Safari Park

Though there are countless fun things to do in San Diego, we decided to get the discounted two-day ticket and spend a second day with the animals, this time in the equally awesome Wildlife Safari Park.  This too was a great day, and surprisingly really different than the zoo, though we still spent 9 hours in the park, once again walking 10 miles.

One of our favorite things to do was feed the lorikeets!  A small cup of nectar lured these pretty, brightly colored birds right onto your arm.  The last time we did this, the lorikeets were apparently starving and attacked us as soon as we entered their enclosure.  This time was much more peaceful and enjoyable...just a tad to Heather's disappointment! ;)

We had more wildlife land on us in the butterfly garden!  Ella was especially delighted that this huge Blue Morpho Butterfly landed on and stayed with her the whole time we strolled around here.

As you saw in the video, this park allows you to actually walk through the lemur enclosure!!  We weren't allowed to pet them, but to have them so close was so cool!

The apes, and their young baby, entertained us for quite some time.  I especially loved how the mom carried her little one around,  Dave had to give it a try.  The apes made it look much easier!

Another highlight of this park was the SUPER up-close lion encounter we had!  This is glass, but the lions were hanging out right by it...roaring, fogging it up, and spraying Delia right in the face with pee!  Notice her hat and clothes?  We joked that these lions must not have been Cubs fans.

The headline attraction here is the 30 minute tram ride though the open air fields, where animals roam freely and interact with one another as they would in the wild of Africa.  We rode this multiple times and enjoyed different guides and animals doing different things each time.

This park is all about conservation and bragged about how their efforts have brought several species in the wild back from the brink of extinction.  While we were there, they had 5 condor eggs ready to hatch!  It was neat to learn lots of new things while having these up-close animal encounters, in a land that was designed to transport you to another continent.  

We used much brain power and treads on our shoes over these two days! We had to end another exhilarating, but exhausting, day of animal sighting with a Footsie Wootsie massage.  Still just a quarter! :)