We spent our fifth day in California at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. It was really a wonderful day. We weren't really sure which "safari experience" we wanted to have when we got there, as there are tons more options than there were five years ago when Jim and I were there. They have the cart safari, the behind-the-scenes safari, the flightline safari (zipline), the rolling safari (Segway), the caravan safari and the roar & snore safari. Obviously we weren't there for an overnight, so we didn't roar & snore, and the children were both too young for the Segway tour. We opted for the caravan safari, which goes right through the animal enclosures and offers opportunities to feed the animals. I was just going to get the one-hour giraffe-feeding safari, but Aidan pointed out that the two-hour safari was only ten dollars more and we would get to feed rhinos as well. So that's what we did!
Our caravan safari was scheduled for the end of the day, so we started out walking and saw the Wings of the World exhibit, went around the lagoon and saw more birds, and then headed for the Africa Tram Safari, a circle tour of the park in a train of tram cars. The guide was very knowledgeable and also very funny. He was actually so excited to see a Canada goose hanging out with the flamingos that we laughed out loud - we see them by the millions every spring and fall on their migration. Tons and tons of African savannah, desert and forest animals on the tram tour, beautiful.
Next we went to see the lions. They were all sleeping. That's the difference between reading the menu and being ON the menu - you get a lot more sleep when you're the predator! We also checked out the elephants - including three babies! - and watched them hang around for a while. Very majestic animals. At this point we were starving and spent some time looking for a food outlet that was actually open. At midweek the park is really not very busy, and so many of the non-animal things are closed. We finally found a good lunch at the Mombasa Cooker, where I had a teriyaki pineapple burger. And half of Esme's pasta. And some of Aidan's fries. I normally don't browse like that, but it was hot and we were very hungry. Freshly carb loaded, we went to try to see some tigers but they were all hiding. :(
We went to the Safari Base Camp to meet our tour. Pete was our driver and unfortunately I can't remember our guide's name, but she was excellent. Very informative and personable. The two hour tour flew by, I couldn't believe so much time had passed when we were done. They took us past everything on the African Plains and the Asian Savanna, and we learned so much and saw so many things. It was really wonderful. We fed both giraffes and rhinos and they were such great experiences.
This momma giraffe thought Aidan was holding out on her. She wanted all the acacia leaves at once, but we had to give them to her one at a time.
Esme couldn't get over the giant purple giraffe tongue.
What fun. She was a sweetie.
Jim is such a terrific wildlife photographer. I wish I could post every picture he took, but we came home with over 1200 pictures from our trip. So here's just one of the really good ones. :)
Hello, I'm a giraffe, and this is your daughter.
Baby giraffe taking a drink. Talk about awkward!
This is a pregnant mommy rhino. She loves apples. :)
Ooooo, I can see you've got one! Toss it in, will you?
Open wiiiide!
As we were leaving the rhinos' area, the big boy rhino came over to get some apples. We gave him everything we had left, and then he went to leave a deposit at the big pile of rhino poop. He moaned really loud and kept pooping and pooping... it was definitely the highlight of Aidan's safari, he really enjoyed that. :)
We ate at the Cheesecake Factory at Irvine Spectrum after our trip to Sea World the day before, and we went back to Irvine Spectrum to enjoy some California Pizza Kitchen after our trip to the Safari Park. It was really hard to leave after dinner, as we knew we would have to fly back to Michigan in the morning. What an awesome trip we had.
