on my phone, but my navigator had some trouble deciphering the directions. I have never been so completely lost before in my life. I had no idea what direction we needed to go, I just started down streets and hoped we would eventually find our way to Haight. Along the way we did get to see some of the outskirts of the city, including all those row houses. Why anyone would want to live in one is beyond me! Maybe it does beat an apartment, but to have your neighbors house right next door, with no grass, or backyard, or front yard, right on super busy streets, and to have to have a padlocked gate in front of your locked front door? No thank you! They look kind of cute and fun, and I somewhat like the style, but I hope I never have to live there. And the traffic is worse than Seattle! No one uses their blinkers, ever, and the street signs are near impossible to find! As well as freeway exits! They don't have mile markers (we decided they had to many miles to mark, so they didn't have the funds) and the exits warning signs are often posted on the opposite side of where you need to get off, so if you are unfamiliar with the area, or don't have a GPS that says "Exit to the right in 1.1 miles) you might miss it. Then again, I haven't yet come across any left-handed exits like we have in Seattle. And, parking in SF is just as terrible in Seattle, but again, there are not so many signs, so I was always nervous that I was parking in a spot that I shouldn't be in. But God is good, (and I prayed hard on the way!) and I found a good spot that I didn't have to parallel park in and it was easy to get in and out of. I am, now, quite adept at parking on hills, as long as I don't have to parallel park into the spot...

Regardless of the traffic, I did try a sausage, onion and red pepper sandwich, which surprisingly, tasted just like the ones Gwinn often serves...it was good. And then half of the group went for dinner at an Indian food place, and half continued looking until they decided to eat at a crépé place. Can you guess what half I was in? Indian food all the way! From the menu outside, it looked pretty reasonable, but what they didn't tell us was that rice was not included with the meals! Who doesn't eat rice with their tiki masala?! And yes, I did get tiki masala, but it was not as creamy or large or as good as the stuff in Seattle. Their naan, however, was excellent, and I think I probably could have just had naan and been happy. I also tried something NEW - samosa - which is a potato/pea/other stuff fried in something and is triangular shaped. It came with chick peas and a sauce, but I was not a huge fan. It was also kind of spicy. Also, the gal who took my order, when I also for the lowest spice possible, said "medium-spicy okay?" I was like, "NO!!!" (only mentally, though) and tried really hard to communicate that I didn't want ANY spicy. She almost looked offended that I wanted a low spice level, and I kind of felt that this place might have just pots of the sauces simmering and thus only have one spice level. There was no mention of spice levels in the menu. My meal was not intolerable, but also not terrible. It was a bit spicy, however. :( 

After dinner, I was so tired, and tired of spending money that I even forwent the ice cream shop that our group stopped at. I was just not in the mood for spending $4 on a scoop of organic ice cream, when I knew that I could get a whole half-gallon of Blue Bunny at the local Safeway for $3 when I got back to San Jose. I tend to prefer quantity over quality when it comes to ice cream; this is one area where I am not too picky (well, regarding flavors I am - mint, chocolate, vanilla, and raspberry sorbet are just fine!) 

All in all, it was fun day - getting to see animals at a zoo, as I have not been to a zoo for a long time, and then getting to some of San Francisco, as well as get to know a few more of the interns. There are lots of summer interns at Ames (200+) all with a different group. I have come to the conclusion that everyone must be in some sort of program, no matter how obscure. I met many people outside of my MUST program, which is great, and now know about 20 more friendly faces at the base. I am also looking forward to maybe going back to SF sometime soon, but hopefully on a bus or train and not by driving!