jbnbsn99 goes to Arizona, California, etc.

Day 7: Sea Sickness and Claustrophobia

One of the most anticipated events on the trip for me was a whale watching trip out of San Diego. We had found a GroupOn for a 4 hour trip to the 9 Mile Bank off the coast: a hotspot for whales and pelagic birds. I was excited at the prospect. One of the items on my bucket list is to see a Blue Whale. I was hoping to tick it off the list.

We arrived at the marina well early and dosed up on Dramamine, as we both are known to get motion sickness. I start an inland bird checklist and wait until we can board the boat. We board and start out on adventure.

As we pass a pier, there are tons of cormorants sitting there; including several Brandt’s, a new species for both of us. At the end of the pier is a group of California Sea Lions: lifer mammal.

The ocean is choppy and throws us about. Things might get bad. My head is spinning, but not too bad. Mstickmanp looks worse than I. He sits on the chairs at the back of the boat.

Thirty minutes into the voyage, we start to head back in. What’s going on? Turns out a stupid lady has fallen down the stairs in the cabin she was explicitly told not to go near. She’s injured her ankle. We have to go get paramedics.

Thirty more minutes back into the dock.

An hour wasted.

We get to the paramedic station. She’s fine, but the company can’t have her on board anymore, so back to the departure point. Thirty more minutes.

Then thirty more minutes out to the original point.

Two hours wasted out of the total four hours. We won’t make it to Nine Mile Bank. No pelagic birds.

I take that back. I was able to get two sea birds, an Elegant Tern and a Sooty Shearwater. Not the numbers I was looking for, but I won’t complain.

Yes I will.

No whales either. We got a total of 60 common dolphins. These are probably the Short-Nosed Commons, but the “naturalist” probably didn’t know about the species split. These are expected on every outing. I wanted something less mundane. Sure, I hadn't seen this species before, but it is no Blue Whale. Or Humpback Whale. Or Fin Whale. Or Minke Whale. Or any of the other expected species.

The whale watching trip is a total bust.

Well, they did feed us. Hot dogs wrapped in bacon. I won’t complain about that. As I was the only one on the trip who didn’t get sea sick, I got to eat the extra that the other passengers couldn’t stomach.

I’m not happy, and mstickmanp is queasy.

We then head to La Jolla where we can supposedly get a good on-shore look at some sea birds. What I didn’t know, is La Jolla is the playground for San Diego’s beautiful people. I’ve never felt so unattractive.

And then my claustrophobia hits. I don’t do well in crowds. Not in the least. It has to do with crowding around my shoulders and having people directly behind me with no way to back up. My patience is gone. I begin to lose it.

At this point, I apologize to mstickmanp for being so pissy at La Jolla. Couldn’t help it. Too many people around. South California is too crowded.
We are able to get a good look at some playful harbor seals and we can pick out a Pelagic Cormorant on a rock, but I can’t take it anymore. I need out.

Let’s go to Starbucks.

I needed caffeine and quiet and a nice comfy chair.

Oh, and cookies.

And maybe cake.

Ah, I start to relax. We drive back to the camp grounds (slightly different site that night without a hint of the nuclear boobs in sight). Tomorrow would be better.
 
Day 8 – The Zoo Formerly Known as the San Diego Wild Animal Park

After the fiasco that was day 7, day 8 could only be better. How could it not? The San Diego Wild Animal Park lay ahead of us.

(Note: I, like so many others, refuse to acknowledge the stupid name change.)

One again, we met the courteous Betsy at the entry and began our tour in style.

We first headed to the brand new Tiger Trail. I had only been following this development from afar. I didn’t have high hopes for it considering what the Zoo had done recently. I was wrong. It is quite simply the best tiger exhibit I’ve ever seen. The three individual enclosures are larger than any one single exhibit I’ve seen (including Dallas’ which up until this point may have been the largest tropical tiger exhibit out there). The layout is great: along winding trail which affords many views from multiple angles. The architecture of the main building is a large Sumatran long house and feels completely at home in the setting. There are some curious elements that foretell of possible additions to come like an aviary near the beginning. The lack of the additional species in the original plans surprisingly does not hurt the overall effect. Come award season, it will be a tough race between Columbus and SDWAP.

I won’t do a full review from here on out, but just give some general impressions.

