We decided to become tourists in San Diego, and unwind without worrying if we looked like tourists… since that is what we were!

First stop was the San Diego zoo in Balboa park. We arrived about 20 minutes before the gates opened, and there were already roughly 100 people in line before us (upper-left). It was pretty clear that San Diego was ready to get Out Of The House and do “normal things” again. Families were plentiful in the crowd (lower-left). Entering the zoo is a huge bronze lion (center), and sometimes I thought the metal animals were the most photogenic of all (right column).

But, of course, we came to the zoo for the live animals, and there are plenty of them. The tiger (top-left) was being fed and looked quite stunning in his surroundings. A crocodile swam past our underwater window (upper-right), giving us the best view of him. A male peacock strutted the grounds, showing off his plumage for all to see, as he slowly rotated for all to admire him. One of our favorites was seeing the orangutans with their unique personalities showing off to the crowds. One male did sideways rolling somersaults while embracing his lettuce leaf before stopping to eat his lunch.

Next stop was the Air and Space Museum, also in Balboa Park (upper-left). Evelyn said that we never have proof that we are actually at the locations, so… dum, dum… our first combined selfie placed us on Mars, next to a future astronaut (upper-right)!

There were many fascinating displays at the museum, including a reproduction of the Spirit of St Louis, complete with an animatronic version of Charles Lindbergh telling of his flight (middle-left). Amelia Earhart, also an animatronic, described her adventures, and we hadn’t realized how connected she was to Oakland, CA, where there is also an aviation museum.

Other exhibits included reproductions of famous aircraft. Unfortunately, a fire in 1978 destroyed many of the original aircraft, which is why many are now reproductions. Some of the exhibits were interactive, such as the helicopter (top-left) and the Mercury (lower-left). One of the more interesting to me was the command module from the Apollo 9 moon mission, since I worked on that project for NASA as a college freshman in 1969.