Someone Told Me It's All Happening at the Zoo

I awoke to another sunny day in San Francisco this morning and met my friend for brunch in Hayes Valley. (Note: this summer has been so cold. We're talking 50's. Last week we had a heat wave for a couple of days, and then it dropped back down to the 60's. So when I wake up to sunshine on the weekend when I can actually enjoy it and I'm not sitting behind a desk in a dark room that faces a pigeon-filled alley way, I get a little excited.)

After brunch, my friend and I wanted to take advantage of this sunny day and do something exciting in the city. So we eagerly decided to take the MUNI across town to the San Francisco Zoo, a place neither of us had ever been since living here. The MUNI ride was a little sketchy. There was a foul BO stench for the majority of the ride (not unusual) and we rode the L line through parts of the city that I didn't even know existed. Such as, Forest Hill: SF's very own Stepford community.

Once we arrived to the Sunset District where the zoo is, I realized that my outfit of shorts, a tank top and a short-sleeved cartigan - an appropriate choice for brunch in Hayes Valley - was a very big mistake. Had I known we were going to the foggiest neighborhood in San Francisco, I may have opted to wear more clothes. After checking out the $40 oversized zip-up sweatshirts in the gift shop, I decided to buck up and stick out the weather and the dirty looks from old people who were offended by my bare skin in a family place.

We then realized that we overlooked the fact that the zoo is a place for small children. Though children in a zoo can be incredibly obnoxious, this made for amusement at times. Especially at the primate exhibit when we overheard a seven-year-old boy say to his father, "I'm really bored." Apparently so were the animals, because with the exception of the galloping giraffes, most of them had their backs turned to the spectators as though they were trying to punish us.

Many of the animals seemed very sad, and it made me second-guess the idea of viewing caged animals. Lots of them had very little space to roam, and many of them were in areas alone with no other animals to mingle with. I did enjoy the penguin feeding, and the man who was caring for this injured bald eagle was quit interesting, in an awkward eye contact kind of way. We encountered a very relaxed kangaroo, and I chased a roaming peacock around for a couple of minutes until it got frighteningly territorial.

Everything else was sort of just eh, and the foggy weather wasn't helping my disposition. Maybe I have grown to expect a lot from zoos since my vast experience consists of consistent trips to the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park (now known as the Safari Park) when I was growing up, but I really wasn't impressed by what the San Francisco Zoo had to offer. I think what excited me the most was the gift shop filled with fluffy stuffed animals. I love stuffed animals.