Flamingoes

It took a little calculating, but I think the last time we went to the San Diego Zoo was in 1999, just before we went to live in Palo Alto for the year.  I seem to remember that after our trip we learned that the panda we had seen was pregnant.  

Anyway, we enjoyed seeing the zoo again, and it seems to be even bigger and better than we remember with different levels to walk on to see animals from different angles.  

I particularly enjoyed trying to photograph the flamingoes, which reminds me of a great b&w print my dad took at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago back in the 60s.  Unfortunately I do not have a scan of that photo, but if my mom or dad sends it to me, I will add it to this post.

San Diego Model Railroad Museum

As if a spring break trip to Arizona was not enough traveling for us, we spent this past weekend in San Diego.  H had a conference starting Sunday, so we went down with our friends on Saturday to make a fun weekend out of it.  Knowing that we wanted to go to the Zoo, but also do something else, we headed for Balboa Park in general and then looked at the map.  I had forgotten how many museums are in the park.  I don't think any of us had ever gone into the Model Railroad Museum, so we decided to give it a go.  

Along with a troop of cub scouts, we enjoyed all the exhibits and marveled at the amount of time and money that has gone into creating so many different scenes.  Since this is an ongoing project, we could see various stages of completion.  At one point there are just tracks laid out and photos from Google Earth next to them so that the finished models can be accurate.