Wild Animal Park!

DATE DAY: WILD ANIMAL PARK!

Josh and I had another amazing Date Day today!!! It was a GORGEOUS morning, and... well... sorry, but, we actually played hooky from church and made our way up to San Diego's Wild Animal Park! It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooo MUCH FUN!!!

Lol, Josh started off the day with being crazy! Haha! I'm not too sure WHAT he was trying to do here!!!! Haha!

One difference we saw between the Wild Animal Park and the San Diego Zoo is the animals themselves; both places don't have all of the same animals. One of the animals that the Park had was a Bald Eagle (Josh's favorite animal!) It was sad to see something so majestic caged tho. The thing about Zoo animals, however, is that they more than likely are there because they could not survive on their own otherwise (they've been hurt, etc), so in reality, the Park is actually helping them, not hindering them!

It was definately cool to see the very rare (and pretty much extinct) condors! Look at it's wingspan compared to my arm length! Holy Cow!!

We saw some pretty cool and pretty weird animals! I loved this one! I think he is a gobbled... something or other! But he's pretty cool lookin!

My favorite bird, however, had to have been this tiny Burrowing Owl! He was sooo cool! And quick too! I almost didn't get a clear shot of him!

The animals were very diverse, I'll tell ya that! And there were definately a lot more giraffes here than at the zoo! And tons more babies too!!

And speaking of babies... this is the cutest one in the whole park!! And the whole reason I wanted to come to the park!! Isn't she just adorable?!?!! One of 3 born in the park, I think. Or 4. Unfortunately, one baby died due to a type of staff infection known as MRSA, that does not respond to antibiotics. = ( So sad!

Josh and I also got lucky enough to stumble onto an Elephant show!!! This was Nitta doing some of her tricks for us! Isn't she pretty?!

And this was one of her "sisters", Cha Cha, balancing on a cement rim! She was just taking a step off in this picture!

Some of the animals, like this Okapi, were really neat and fun to look @! I think this guys looks like a cross between a zebra and a mule! lol!

This Gorilla spotted Josh taking his picture and was just not very happy about it!

We also got a look at some pretty neat plant life as well! Josh LOVES the Bird of Paradise (pictured above) and I think any type of cactus is pretty cool, like the one below. And they had some WEIRD looking cactus there!

There were only a few Big Cats out on display while we were there. There was a lot of reconstruction going on to the barriers surrounding their paddocks, and I'm pretty sure it has to do with the Tiger getting loose @ the San Fransico Zoo...

We did get to see the Lions tho!! Here we spotted 2 mama's and their cubs!

We also spotted the King himself, napping on top of an old jeep that was in the middle of their paddock!

This must be the King-in-Training! Haha! We counted a total of 6 cubs!

The Cheetahs were probably Josh's favorite part of the whole Park. The sprinklers were on in their pen (to help keep them cool! It was in the 80's!) so they were running around like crazy! = ) They paused long enough to let me getta good picture!

The little meerkat, Timon, was the last animal we saw! Isn't he so cute?! Him and the rest of his family were just hangin out, takin it easy, staring @ us like we were the attraction! And, I guess to them, we are!