San Diego Wild Animal Park

We had been given some tickets to the the San Diego Wild Animal Park, and they were going to expire on 12/31, so the girls and I headed down there on a day that it was not raining. It was a great opportunity for Frances to try out her new digital camera (which, by the way, is an updated version of my camera, and is much nicer than mine!).

We took the tram ride first, since it has a long line later in the day, and it is a guaranteed way to see lots of wildlife. We learned a lot, especially when the tram broke down, and we sat in one spot for 15 minutes! Everyone was goodnatured about it, and we finally made it back to the station (the truck threw a belt and some other part into the road...). One of my favorite sights was the lion on top of the "abandoned" truck!

The Wild Animal Park is a cool place, because in addition to doing research and breeding programs for endangered species, they have lots of place in the park for children to experience what it's like to be an animal. Kids can leap across water on big (stabilized) lily pads, can crawl inside a big egg, and all sorts of fun stuff. Frances and Abigail both liked the gigantic hollow log. Frances climbed up on top of it easily, but Abby was too short! Frances considered pulling Abigail up through the hole, but that was going to be too difficult. Next, the girls decided that Frances could push Abigail up through the hole from below, but they never seem to remember that Fran is only 20 pounds heavier and 12 inches taller than Abigail.... they quickly realized that it was not going to happen!

There had been a baby elephant born the day before our visit, and we were able to get some photos of it. I think that Frances has better photos of it than I do; she has more patience, and was not trying to chase a three-year-old around on the observation platform!

Both girls remembered the playground from a previous visit, and we spent quite a while there. It was a dry day (amidst plenty of rainy ones) and the temps were in the 60s, so there was plenty of static electricity. Check out Abigail's hair as she exits the plastic slide! Frances was fascinated by the tents up on a hill. I explained that this is for the park's "Roar and Snore" program, in which people can spend the night in the park, learning more about animals, and seeing the animals at twilight and dawn. It's a little costly, but maybe someday we will do it as a birthday trip or something. We had to leave the park mid-afternoon to get home in time for gymnastics, but we had a great time.