Condor Ridge isn’t what I expected. It is much smaller than I would have thought. If there were more around it, it could be a really excellent native exhibit.

The fact that the Asian Field Exhibits are closed is one of the key detriments to the SDWAP. The field exhibits are the core of the WAP and why it exists. Let’s hope that the powers that be remember this soon enough.

The African Field Exhibits felt empty. I started to go through a checklist in my head of species I know had been kept there in the distant and recent past. It’s dwindling down to a few common species. Some highlights were Somali Wild Ass, Red Lechwe, Uganda Kob, and of course the two glorious Northern White Rhinos. These two animals alone are worth the admission to the park. We got great views of them. It was a humble experience seeing a species that will soon be extinct.

Here is where I feel uniquely qualified to make comments – on the tram tour itself. Having spent four years doing virtually the same job at the Dallas Zoo, I think I know a little about giving tours of African exhibits in zoos.

1. The Guests: Here’s a thought zoo visitors, if someone is giving you a performance, it might be a good idea to pay attention. Is it so hard to keep quiet for 20 minutes while someone is trying to teach you something? You do everyone a disservice. Yourself by blocking out anything you could learn, and everyone else by forcing them to listen to your story about Aunt Mary’s gall stones.

2. The Exhibit Design: One thing that became annoying was constantly having to switch sides of focus on the tram. This was one great thing at Dallas. There the viewing is forced to one side and one side only. The guest does not have to strain to view animals they can’t easily see. This would be a nearly impossible aspect to fix, but makes for an interesting comparison.

3. The Tram: It’s no monorail. I understand why the switch was made on several levels. Monorails are almost impossible to maintain today. Parts are scare or even non-existent, and an aging system is bound to break down more often than not. The trams are simpler and easier to maintain, and that’s not a negligible thing.

4. The Guides: We rode the tram twice to see if there was a different experience between drivers. Yes, there absolutely was. Neither driver gave a complete picture of the exhibits. One gave wrong information and skipped major animals. The other was more well-rounded, but rushed through the tour and even skipped an entire field exhibit (African Forest). Neither driver knew the names of the exhibits (South Africa, East Africa, North Africa, etc.), and even balked when I asked a question about one. That is unacceptable. Having never been to the WAP, I felt like I knew the exhibits and animals better than the drivers did. (Granted, that could be because I have a genuine monorail driver’s handbook from 1990.)

5. East Africa: This field exhibit is not seen but briefly on the tram tour and is not only seen from viewpoints. However, none of the animals in the exhibits were labeled as far as I could tell from those viewing areas. I knew which animals were there, but only because I’m a nerd.

In general, the field exhibits need some love. When the NWRs pass away, the center exhibits will feel empty. The mountain exhibit is barren and empty – should it be? Why are hippos (either species) not in the main waterhole? Why has the collection’s diversity dwindled to the point of it feeling empty?

The zoo-like exhibits of the WAP are wonderful. I have no complaints there whatsoever. Great collection, great exhibitry, great pathway system.

The extras at the WAP (balloon ride, zip line, ropes course) are not as obvious as one would have though. Yes, they’re over the top, but I don’t think they take away anything.

The SDWAP has the potential, at least for me, to be a perfect zoo. It combines the best aspects of a wild life park and a zoo. However, that potential isn’t met currently. It wouldn’t take much to get it there though.

Perhaps…
 
Having visited the Wild Animal Park literally since it opened, your review is completely spot on. My photographer cousin whom I often visit the park with agrees with me and jbnbsn99 that the animal collection in the field exhibits is dwindling. This applies to number of different species as well as overall numbers. On my last visit I was saddened to see that even the zebras are gone from the South Africa field now.

I am very glad to hear about the tiger exhibit. Based on photos, I had feared that the individual yards were a bit small. The fact that each is bigger than the Dallas yard (which is excellent) is promising indeed. I have a membership and I am going to have to make it out there soon.
 
I agree that the tram ride seemed rushed. When I have ridden it before I thought they stopped more often and gave more information about the animals on both sides of the tram. It is not like there was a long line of people waiting to get on. I am glad you got to ride it twice. People talking on the tram drive me crazy. I was on the tram once with a friend who turned and chastised the people behind us, which made the rest of the ride very uncomfortable. They continued to talk saying very rude things about us.
 
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