Chapter 13: Lions and Tigers and Bears and Padres and Phillies
You would think we would have had our fill of exotic animals the day before, but I guess we’re just stubborn. Or we had only used one day from our 2-day passes. You know I’m not going to waste money on these trips (insert paying Disney prices joke here), so we headed back to the
San Diego Zoo. This time, it was the main zoo in the city.
I don’t know what the zoos are like in your area. Most of the ones near me are smaller in scale. The zoo I grew up attending was the Smithsonian Zoo in Washington, D.C., mostly because admission is free there. It’s a nice park and they used to have pandas on loan from China, which were always fun to watch (they mostly sat around eating bamboo). The only downside to the DC Zoo is that it’s built on the side of a hill, and you have to walk all the way uphill to leave, which was always a pain when pushing strollers and sleepy kids around.
That zoo was nothing. The San Diego Zoo is massive. And it’s built on TWO ridges and their accompanying hillsides, making for long climbs and hikes I just wasn’t prepared for. They actually have to run shuttle buses throughout the day to help visitors get around the property.
Physical challenges notwithstanding, I’d say between the San Diego Zoo and the Safari Park, it’s probably the best zoo I’ve ever visited. They definitely have the most space and the most animals to see that I know of.
I won’t bother trying to re-trace our exact steps through the park because we did a lot of meandering. I’ll just hit some highlights.
We saw some koala bears…
Exotic birds….
A polar bear….
The backside of water…
A red panda telling us exactly what he thought of us…
And the zoo even had their own animatronic sleeping lion, just like Disney.
The zoo also has their own version of the Skyliner, a gondola that stretches between the two main ridges of the park. The boys and I took a ride on that, but Julie wanted no part of it so she took the long way around.
You can get some nice views of Balboa Park (adjacent to the zoo) and the city from up there.
We took the entire morning to tour the zoo. I think at one point we actually left to go eat our PB&J sandwiches in the parking lot and then returned to cover some more area we hadn’t seen in the morning. So the zoo was big enough to occupy a large chunk of our day.
When we’d finally seen everything we’d wanted to, we took a walk through Balboa Park. This is a tourist hub in San Diego, and home to many of the city’s museums and gardens. We didn’t have time to tour any of the museums but could at least enjoy the walk and the architecture of the buildings.
(Japanese Garden area posted for pkondz)
It got a little hot that afternoon, but we still had that nice sea breeze blowing in off the ocean. I can see why so many people relocate here and rave about the climate.
Around 4:00 or so, we went back to the van and drove downtown. We were going to attend our third and final baseball game of the trip at Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres. We managed to find a parking garage right next to the stadium and then walked downtown.
Petco Park is a modern ballpark, having been opened in 2004. Many of the modern ballparks try to combine retro design features with modern amenities, and a lot of them succeed at both. The ballpark that set the standard in this regard was Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles. One of the most famous features of that park is the way it incorporated an old warehouse into the wall of the stadium, making it feel like a part of the city.
Petco Park stole that idea and replicated it here with the Western Supply Building. It houses ticket sales, the main stadium store, and sits out in left field of the park.
The gates weren’t open yet, so we walked a couple of blocks downtown to the Half Door Brewing Company for an early dinner.
This was a small bar/brewpub that had a pleasant little seating area for us on their porch. We wasted no time getting to the food, as PB&J does not hold off our hunger very long.
Any time we have the opportunity to get pretzel bread and beer cheese dip, we’re going to take advantage of it.
I think by now Julie and I were feeling a little burger-ed out, so we went for some off-the-reservation menu choices. Julie had some Shepherd’s Pie. This consisted of ground beef, onions, carrots, garlic mash, and white cheddar cheese. She seemed happy with it.
I went way out on a limb and got the “Infamous Bowl”, a mix of crispy fried chicken, corn, cheddar cheese, mashed potatoes and gravy. I will be the first to admit it doesn’t look like the most appetizing dish.
But it actually all tasted pretty good together. Would I prefer it over a burger? No. But for then it was a decent change of pace. The only complaint was that it was kind of a small portion.
Other selections by the offspring included fish & chips and a crispy chicken sandwich.
Once that was finished, we walked back to Petco Park. As luck would have it, our favorite team, the Philadelphia Phillies, were in town to play the Padres. When I’d seen that on the calendar I had made sure to include a game in our vacation plan. We know that fans of the opposing team are always given a warm and gracious greeting back home in Philadelphia, so we figured we’d get a similar reaction here.
Usually the gates open for games between an hour to 1.5 hours before the start time, and if you get there when they open the visiting team is usually still taking batting practice. It’s a good opportunity to stand in the outfield and try and catch home run balls. The pitchers, some coaches, and anyone else not taking practice will often stand in the outfield to shag balls and occasionally toss some up to fans in the stands. I never had much luck—it took me roughly 46 years of my life before I finally got a ball at a game. But my kids, especially Dave and Andrew, are much better looking than I am and have been baseball magnets over the years.
The strategy we use is to go out into the outfield and stand along the front row next to the wall. We’re positioned for balls flying over the fence and also hopefully putting a cute kid in view of the players in case they want to toss one up to a fan.
We had an extra advantage being Philly fans here. Surrounded in a sea of beige, yellow and brown Padres fans, our bright red Phillies gear stuck out like me in a Hobby Lobby. Dave spotted one of the pitchers, Kyle Gibson, catching fly balls as they came his way. So he called out, “Hey, Mr. Gibson!” and he and Drew waved to him. Gibson spotted these good-looking Phillies fans, gave a wave, and then tossed the next ball he caught in their direction.
It fell short into the empty club box. I guess there’s a reason he got moved out of the starting rotation and into the bullpen.
But he recognized his mistake, got another ball, and this one flew straight and true.
We took some leisurely walks around the stadium when batting practice was over and then eventually found our seats way, way up at the top of the stands when the game was ready to start.
It’s a beautiful ballpark. We saw one of the best old-school, historic stadiums and settings in Dodger Stadium. Then we saw a relic of the ugly concrete bowl period of the 70’s-80’s in Angel Stadium. Petco Park is one of the best examples of the modern period. Everything feels new and it has enough character (See the Western Metal Supply Building in left field?) to give it a unique personality.
This was in June 2022, so at this point in the season the Phillies were struggling with mediocrity. They had a decent lineup, but it seemed like it was going to be a struggle to make the playoffs, even for a lineup that included one of the best players in baseball, Bryce Harper.
And it would indeed be a struggle to make the playoffs. The Phils would have to wait until the end of the season, clinching the very last spot just two days before the regular season ended. Little did we know they’d end up going on a magical run that would end two wins short of a World Series championship. But man, that was such a fun playoff run. It included a defeat of these very same Padres in the National League Championship series.
Anyway, we had a great time enjoying this game. Home runs by Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto put the Phillies up fairly early and they coasted to an easy win.
And we could cross another ballpark off the list.
Coming Up Next: Scenes from the Pacific Coast.
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Thanks for sharing your CA adventure!
