Here and There Blog

For mid-June, it was surprisingly chilly in Balboa Park on Saturday. Even after 2 hours of wandering the zoo, I still needed my jacket. But what is bad for me seemed pretty good for the animals and they were not hiding. The zoo has been making changes for over a year now. It's only been a few months since I was there and now a giant lion greets everyone. The baby leopards were on display and playing like crazy. Their constant movement meant every picture was a blur. The baby hippo decided to declare a bit of independence from mom and left the water for a bit of sun.  Even the tapir was moving around.  On to reptiles and amphibians - this guy was watching the world go by.  And this tortise decided it was a good time for a cool down.

For the last 4 weeks I've been experimenting with leaving the retainers off for longer periods of time. The most I can go without a noticeable shift in the teeth is 4-5 hours. At the 6 hour mark I can tell that the tray is harder to put in. It's progress but who knew that teeth could be so determined to move so quickly back to where they want to be? Like our friend Yertle here, a determined tortoise can get anywhere, it just takes time. Eventually I will get down to nightly wear only. Travel though is much easier since I'm no longer worried about taking the retainers out only to have to deal with putting them back in (and all the lavatory mishaps that could happen) on an airplane.