California Trip 2009 - Day 8

Thursday July 30th, 2009

Today we spend the day in San Diego, California. It was about an hour's drive from our condo in Anaheim, and we had to make a pit stop at a rest stop on the freeway south because I really had to go to the bathroom! I know, I couldn't even make it an hour, silly me! Anyway, we had two major activities today:

1 San Diego Wild Animal Park
2 Cozy Quilt Shop

My favorite animal in the park was the white goose that is standing like he thinks he's a flamingo in the lower left of this picture. I just thought it was so funny and decided he deserved to be my favorite!

Here are Doug and Carol King being silly at the entrance to the park.

While I was looking at the flamingos, Dad and John had fun hopping from lily pads, who knew kid's toys were so fun!

If you wanted to spend some extra money, you could buy a ticket to ride in this GIANT balloon thingy. There was no way you'd get me up that high, it takes you WAY up so you can see the whole park. Mind you there are acres and acres of land reserved for all of the animals.

We were waiting under a covered area that had misters (thank goodness because it was SO hot that day, it helped to keep us at least a little cool) and we studied the map of the park waiting for the tram to take us around the reserve and see all the animals... note to self, don't go in the heat of the day when all the animals are sleeping and make sure to bring a super zoom lens for your cameras! Mom was obviously not amused that I was taking their picture!

We got to see lots of animals on the tram ride, Mom and John's favorites were the giraffes. There were actually quite a few in the park! Dad's favorite animals were the lions right at the end of the tram ride, you couldn't see them from the walkway, only inside the tram because they were behind some trees. I wasn't quite quick enough to get a picture of them. Dad liked that they looked as though they were not caged, because there were trenches around them.

I always love a good petting zoo, and the park had a little area where there were some deer just hanging out in the shade. I got some food out of the little dispenser and got to hand-feed them some treats!

There was a new area in the park called DINO MOUNTAIN where they had these life-sized animatronic dinosaurs. They were pretty cool, they moved and made noises and everything. A lot of little kids were totally freaked out, but you could tell the older ones really enjoyed looking at them and seeing how big they all were.

This park is so beautiful and I could have spent several days there, but we only had half of a day. Next time I am definitely going to take 2 days to do the WHOLE park. There is a LOT of walking, nothing too tough, but in the heat of the day you definitely need to take ice water bottles with you. You can take in any food or drink into the park, but they had lots of good food inside too!

Like I said, lots of walking, and by about 2 we were all pretty hot and ready to head out to the next stop: Cozy Quilt Shop!

I didn't take a single picture of the store or anything, and I'm kicking myself for it! We actually met the owner of the store Daniela Stout and when she found out that we were from out of town, she gave us some free patterns for taking the time to come visit her store! She was so nice, this was the store that the 2 1/2 strips, or the Stripper's Club originally began. If you're into sewing and quilting, you know what that means! If you ever go to San Diego, make sure to stop by the Cozy Quilt Shop! They'll welcome you with open arms!