I did not mean to offend any of the San Diego Zoo lovers out there and of course I do not blame the zoo for our bad luck with the weather. What I meant was that many zoos have indoor and outdoor exhibits that allow viewing of the animals in all kinds of weather. I believe San Diego Zoo is world renowned for their large natural habitats. That does make the zoo special and unique. Unfortunately it also makes it a waste of money in bad weather. My past zoo experiences and travel resources didn't prepare me to make the decision not to go to the San Diego Zoo in bad weather. I only meant to share that information so that others can plan better than we did. Also my own opinion is that the Wild Animal Park is more unique and special than the zoo and if I had to make a choice between seeing one or the other, I personally would choose the Wild Animal Park. <BR> As far as the St. Louis Zoo goes, I am sorry Angel did not find the zoo to be world class. True it does not have large beautiful natural habitats. It is an old zoo in the midst of massive reconstruction to provide state of the art habitats for its animals. The new insectarium and renovated Childrens Zoo are great. St. Louis Zoo certainly favorably compares with other not free zoos I have been to in NY, Chicago, Dallas, London, Edinburgh, and Amsterdam. <BR>I hope Marie enjoys her trip to San Diego.

Wendy: <BR> <BR>I am not going to debate the relative merits of different zoos. That is all personal opinion. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Personally I prefer the Wild Animal Park. <BR> <BR>I did want to comment on the weather thing. Zoos are usually constructed with the weather being an important consideration. The San Diego zoo is no different in that respect. Though you encountered bad weather, that is definitely not normal. Typically the weather is dry and nice 90% of the time. You just had the misfortune of being there in the other 10% of bad weather. Even when it rains in San Diego, it rarely will rain 2 days in a row though there are exceptions occasionaly. San Diego only get 9.32" of precipitation per year so it doesn't rain very often. As such the zoo is constructed to take advantage of the good weather.