After twenty years of traveling, we have been to over forty countries, almost every U.S. state, most national parks, and basically every major U.S. city.  But there are still places out there to explore.

“We have still, somehow, not been to San Diego,” Victor said.

I vaguely remembered how.  We have been to California several times and each time, San Diego never made it into our itinerary.  In 2004, both of us young, unemployed, and almost broke, spontaneously hopped in my car and drove to California to explore Death Valley and the Lake Tahoe region.  We had just over a week and California was expensive even when we camped, slept in the car, and ate at grocery stores, so we never made it as far as San Diego.  A year later, we took a road trip down scenic Highway 1 from San Francisco to Los Angeles and had briefly discussed driving a bit further to visit San Diego, but once again, we didn’t have enough time or money to do so. In 2012, we drove through Eastern California with our friend Ayala, exploring Death Valley, Mammoth Lake, Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park, Kings Canyon, and even stopping by Las Vegas for one unbearably hot day.  We never made it far enough south to consider San Diego and so, for years, it was one major city in California that remained unexplored by us.  Until now.

We had four days to explore San Diego and took full advantage of every single day.  There were plenty of things in that city we loved – hiking the gorgeous Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, exploring the architecture and natural beauty of Balboa Park, strolling through the street of Little Italy, unable to decide which of the dozens of cute little cafes or restaurants should be our lunch stop for the day.  But there was one thing on our itinerary that didn’t make sense to me, at least not at first.  When Victor first mentioned he was thinking of spending a day at the San Diego Zoo, I was a bit confused.  We are not really zoo people, and I don’t remember the last time we went to the zoo.  I always wonder about the ethical considerations of keeping animals in captivity, while on the other hand, I do appreciate the roles zoos play in conservation and education.  It’s a complex subject I have avoided for years by simply never visiting a zoo.  But the thing that jumped out at me the most wasn’t even the zoo itself, but the fact that we were planning on spending the whole day there.  Turns out the San Diego Zoo is one of the biggest and most popular zoos in the world, sprawling over 100 acres and housing over 4,000 animals of more than 800 species.  One day might not even be enough to see it all!  But at $72 per single-day ticket, one day was all we were willing to pay.  We might no longer be broke twenty-somethings, but California is still expensive!

We arrived first thing in the morning because we didn’t want to miss the opening ceremony with a flight of macaw parrots and did in fact see one single parrot fly over our heads as we stood in line to scan our tickets.  The first surprise of the day was how much I loved all the frogs, snakes, lizards, and turtles at the Cool Critters exhibit.  The giant Komodo dragons and Galapagos tortoises were the definite highlight, but I spent so much time staring at tiny colorful frogs and strange lizards that it was becoming embarrassing.  The next exhibit featuring all kinds of creepy and crawly bugs blew me away.  I’ve seen most of these insects before – dried up and pinned up under glass at the Chicago’s Field Museum, but never alive and crawling around.  The giant and tiny beetles, the colorful butterflies, the incredible stick insects, and the fascinating scorpions, I could have spent the whole day just in that one exhibit.  It quickly became apparent that we needed to get a move on it if we wanted to see half of what we initially planned.