Lions and Tigers and Giants! Oh My!

With only one day to spare in San Diego, Aren and I decided to make the most out of it by going to a Padres game. As luck would have it, our boys, The World Champion San Francisco Giants, were playing the Pads that weekend. On Sunday morning we packed up my bag (I had to catch a flight back home that night), a baseball mitt and sunflower seeds (not my choice) and headed to Petco Park. We were pleased by the convenient parking and reasonable pricing that AT&T Park fails to offer, and the park itself is gorgeous.

The game started at 1 PM, so we arrived at 11 AM to watch batting practice. On our way to left field, a kind Padre's Fan Photographer took out picture. We were sporting our Giants jerseys, but he didn't seem to mind. He probably knew the majority of the pictures he would take that day would be of Giants fans. There were so many! It almost felt like a game at AT&T except I wasn't freezing. Here are the pictures he took. I had to buy them, naturally...

After we said "Cheese," we made our way to left field. As if acknowledging our presence, the pitching staff made their way to the field. We were a mere 30 feet from Brian Wilson who was wearing ear buds while he played catch. We assumed he was probably listening to "Jump Around," his theme song. Aren was completely determined to get a ball, so after a few minutes of, "Hi Jeremy!" and "Hey Ramon! Can I have the ball? Please, it's right there!" and "Brian! Brian, it's me! Hey Brian, can I get that ball? Please! Oh okay. I still love you!" Jeremy took pity on the poor guy and tossed him a ball. As much as he wished it were a fly ball, he'll take whatever he can get.

Brian and Jeremy warming up.

Brian Wilson: The Most Interesting Closer in the Game.

The view from our seats. Not bad at all!

Petco Park is nice n' pretty.

Proud Giants fans.

Brian shutting it down.

The Giants won in extra innings. Shocker! The game ended around 4:30 PM and my flight left at 9 PM, so we decided to kill time sitting in a Starbucks...

JUST KIDDING!

We went to the San Diego Zoo, of course.

With only a couple hours to spare, we quickly grabbed a map and planned out our route. On our "Must See" list were: orangutans, gorillas, pandas, tigers, lions and snakes. (For Aren - not for me.) We did a pretty good job considering the time crunch we had.

On a side note, it also happened to be an "Out and Proud" night at the zoo. There was a rave set-up next to the exit and we were joined by a lot of guys wearing... interesting clothing. The best was a tube top, booty short combo.

One lonely orangutan looking out over the water.

His siblings were doing somersaults and swinging from ropes up above.

I have never seen a panda this well at a zoo before.

Aren just got through watching Pablo "Panda" Sandoval at the game

and now he gets to see the real deal. Hence, the excited face.

Vanna White status. "Solve this puzzle and you win a brand new panda!"

Our yellow lab, Bear, is named after a polar bear.

He looked just like this when he was a puppy - just a million times smaller.

I get really excited when I see a llama. I even do an impression of Tina the Llama from

Napoleon Dynamite and it's pretty spot on. I was stoked to see this cousin of a llama.

I keep asking Aren to get me an elephant.

No luck yet, but I think I've almost convinced him that it's the right investment to make.

This camel was getting ready to spit on us. We just know it!

So, after a fun filled day of baseball and a spontaneous trip to the zoo, Aren rushed me off to the airport just in time for my flight. I landed in Sacramento around 11:30 PM and immediately crashed in the car. (Obviously I wasn't driving.) I got up early the next day to start the work week again. Wahoo! I wouldn't have changed anything though. The weekend was perfect.