The Forbes Clan: San Diego

Our first full day in San Diego started early...5:30 a.m. early! No need for an alarm clock, Kirby was up and raring to go before the sun, due in part to the time change I'm sure. It actually worked out pretty well. We were dressed, ate breakfast, and at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Animal Park in Escondido pretty much right at opening.

The Wild Animal Park is an 18,000 acre wildlife preserve that mimics the natural habitats of African and Asian animals. The park notes that it is home to over 3,500 animals representing 429 species. It's a truly fabulous park....beautiful...and HUGE! In fact, we wound up renting a double stroller for the girls...it was a TON of walking!

The first thing we headed to was a special exhibit called Dino Mountain. This exhibit featured animated, large scale dinosaurs in a forest setting. These things were really cool...think Hollywood movie style made. The girls were given little Dino Passports - after reading the info on each dinosaur they were able to stamp their passport for that dino...a great incentive to have them listen to the facts and a cute souvenier!

Dino Mountain was located on the path up to Condor Ridge. Look at these views...

The must-do thing at the Park is the Journey to Africa guided tour. Here you get to sit in a shaded, open-aired bus and get a little closer to the animals. The landscape is incredibly gorgeous and it's pretty incredible to see all the animals roaming around.

Here's a pretty ariel view of where the Journey to Africa takes you. And thanks to Emerson being old enough to handle a camera...Scott and I may finally get some pictures TOGETHER...good job Big Girl!

Feeding the Lorikeets! And please - no comments on my "yes-I'm-a-tourist" sun visor. It was a life saver! :-)

We saw so many animals that day - lions, tigers, elephants, gorillas, meerkats, birds of all kinds...I'll leave you with two more pictures and then move on.

Though we spent most of the day at the Park, we were still ready for some more vacation fun. So on the way back to San Diego, we decided to take a few detours. Our first detour was through Miramar, California...you know, Miramar - Top Gun, Tom Cruise, fighter jets, etc. We thought it would be pretty cool but there really isn't much to see except the entrance to the Air Station. No jets flying at the time. Wasn't even worth a picture.

From Miramar, we headed straight in to La Jolla and over to the coast. Scott scored a fantastic parking spot and we walked down to the tidal pools where the seals hang out. The little guys are so cute and fun to watch wash up and shimmy on to the beach.