Team Rode: Lions, tigers, whales oh my.

Ginger and I had the opportunity to crash the vacation of our friends Chris and Liz and their new daughter Addison. They were staying in Palm Springs for a couple of days so we stopped in on our way to San Diego. On our way we paid a visit to the Salton Sea which is the 2nd lowest point in the lower 48.

There really was not much to see at the Salton Sea so we quickly made our way to Palm Springs. We spent some time at the pool basking in the 120 degree weather and it was not long before the sun and the heat got the best of us so we had lunch and headed for San Diego.

We arrived in San Diego around 8 pm and the damp cool weather was a drastic change from the heat we had just been in. My sister Jessica and her family (Jason, Lela and Olivia) live in San Diego and Olivia was super excited to show us her two favorite places, the zoo and Sea World.
One of the exciting things about traveling is you never know what will happen next. In J-tree we snapped a tent pole. So on our way to San Diego we had to pick up a replacement pole, which we could not find. So a $25 tent purchase later we were back on our way. Well the saying you get what you pay for is so true, no more did we get our new tent up in Jessica's back yard and it ripped. The good news was that they had a tent the size of a small town that my father had given them so we were not without shelter for long.
The next morning after a slow start Ginger, Olivia and I were off to the San Diego Zoo. We did not miss a thing, we saw every animal from things that slither to things that would rather eat us than look at us. Jessica met us later in the evening with dinner and we continued our tour of the zoo. It started getting late and we were running out of light and energy so we called it a night knowing that we had a day at Sea World planned for the next day.
Now a trip to Sea World with the Salonen Family requires snacks, lots of space on your camera and 15 good hours. The was no fish left unseen, we even found a small little aquarium that my sister and Olivia had not been to. Some of the highlights of the trip were Ginger feeding the stingrays, the killer whales soaking the crowd and the Pets Rule show. We stayed through the Shamu Rocks show complete with fireworks and were some of the last people out of the park.
Our last full day in SD we spent at the beach, roaming around town and one last BBQ and night of cards in the back yard. There is so much more to see in SD but our time was starting to run out so we packed up camp and headed East. Grand Canyon here we come.