Disappointment

Man, I took the spawn to the Santa Ana Zoo today and it was such a disappointment. It took maybe 45mins to get through the whole place, and that includes time to feed little tidbits of info about the animal in question to the kiddo. Three of the exhibits were closed, and another was under construction and won't re-open until April. There were no lions, tigers or bears (oh my?). No rhinos, elephants, giraffe or sea critters of any kind. They had a good helping of monkeys, but no larger monkeys like gorillas or orangutan. It was really disappointing. The entire trip (Entrance fees and bus fare) only set me back 9 bucks, but I still feel ripped off.

The biggest issue I had was less the lack of wildlife, and more to do with the fact that everything was in a closed off cage. You can't get a good picture of something behind bars or mesh nets. It just makes it depressing. One of my favorite sections of the Phoenix Zoo was an enclosed monkey area that you could enter. Similar to an aviary. You'd enter through a set of doors and there was a walkway through the exhibit with spider monkeys running around with free reign. I used to go and sketch them as they ran around because, quite often, they'd run around near you to see what you were up to.

Anyway, this is just a long post with excuses as to why I don't really have any shots from the trip. I plan on taking the spawn to the San Diego Zoo/Sea World soon, so maybe that will result in a more fruitful session. So in the absence of Zoo pics, here's more stuff from around the city. I really need to go for some longer walks and find some more interesting subjects to shoot.

Another "Self Portrait". Also a chance to say "Who the fuck named this place?". I mean seriously, it's the most mind-numbingly ridiculous name. If I ever get the chance, I'm going to name a place "Trapezoidal Rhombus". Having any brain aneurysms yet?


This was a window in an old decrepit train station. I thought it had a lot of character, so I snapped a shot of it. I'm still planning on going back and hopping the fence to grab some other cool shots at some point.


This is how the spawn and I spent her sick day. Crafts day! I don't care how old I get, craft days are awesome days.

An edited shot of the kiddos paints. I thought it'd look good as a wall painting. I need to look into the cost of getting some of these shots printed to throw up on the wall. Maybe if I put them up around my desk it'll give me some inspiration to start drawing stuff again.

This is a shot of the ocean I took on our last trip to the dog beach. The waves didn't look super big, and then I went swimming and found it difficult to keep my head above water when trying to jump the waves. Lots of fun was had though. I can never get enough ocean time. I was away from it for far too long.

So anyway, that's it for now. My buddy and I are starting Detch: Round 2, so there will very likely be some musical updates in the near future. I'm also going to make sure I start drawing some more, so hopefully there'll be some of that coming as well.