San Diego Zoo Safari Park

It being Rachel’s birthday, she got to pick our event of the day.  This one was extra-fun because it was something that the kids and I hadn’t checked off our list yet.  Hooray for new adventures!

“Jambo!” the signs exclaim as you walk up to the park.  Both Jake and Erik were excited about this, having heard the word frequently while in Iraq from the Ugandan guards they had there. 


We start off with the birds.  That blue crested fellow in the middle was the one that chased Naomi down.

Not a fan of the pretty pigeon, but completely unfazed by the giant rhino (statue).

                      
Let the tour continue.

          
The meerkats were fun to watch but I think the best job in the whole park belonged to whoever got to be the mouthpiece behind this interactive zebra.  Slightly sassy and very well-animated, “Robert” answered kid’s questions, told jokes and relayed bits of zebra trivia to his captivated audience.  “Goodbye, zebra!” said Logan; “Goodbye, human!” said Robert.

         
Fun with Uncle Erik and Aunt Rachel.

       
More fabulous animal-related antics.
             
Getting ready for the big tram ride.

  
Here come the animals!  I’m trying really hard to spare you a picture of every species that was out there, but it was pretty spectacular and a beautiful sunny day, perfect for photos.

Here’s the landscape for the park.  Not a bad view, eh?

                         
Spring means animal babies.  The baby rhino is looking shy, but it’s there.  If you go back up to the water buffaloes, there are a couple of calves in that picture as well. 

                    
We got a good view of the lion from the tram but then managed to catch an even better view afterwards.  Naomi is working on her roar.  (Thus far, a rather uninspiring thing.)

                        
If you think this post is getting long, imagine how the kids were feeling as we pushed towards lunch time.  But there was just SO much to see!

 
I think we’ve established that I have an odd fascination with elephants.  But look now at that first picture; glance back and forth a few times from the random woman’s head to the elephant.  Doesn’t that thing look like it’s about two stories tall?

The best part: just as we were getting ready to move on, we hear a joyful, loud trumpet and this (I’m assuming) mother elephant comes running out with two baby elephants following behind.  It was this great little family reunion moment where you could honestly tell that they were so happy and excited to be back outside with the herd.  Very cool to watch!

   
I love the very different personalities that the gorillas appear to have in these pictures.  I totally read the first one as “giving him the stink eye” and the second as “too cool to care”.  What’s your take?

Almost done.  Don’t worry; we’ll find our way home.

         
Coming back around to the front, we run into the birds again, with some water babies this time.

   
Later that afternoon, AFTER naps (hooray!), the kids practice their synchronized ice-cream consumption.  Now dip, and lift, and taste, and swallow.  Good!  Now dip . . .

Whew!  Longest post yet?  Tell me, do the longer ones take forever to load on your computers or is it pretty smooth?  I thought about breaking this up into two posts for those who might have slower internet connections.  Would that be better for you?