the open exhibit area of the wild animal park

we spent the night in the san diego area--i had reserved a room at the motel 6 close to the san diego wild animal park. hmm, the room was not very good. i mean, i know it was the motel 6 but c'mon, at least give us a toilet that properly flushes! we started the day off by getting some inserts for my shoes. the vegan shoes aren't that great, at least the ones i picked. :( there are completely stiff at the top where you put your feet in so it rubs on the back and will lead to blisters. then off to the park. i am surprised at how close the park is to my work's corporate headquarters! we arrived at the park perhaps 1 hour after it opened. it's called a park but it really is a zoo. it just has less cages and more fences than a traditional zoo. the first thing we did when we got there was take the train ride to get an overview of the park.

twiddle thumbs feeding the lorikeets

after the train ride we went to feed the lorikeets. actually, just twiddle thumbs did this. she fed them before almost 10 years ago when we went to marine world africa usa in vallejo (at least that was the name back then). that was a fun little trip too. i haven't fed lorikeets yet. i'm waiting for when i go to australia! today was a really hot day. perhaps it was a mistake to spend such a hot day at a place that resembles the environment of nairobi! especially it was a mistake to wander down to the open exhibits of the animals of africa at high noon. i didn't mean to be out under the blaring sun at noon but that's where we ended up. we cooled down in the misting zone for kids but it did not good as the moisture dried within minutes after steping out of the misting zone. soon it was too much for twiddle thumbs so we had to make our way back to the central part of the park.

kalavinka the turtle

once we got to the central part, we just relaxed for 30 minutes or more drinking water. buying water at the park is the best deal around because you get free refills! a large water costs about $4 but we had at least 3 refills. then we walked around a couple of the air conditioned stores to help keep us cool. to further take it easy, we watched a bird show. again, at the beginning of the show was another salute to the troops thing but this was much more brief and felt more respectful and appropriate, though still awkward. after that we walked around the lagoon area and just tried to see the smaller exhibits, not the ones way out in the back where the big animals from africa roam around in the open. we felt like leaving but stuck around to see a performance of ghananian song and dance. once the band started playing, we were disappointed. we were hoping to hear something more traditional and with multiple hand percussionists. we walked all the way to the heart of africa for this? oh well. after that went back to the central part to catch a couple exhibits we did not see on our way out. i mean, just looking at the names of these animals, i had to see them! unfortunately, they were not in their exhibits. argh. the very last thing we saw was the african aviary where we carefully avoided falling bird shit. we didn't see any falling objects but we could tell where the birds liked to go judging by the white stains on the ground.