Let's Talk Animals

I am combining three parts of our San Diego trip into one post, because they're all about animals: Sea World, The San Diego Zoo, and The San Diego Safari Park.  All three could be a post on their own, because they're all incredible places full of a million things to do; but since it's been over a month since we were there and I have clearly not had the time I wish I did, this will have to do.
So, Sea World- A place I had never been to until this trip. I was prepared to be not all that impressed with a bunch of "fish," but boy was I wrong.  The orcas themselves captivated us for what seemed like hours.

They are such amazing creatures. Enormous, yet so graceful.

 What I loved about Sea World was that there were many hands-on opportunities that we don't get here, like giant tide pools where you can feel sea urchins and pick up starfish,

and a dolphin playground where you lean right over and pet a dolphin or throw a toy to it.

This one brought that yellow ring right up to Jack and I. So cool!

 Then there were the adorable sea lions, which you could feed. So we did (Jack freaked out when he saw that it was real dead fish we had to feed them). Alice thought it was cool.

 And Alice really wanted to see Baby Belugas (Thanks to Raffi's famous children's song)...So we did.

 She was enamoured...

 He even did a trick for her!

 And while we were with the belugas, Jack and Jamie were on this crazy ride called Atlantis:

The San Diego Zoo:When we were here 2 years ago without the kids, we knew we had to bring them back, but we also knew that it would be impossible to see everything at this zoo. Alice's first choice was to see the "mafingos": translation....

"FLAMINGOS."
Jack loved the sky bucket ride that takes you from one side of the zoo to the other so much that we did it twice.

This tortoise is over 150 years old! That's really amazing.

Hippo body (the eyes are peeking above the water too)

The pandas were awake and playing. Something you don't see here. In fact, you don't see pandas at all here.

The coolest escalators that take you up to other levels of the zoo

Hugging the baby polar bear

And as we were walking out, a momma peacock was hanging out with her BABY PEACOCKS! How cute is that?

The Safari park has no pictures, unfortunately, because I forgot to put the memory card in the camera! But, it was the coldest and rainiest of the days, so we weren't there very long. It's a wonderful place to visit though. The animals are all in the most natural setting that you can have, wandering huge plains, and living among other species of animals. We took a safari ride through the African plains, which was really neat. We will have to spend much more time there next time. 

So that sums up our major animal encounters while on vacation. Still to come, Legoland and Coronado. I should be done by Christmas!