Day 13 - Wild Animal Park

Our last day in Disneyland was over and we had done so much. We had been to Universal Studios, Disneyland, Sea World, the Science Centre, and Dane had done the Flight Simulator. But I just didn't feel our trip would be complete unless we went to either, the San Diego Zoo or the San Diego Wild Animal Park. We packed our van the night before we were to leave and then we went to bed. My mind was sort of pretty set on going to the Wild Animal Park, but I knew that after we left there we would have a 10 hour drive to my cousin's place, near Grass Valley.

The next morning we were up bright and early, for our last breakfast at the delicious buffet! We headed south to San Diego Wild Animal Park.

San Diego Wild Animal Park

Four Boys and a Hippo

Petting Zoo

We got there right after they opened and the first thing we did was hop the train. It lasted 40 minutes and took us over about 300 acres of land.

Train Station

While on the train ride on little guy said, "Mum, when you mix red and blue what do you get?" I replied - purple. He then said, "Then they make purple." As he pointed to the two girls in front of us!

What Do Red and Blue Make?

We saw a new little giraffe. It was her first day out to play and she was with her mum and a couple other adults.

Baby's First Day Out to Play


We saw lions, and hippos, and a white tiger.

Hippos Sleep All Day - No Predators For Them!

The Females and the Young

The King

The gorillas were great. They were in this area with a surrounding rock canyon and we got a picture of one guy sitting on the wall.

Just Hanging Around

The elephants had a new baby also. We saw them later do a show.

What was wonderful to see, was how many acres of land these animals had to roam on. There was no feeling of being penned up here.


In the aviary we saw some beautiful birds. This one insisted on dive bombing my head a couple times.

After the tour we walked around and saw the Fishing Village.

Playing Baby Weaver Birds

And then the boys had a chance to get close to a 9 year old alligator. It looks like a baby, but it is not.

We left the zoo about 2:30 and I was pleased because I was ahead of schedule, by about 1.5 hours. This zoo was in the middle of nowhere and trying to find my way back to a main freeway turned out to be interesting!!! As I was driving along I drove up alongside someone and got his attention. I told him where I wanted to go and he told me to turn left and head in that direction. I was in the wrong lane, so had to go straight. As I got through the light I saw he had also gone straight (when he had been intending to go left) and he waved me over. He told me I was going two exits further than him and I could follow him and after he turned off I could continue two more exits.

This was wonderful. As we traveled I noticed he had two symbols on the white truck he was driving that showed white crosses. We had a laugh that maybe he was an angel! I nearly turned at a wrong place and I suddenly saw his arm waving out his window to keep following him. *smile* Finally it was his turn to turn off and he didn't. He told me to keep following him and he took me to my exit and then turned around to go back to his own exit. What a good samaritan!!! And we had a number of people like this on our trip!

So we were off and running. I had a map that showed me how to go and it was taking me on a detour around the I-5 traffic. I should never have got off the I-5!! I ended up going 1/2 way to Santa Monica and then I had to head North on the 405. This ended up taking me way out of my way and you should have seen the traffic. There were 12 lanes of traffic!!!! Six on each side!

Enjoying Relaxation After Lots of Walking


When we got to Bakersfield it was hard to find a hotel, cause there was a wrestling match. We finally found a grungy hotel and crashed.