Sunday, April 1, 2012

Day 2 - San Diego, California - Vacation Wild Animal Safari

The weather forecast for Sunday was cloudy and cool so we decided this would be a good day to head to the San Diego Wild Animal Safari Park.
We arrived at the park as soon as they opened at 9 am and headed straight for the Butterfly Jungle Exhibit where we had booked a tour. Once we walked in to the exhibit we were surrounded by thousands of butterflies of different species. The butterflies seemed particularly fond of all the people on the tour that were wearing any shade of yellow. Some people had a half dozen butterflies land on them at one time.
The boys loved this exhibit and seemed particularly fond of the Owl Eye species (shown above).
After finishing our tour at the Butterfly Jungle we were free to roam around the Safari Park as long as we liked. We came across the gorilla's and once we saw the baby gorilla, we all could have stayed and watched them all day. The boys each have their own digital cameras that were hand-me-downs from Grandma Judy and Aunt Erin so they were free to take all the pictures they wanted. Lucas took lots of photos of the gorillas and two different videos of the momma and baby gorilla. We practically had to pull them away from that particular exhibit.
The thing I liked the most about the Wild Animal Safari was the space that the animals had to roam about. At no point during our tour did I feel sorry for any of the animals because of them being in captivity for our enjoyment.
With the pass that we purchased we were allowed to go on an Africa Tram Safari that took us on an expedition and gave us a chance to see African wildlife on a closer level. Herds of giraffes, rhinos, gazelles, and horned antelope roamed about together in a terrain similar to what you may find in Africa.
Another view of part of the safari...
While climbing a steep trail to see the elephants we distracted our tired boys by telling them to take it slow and look around on the sides of the trails for different wildlife. What would you know? Lucas spotted this lizard sunning on a warm rock.
The elephant exhibit was massive and well worth the little hike. It contained at least three adolescent elephants that were constantly on the move.

Bat Boys!!!
The petting zoo at the Safari Park was entertaining for me when I saw a young girl who had been too rough with the goats get a little head butt from one goat who was not about to take her abuse. I just wondered where her parents or supervisors were.....
The boys enjoyed quit a few different fun and interactive things at the park that they had for kids to do.
After spending most of the day at the park it was time to head back to the hotel to enjoy the sun that decided to make an appearance for the day. Landon loved jumping in to the pool to big brother and Lucas was proud to give Landon some swimming tips. We had dinner from a local Mexican restaurant that I picked up and it was fabulous!!
Wish I could have this view of the sunset every night!! It was so breathtaking I had to pull over to the side of the road and watch before I could head back to the hotel with our warm dinner. ;)

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