2019 SoCal Trip: Part III - San Diego Zoo and Safari Park

On Tuesday we visited the San Diego Zoo Safari park in Escondido. It was a long walk to the Africa Tram, which was a bit much for dad after our long day at Legoland and Sea World the day before. He rented a wheelchair but would walk and let the kids ride on it whenever he could.

Our ride on the Africa Tram came with admission. We were able to tour the pretty valley and see lots of herbivores living in a nice big habitat. The only detriment was that the views of the animals were pretty distant.

There were so many giraffes! The one in the picture on the right was eating fairly close to us as we were boarding the tram.

After our tram ride we walked over to the lion habitat. It was nice to see them out and awake. They even got in a small spat over the bone they were chewing.

Allison requested elephants, so we wandered over there in spite of the poor maps that kept us walking around in circles. I held her on my shoulders so she could get a better view.

There's one baby elephant in the picture on the left and another in the pic on the right. They were never close enough to be in the same shot. You'd think this cute photo of the three elephants were all the same family, but according to local volunteer the baby elephant's mom was on the other end of the habitat. Her baby girl just enjoys going off on her own while the baby boy always sticks pretty close to his mom.

Cute baby cheetas!

Allison enjoyed the soft sheep and goats in the petting zoo

The kids needed a play break, so we let them get some energy out at the Village Playground.

Tyler requested tigers, so we worked our way around to their habitat too.

It was very unnerving watching this. On the one hand it was cute to see the kids completely captivated by the tiger and Allison trying to pet it. However, the tiger was clearly very angry at seeing all these tasty meals it couldn't get to. It growled viciously as it paced relentlessly. I knew it would have mauled and killed my kids if it could have, all while they were innocently admiring it. They didn't want to leave, but I was more than happy to.

The play area near the tiger habitat was better than the village playground. It kept the kids entertained for a good long while.

We were going to head out then but couldn't resist the allure of the kangaroos. You get to go into their habitat with them, though you do have to stay on the path. They were mostly napping, but we got one of them jumping on camera.

Cute kids playing on the resort playground that evening after Allison's nap and a couple of hours at Legoland.

On Wednesday we drove down to San Diego to go the San Diego Zoo. A zoo volunteer recommended we walk through the Africa area since it was new and the bus doesn't take you through it.

Cute little rodents wrestling each other. I can't remember what they're called.

A volunteer told us that these babboons came from Germany where they'd been living on concrete all their lives. The first thing they did when arriving here was tear up the grass trying to figure out what it was.

I can't remember what these guys are called, but they kept them across from their favorite food - lemurs - while feeding them rabbit. That seems kind of cruel. I wonder if rabbit tastes just as good to them.

Cute kids walking behind the waterfall and seeing the penguin and shark aquarium. These are actually the same kind of sharks they were petting at Sea World, but older and bigger. The volunteer told us they were purchased from Sea World, and their teeth aren't big or sharp enough to eat the penguins they swim with.

This penguin swam right up to Allison's face like it was trying to sniff her. Too bad I didn't have the video on during the 2 seconds it happened.

From there we went up to see the polar bears. They freeze fish into ice blocks to encourage the bears to work for their food. Polar bears would normally eat blubbery seals to increase their body fat as much as possible, but they keep them leaner here since the San Diego climate doesn't get cold enough to require big bodies.

Sweet kids playing around in the arctic

From there we took the Skyride back to the main entrance where we could take the bus tour

 Their resident tiger came out for us, which surprised the tour guide.

Then we got incredible views of the polar bears! The one in the pool totally showed off its swimming skills for us. I had no idea we would get this close to them on the bus tour.

Meerkats! We'd just watched "Lion King 1 and 1/2," so I couldn't help but sing "Dig a tunnel. Dig, dig a tunnel. When you're done you dig another tunnel."

We also had a decent view of the elephants.

Ty used to be obsessed with camels, so I had to take a picture of him as we passed them by.

In the middle picture are some indifferent snow leopards. They're a male and female they've set up together in the hope that there'll be some baby snow leopards. He called it "online dating for zoos."

Our tour back around took us by the waterfall the kids had been playing near earlier.

The kids wanted to play on the lion statue before we left. They're so cute!

Rain was coming down just as we were finishing up our time at the zoo. It cleared up enough after Allison's nap that we could spend about 90 minutes at Legoland before they closed at 5pm. That evening mom and dad watched the kids while Oscar and I visited the lovely San Diego temple. It was even more beautiful than expected (aesthetically and spiritually)!