California: Safari Park

It’s been almost a month since my last confession… I mean, blog post. It’s not that I haven’t been doing anything worth posting about, rather, I’ve been doing a lot and not had time to post. Fortunately, Finn woke me up at 4:30 this morning and I can’t fall back asleep.

During the last two weeks in May, the boys and I visited family and friends in California. And I took a ton of photos.

We flew into LAX, rented a car and drove down to Escondido, where we stayed at my grandparents’ house. Grandma was waiting when we arrived (they live in an assisted living place, but kept their house). After a quick trip to the grocery store where I they had EVERYTHING, including sushi made right there, I whipped up a quick dinner for the four of us.

I grew up in southern California, so it’s not like I’m not familiar with the place, but after ten years in Montana and numerous years in other small towns in Western states, I was a little overwhelmed by how much was available there. All sorts of yummy ethnic foods, huge grocery stores, a ridiculous abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables. Every little strip mall has an Asian food restaurant and a place to get your nails done. We were not in Livingston, Montana.

The next day the boys and I went to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, with a backpack full of delicious snacks from Trader Joe’s. I bought an annual pass so we could go two days and not worry about seeing it all in one shot. The pass paid off after two visits (if Henry had been there, it would have paid off after one visit) and we can get into the Safari Park and the San Diego Zoo for free for a whole year. We figure we’ll be back down this way to take advantage of it again.

Before we left the house, the boys got to watch a little t.v. They were thrilled, since we don’t have one of those nifty contraptions at home.

We stopped by the assisted living place so grandpa could see the boys before heading to the Safari Park, but no photos of that event.

Anders was most excited to see the elephants. If he were writing this, he’d say, “you know they are my favorite animal.”

It’s practically like we were in Africa.

Playing hide-and-go-seek.

The three of us on safari. Note Anders’ official-looking safari hat.

The gardens at the Safari Park hold more species of plants than the park houses animals, and a larger part of the budget goes to plants than animals. I knew there was something I liked about this place.

Gorilla gazing. Just don’t look them in the eye.

Where else can you sit on the head of a rhino and not get gored to death?

Those are some serious Montana-winter legs there.

That evening my dad and Karen arrived at Casa Escondido (see how I used Spanish since we were so close to Mexico?). I whipped up another delicious dinner that seemed to surprise everyone; they get nervous when the vegetarian cooks for them.

The next morning it was back to the Safari Park, this time with dad and Karen who got to use the two free guest passes that came with my membership. Why would you ever pay regular price to get into this place?

I know I took some photos with dad and Karen, but they seem to have disappeared from my camera, so you’ll have to wait until later in the trip to gaze on them. In fact, there seems to be a bunch of photos that went missing from that day. Maybe I had the camera set wrong or something…