Pandas, Orangutans, Elephants, oh my! The world-famous San Diego Zoo

This week, you'll be seeing a lot less text and a lot more photographs! I spent all my time sorting through and editing the almost 900 images I took at the San Diego Zoo. John and I picked a fantastic day to go on this adventure, in the middle of the week, and we were fortunate to have to compete with only minimal crowds. It took us 7 1/2 hours to do it, but we were able to see the entire zoo in one day. It was epic.

With a reputation like the San Diego Zoo has, I suppose I expected a lot going into it. I am happy to say after the experience, it exceeded those expectations. This zoo homes many exotic plants and animals that you don't see elsewhere. They are also part of many special breeding programs to help endangered species get back on their feet. I was most impressed by the amount of foliage throughout the park. It was nice sun protection for us, but also hopefully made the animals feel more at home.

It's hard to put an day like this into words, because so much of what was experienced was emotional: excitement, appreciation of beauty, connection with the animals, etc. Hopefully my photographs will be able to show you our adventure, rather than me tell you. Besides, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are 24,000 words that show what the San Diego Zoo is really all about:

Photo Credit: John Roth

Photo Credit: John Roth