This video has apparently been out for a while, but I just recently stumbled upon it reading Chase Jarvis Blog. The mood, feel, visual effects and deep meaning is very compelling that I just have to share it with everyone. Hope you enjoy.

It has been a while since I have been to the San Diego Safari Park and Zoo. I usually go at least once a month, but with the end of the college semester, the holidays, the storms and family issues I wasn’t able to make it for a few months. At the beginning of this week my Aunt decided that it was time to go again, and which park did we want to go to. I decided on the San Diego Zoo because we went to the Safari Park the last time. So today My Aunt, Great Cousin and I went to the San Diego Zoo. It was a great day, the animals were out, active and I finally got the chance to really test out my Spider Belt and Grip.

At the end of every trip I learn something new about photography, because the San Diego Zoo presents a lot more challenges then at the San Diego Safari Park. Some of the issues you will face at the San Diego Zoo are shooting through chain linked fences, metal enclosures, plexiglass, harsh lighting, and extreme shadows caused by the overhead canopy; oh yes and lets not forget to mention the workout that you will get with your camera gear. Today’s trip went especially well as I usually only get a few goods shots at the San Diego Zoo and today I come home with a lot more keepers. Now lets get right to those shots.

Let’s start with one of my favorite animals, the Meerkat. The second visit to the Meerkats the Keeper was our doing daily maintenance to the exhibit which was a treat for us. Normally at the Meerkat exhibit you have the one watcher and the rest are usually foraging and playing, but because the Keeper was there some of the Meerkats were “chillaxing.” (Picture Right)

Then we come to this next guy. He literally looked at me and smiled, I couldn’t believe it. He was posing for the camera.

My Great Cousin wanted to see some crocodiles, so we had to improvise and found an alligator. We tried to show him the alligator, but because he was blended in very well to a tree trunk my cousin wasn’t unable to see it. So I decided that I would take a picture of a “chomp, chomp” for him.

My Aunt loves otters, so we couldn’t leave the park without some images. I have always struggled to get pictures of these guys, but today they were very photogenic, which is a plus in my books.

The next photograph is of the baby cub and it’s mother. The baby cub is on the left and is currently in its own exhibit, being weaned off from it’s mother.

On with the rest of the photographs:

Last year we received this magazine about things to do in Palm Springs and one of those things to do was the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. I thought it would be interesting to do, but I never expressed the slightest interest in it because at that time I could not justify paying $25 to take a tram. Then my dad came home from work the other day and was like, “Hey we should check out this aerial tram in palm springs,” immediately I was excited because someone else expressed there interest in it. So I did some research about it and discovered that there is much more to it then just a tram ride. They actually have hiking, picnicking, museums, theaters, activity center, skiing, snowshoeing, sliding and not to mention some amazing views. After talking about it for much of the week, I talked him into going today to see what it is all about in person and to play in the snow.

The experience is one not to miss. The views are spectacular and the tram ride is equally amazing especially when you pass each support tower. There are some places that you need to be careful of during the winter seasons. Some areas have creeks that you can’t see and some areas that have snow deep enough that the pass your knees. If you like to sled there are plenty of hills to make your own sled runs or you can take over an unoccupied sled run. So without further ado, lets get to the pictures.

Here is an original tram that was used to take up passengers before they added the new trams that have a rotating floor:

Here is the newer trams, that have the rotating floor. This provides a 360° degree view while traveling up nearly 6,800ft to the top of San Jacinto Mountains:

Once you exit the tram you enter the lobby where all the restaurants are located. Depending on which place you eat at you have your standard sitting or fancy sitting. This is the fancy sitting:

Then when you leave the lobby you can head down a cement path to the picnic and the main activity areas. Unfortunately for us the picnic area was covered with snow and the only seating was the amphitheater which of course was filled. On the way down to the picnic area you come across the MSJC sign, which is missing some letters:

After walking for about ten minutes down this path you are greeted with more spectacular views. Here are some that I gathered on my short journey trekking through deep snow and helping my Cousin learn how to trek through snow:

This wouldn’t be a blog post, without displaying some sort of image showing something that is depth related to the traveling distance of the tram. In this image we are currently on our way down from the top of the mountain. We had just passed the #3 support tower which is the halfway mark to each station:

After reaching the bottom and heading through the exists, head towards the patio. There are additional views and trails to navigate. Here are just a couple of those views:

I can’t end this post without some stories, so this will be the story section.

The image on the left is my dad showing that we made it to the top of the mountain. He was trying to get my cousin to do this pose, but she was laughing to hard in embarrassment. The image on the right my dad is pointing out that you should listen to the signs, sadly that didn’t last long as we ended up taking pictures under that tree. Don’t worry people began to follow us:

My cousin was talking about building a snowman and shortly afterwards what did we find? A snowman! It wasn’t a big snowman, but it was big enough for her to become friends with it for a few minutes. Say hello to my little friend:

This next story is just ridiculous. While we were walking my dad sees this top hat located between two rocks. He tells my cousin come on lets go check out this hat. It is beyond me how he even saw the hat. Maybe I didn’t see it because I chimpping while waiting for people to kindly move out of my way. Did I get the shot, nope as no one wanted to give me the opportunity, but anyways here is the top-hat goodness:

These next two images are from my cousin falling. The image on the left is after she fell and took my dad with her. She is laughing so hard, because we were making jokes about it. The image on the right is after she fell several times as we took a shortcut back up to the station. You can see how happy she is that a rock was nearby to take a short breather from those falls:

Lastly is the image of my cousin showing her expression on how happy she was to be able to get to the snow. Apparently she has been wanting to go for a while, but haven’t had a chance to get to go. She really enjoyed it. What do you think?