Day 3 So Cal Vacation- Tie up Anaheim and head for San Diego

Saturday

Santa Ana Airport

I got the sisters off to Oakland early Saturday morning. Finding the John Wayne airport in the daylight is much easier than in the night. They arrived at the Santa Ana Airport (the other name for this airport around 9am. Their plane took off at 10:30 so they had plenty of time.

I turned off the I5 too soon getting suckered at the Chapman turn off and had a scenic tour of the city of Orange and then Tustin. Eventually I found Keatella, and there is really only one Keattalla... so I headed West and found its intersection with Harbor and everything was cool.  By this time there was a traffic jam headed for the park and while I was secretly sorry that we would not be going back today there was a part of me that wanted to take it on even with the crowds.. such a glutton for fun.

Escondido

We had an adventure headed for us today however. We were going down to the San Diego Zoo's Safari Park in Escondido. The night would be spent in Hotel Circle in San Diego, about 35 miles away from the Park.

We packed things up and headed South on the Interstate 5. There were a few slow downs and outright stops as it was clear that this was a holiday crowd on the freeway. We passed San Onofre
with its huge nuecular dome and San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente. The traffic started to slow down as we came close the Marine Base at Camp Pendleton.  Still we slipped down the coast and headed inland at the juncture of I5 and the road to Escondido.

Escondido was the place that Dad went to high school before he signed on and shipped out to be a part of the Navy in World War II. He spent many of his High School years living by himself, going to school and milking cows and picking lemons for his support. This town has surely gown up since Dad was here 70 years ago. Parts of the town that we discovered looking for the right road were still that little old mom and pop store downtown that you would expect off the beaten path. Some of the major roads were filled with the usual big box stores and fast food franchises.

Through all of this somehow we found the named road that would take us to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Coming our of Escondido it is spindly road that follows along the crest of a rolling hill than dives down and meets the connecting road to Romona on the East and further west to Interstate 8 that eventually dumps into San Diego.  Coincidentally, this freeway connected to our overnight spot on the Hotel Circle in San Diego.

San Diego Zoo Safari Park

We made the requisite left turn and headed up the hill to the parking lot. There was a difference in cost between priority parking and general parking but it was waved as we got out our handicapped parking placard. The parking attendant told us that we could park anywhere we wanted. We were aware of the strength of the power chair battery so we picked one that was close to the entrance. There was a big line to get in but someone from the park said that the people handling the memberships could also do the daily entrance. For some people the 45 dollar admission was a hard gulp. If we were to do it again, I think that we would have stayed an extra day in San Diego and bought the 118 dollar 7 day consecutive admissions that would also include Sea World in the package. This is available through Costco. 

The diversity and value is enormous in this park and the San Diego Zoo proper. In this park we waltzed through the gift shops and found some pretty cool things. One of them was a hat for me. The hat is similar to my walking hat at home but it actually fits over my head and comes down on the tops of my ears. It is tan with vents in the crown. It has a leather brim strip that allows for it to be held on the chin to avoid losing it to the wind.  It is pretty hard to find a hat that would fit me but here it was and just in time for the African savannah or what we thought was going to be a truck tour of this animals in wild environments.

Flamingos from Chile

We stopped at the flamingos, they were from Chile instead of the usual Caribbean or African ones. Their feathers are a very pale pastel pink. The ducks were busy grabbing food in the water from kids all to happy to throw some pellets they got from the 50 cent feed machines.

Meerkats

We had to stop and look at the meerkats. They were pretty close to the crowd. These little creatures are pretty loveable until you take a look at their claws. The live in underground burrows that they dig themselves. A TV series featured their activities on the Animal Planet. It was named Meerkat Manor. It ran for four seasons until it was canceled in 2008. There are about a dozen in Safari colony. Sue watched one of them come over to the glass and pee in the corner. Then another came over to smell it.  A little 8 year old wanted an explanation of what they were doing. Sue was happy to provide it. 

Gorillas

We had a look at the extensive gorilla exhibit which had a couple of families working our their life as the excited tourists including me fired off multiple digital images. One reserved photographer with a lens the size we would have loved to use shooting sports photography, was set up in the corner with a tripod,ready to capture the family unit. In the meantime the tourists were pitching out rationals for the behaviors they were observing like a screenwriter cranking our soap opera scripts. The photographer behind his camera showed a sly gin that basically disputed their rationalities. Strictly suppose alls.

We headed down over the hill and came to the lemur exhibit. A camera crew was set up to take photos of the families as they arrive. The were taken in font of a green screen. The pitch, we will put lemurs all over you. Lemurs have grown in popularity with the release of the movie Madagascar.

Lorikeets

We snaked around on this level of the terrace to come an unusual exhibit. There were kids and adults lined up to buy little cups of nectar. Right beside the stand was a bird double entrance. People go in one door let it close then go into the next so that the birds do not escape. Inside was a most unusual set of small parrots from Australia that have specialized tongues that feed on the nectar or flowers and berries. They are called Lorikeets.  Kids would get a cup of nectar and feed these birds from tiny plastic cups of nectar that they had purchased. Sue was all about remembering to get the nectar the next time we were in the park.

More tomorrow on our San Diego Zoo Safari Day. : ) Pat