San Diego Vacation, Day 2 - Wild Animal Park & the beach!

We began our second day in southern California with a trip to the Wild Animal Park, which is a branch of the San Diego Zoo. Since we were definitely planning to visit the zoo later in the week, we weren't necessarily going to hit the Wild Animal Park - but it was included on the Go San Diego cards Joel had purchased to get us some discounts, so we thought "what the heck". In the end we were so glad we went!!! The park was unlike any zoo we had been to before - a *huge* area set aside for animals to truly roam free. Well ok, not *truly* - there is still a limit to how far they can roam - but it was pretty darn cool. Again the photos just don't do it justice. We walked through the first part of the park, which is set up more like a standard zoo with smaller exhibits, concessions, souvenirs, etc, and finally got to the other end of the park and walked out onto a balcony overlooking the "Journey Into Africa" section. It was just amazing - like emerging into a scene out of Jurassic Park - but with rhinos, giraffes and gazelles instead of dinosaurs! We took a tram tour through the park and got to see the various areas set up to represent the different regions of the continent - East, North and South Africa. It was truly beautiful!!Another highlight was a section of the zoo called Lorikeet Landing. Funny, they have one of these at the San Antonio Zoo as well, but we've never taken the time to try and feed the birds. But here Carter and Daddy had a fun time feeding nectar to the gorgeous, colorful lorikeets!There were so many other cool things - but as it is I'm already including way too many photos in this post!! We saw lions up close (REALLY close - one was sitting right next to the glass - literally all that was between the lion & Carter's hand was a piece of glass), THE CUTEST baby elephants, gorillas, a fun animal show and Carter even got to ride a carousel for the first time! We really loved the Wild Animal Park - if you're an animal lover and ever find yourself in southern California, we *highly* recommend a visit to this park!! (and of course the fabulous San Diego Zoo as well, but more on that in another post!)The visit to the zoo was exhausting, so this was the scene in the backseat pretty much as soon as we pulled out of the parking lot!!After the backseat power naps, the kiddos were ready for more action so we decided our first of several visits to the beach was in order!! This time it was South Ponto Beach in Carlsbad.
"Look everyone, there's a whole bunch of water out there!!"Carter's idea of heaven includes two things - playing in the sand and throwing rocks at the water. He could do either of these things forever. He loooooooved going to the beach!Courtney thought eating sand might be a good idea. Despite the funny faces, it didn't stop her from doing it again... and again... and again...Me and my sweet beach baby!Aaaaah... life is good!