After cuddling up with the ants, we packed up and headed out to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. We decided not to go to the actual zoo, because we go to the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago (which is awesome) almost every year. The Safari Park is connected to the San Diego zoo, but is where their breeding programs are held as they help to save species from extinction. It was pretty cool!
We got there right when it was opening, so many of the shops, restaurants, and safaris had not started yet. We walked around and saw many of the animals, most which are endangered in the wild.
The boys now love hamming it up in front of the camera. We tried to get them both in the same photo, but the taller bat was just a little too high for Spencer to get his face in. They both still wanted a bat picture though, so here they are.
We went into the Lemur enclosure. They were freaking out about something and just shrieking. The workers thought that maybe they saw a snake or something and they were warning each other.
We went to see the Cheetahs and they were just lying in the shade. Later in the day, there was a demonstration that we could have paid extra for, and we could actually see them run. We couldn’t stay that long though.
Our entrance fee included one safari (though there were many more we could purchase as add-ons). We were on one of the first trips of the day and many of the animals were out with their babies, enjoying the sun. Lots of animal species were intermingling just like they would do in the wild. It was very cool!
The Safari Park is also a licensed Botanical Gardens and there were unusual plants everywhere. The first flower is the same as one type of singing flower in the Tiki Room at Disneyland, called a Bird of Paradise.
Spencer posing with a “giraffe. Looks real, doesn’t it?
There was a tiger feeding that was timed just perfectly. The zoologist talked about how they are breeding this tiger and how the tigers are becoming more and more endangered due to deforestation. Many of their forests are being cut down for agriculture. Palm oil is a big export in these areas right now. Here is an article from Time Magazine that talks about the issue.
“How Palm Oil is Killing the Sumatran Tiger”The zoologist put chunks of meat right on the window ledges so we could see the tiger up close and personal. Unfortunately, the tiger went for the big huge bone in a box and ran away. It was kind of funny, though, because the tiger was prancing away with the box in front of herself and ran into the the wall.
Once everyone got sick of waiting around for the tiger to come back out where she could be seen, most people wandered away. We were hanging out in the shade and she came back. We got some great photos.
There were lagoons with a lot of different birds.
The last section that we explored was the Gorilla exhibit. Again, we timed it just as they were being fed. There were about gorillas with this big guy as the head honcho, and one juvenile. We learned that you are not supposed to stare directly into the eyes of a gorilla, because they consider it rude and possibly a challenge. I find it hard to look them in the eye anyway, they all seemed to have such intelligence. I wonder what they are thinking of all those people looking at them all day.
After that, it was lunchtime and time for us to head out to Las Vegas. We were also ready to get back into air conditioning. As we were leaving the area, I finally saw baby palm trees. All the trees I have seen were really tall and I wondered why I never saw small trees. Small palm trees do exist!
San Diego was very dry but it got much drier as we got farther out of the city areas. Here is a dust devil right in the field next to us.
This was the outside temperature as we passed the exit for Death Valley. Very desolate area of the country, even on the Interstate.
The Mohave Desert. This was basically the landscape during most of our drive today. I read Harry Potter, and Jeff played some podcasts.
We did start to see these cool cactus trees. I think these are Joshua Trees?
Right around sunset, we arrived in Las Vegas. We had to walk through the casino floor to get registered for our room. This was my first time in Vegas, but I imagine that I would have had a completely different mindset if I was there with just adults. I felt extremely nervous and had a death grip on the boys. There wasn’t anything obviously inappropriate for them to see or anything, but it still wasn’t a place for kids at that time of night. We also got approached almost immediately with offers of half price tickets to (kid-friendly) shows, but there was no way we were sitting through a 3 hour hard sell of anything. Those people are really aggressive!
Kline Road Trips 