San Diego Safari Park- 2019

On our first day in San Diego, we visited the San Diego Zoo, and on our second day, we visited the San Diego Safari Park. We were able to use our newly purchased annual passes twice, once for each location, which are sister zoological parks.

In case you didn’t read my previous post, we only managed to use them twice, since shortly after our visit we left California for Colorado, otherwise they were valid 365 days of the year. A great deal!

I had visited the zoo all throughout my childhood, many times, but this was only my second time visiting the Safari Park. Technically, I visited it when I was a very young child, but I don’t remember visiting. Absolutely nothing about it recalled any memories, so I’m counting this as a first time visit.

The park is sprawling and meant to mimic a more natural environment, rather than a traditional zoo. The E-ticket attraction is an open air safari ride that goes through an African savannah type of terrain.

Our first animals, were of course, the flamingos. We visited shortly before Halloween, hence the skeleton flamingo.

One of my favorite parts of the Safari Park was the “Walkabout Australia” section. it was a huge open area with kangaroos and wallabies, in which you could actually pet the animals. Visitors needed to stay on a wooden trail, but if the marsupials hop over to you, you are allowed to give them a pet.

Naturally, they sensed my desperation and excitement to touch them and stayed far away from me. I was only able to observe them, but I still found this section of the park to be delightful. I could have easily spent the whole day here. The Australia section had fun theming and cool rock work.

The Safari Park has a beautiful botanical garden. We were basically alone, which made it feel peaceful and remote, as we enjoyed the crazy cactus and unusual plants.

Fortunately, we did not encounter any snakes. Dan would have left the park immediately, whether or not the snake was wild or behind glass. He’s very Indiana Jones on this topic.

An assortment of animals that we saw in the park.

They may be the fastest land mammals, but I also learned that cheetahs are shy and anxious felines. The cheetah at the Safari Park has an emotional support dog. It looked like a Labrador. We didn’t see the dog in the exhibit, but apparently they are the best of friends. The Safari Park also has daily demonstrations to show how fast the cheetah can run.

One of my favorite things in Orlando is the Kilamajaro Safaris at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, which is very similar to the tram experience at the San Diego Safari Park. The Disney version is more polished and immersive, but they are similar in the respect that both give a semblance of a safari on the African savannah. I’ve not yet been to Africa, so this is the best I have for now. It’s on the bucket list!

After our trip to the savannah, we refreshed ourselves with the most bizarre theme-park food concoction = Craft Beer Float. We were curious, so we bought one to share. Sharing was more than we needed. root beer floats are delicious, Coke floats are delicious….beer floats are gross.

And a few more fun pictures to end my review.

I throughly enjoyed our day at the San Diego Safari Park and I’d look forward to returning in the future. It’s beautifully laid out and themed, but even more important, the San Diego Zoological Association has an excellent reputation for animal care.

San Diego Zoo- 2019

In our last months of living in California, we went on several weekend trips to make it easier for our realtors to sell our house. In reality, it was easier for us, because we didn’t want to live in a constant state of “keeping everything perfect” as we waited for prospective buyers, so we hit the road and made the most of our time in California.

One of our weekends was to San Diego, where Dan splurged on annual passes to the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park. At that point, we thought that we would be moving from Big Bear Lake, back to the Los Angeles area. We had no idea that life would soon take us to Colorado and that it would be the only weekend that we would use our passes.

I have fond childhood memories of visiting the San Diego Zoo with my amazing Godparents ( Aunt Lee and Uncle George), who lived in San Diego for many years. Among my most cherished possessions are the Christmas ornaments that Uncle George used to send to me every year, and among those are two from the San Diego Zoo Association, which he specifically sought out when I started volunteering at the Los Angeles Zoo as a teen.

We arrived when the zoo opened, on a cloudy, humid day in late September.

The San Diego Zoo is massive, but we didn’t encounter huge crowds during our visit. We able to really enjoy the animals without excessive noise, which is always better for both visitors and the residents. One of my biggest pet peeves is noise at the zoo, as a child I was always taught that visiting a zoo is like visiting a library, whispers only.

Our first stop was the koalas. In my experience, usually the koalas ( or as Dan calls them “drop bears” from his years of living in Australia) are usually in the trees resting. Like this…

But we encountered one very active koala. He was racing around his enclosure and scratching on the door, all in anticipation of food from his keeper. We had a nice chat with his keeper as she was prepping his food. Apparently, this guy is the only koala who is extra eager in the mornings.

It was early and I had not had any coffee yet, so a nap was in order.

On the African Rocks we saw Hamadryas Baboons.

We continued around the zoo to see several smaller exhibits, including our favorite animal and world’s largest rodent, the Cabybara!

Elephant Odyssey is one of the most popular areas of the San Diego Zoo.

The llamas provided the crazy moment of the day. They were all very calm until a visitor walked by with a service dog, which caused them to respond aggressively, bucking, growling, and running wild. The dog, a sweet golden retriever, was clueless at the chaos that it was causing. We researched and learned that llamas are very territorial, guard animals with regard to perceived threats, including dogs.

Next, it was on to big cat territory.

The last time that I visited the San Diego Zoo was back in the late 90’s, when I was taking an animal biology class and I had to complete an animal observation project. I really wanted to study Bonobos, which are a species of great apes that we did not have at our local Greater Los Angeles Zoo. Bonobos are the closest living relatives to humans and they walk upright, on two legs for sustained periods. They are incredible to watch. My mom, who was always very supportive, drove with me to San Diego ( 4 hours each way) and read a book, while I spent the entire day with the bonobos. It was a long day and one of many memories of my mom always supporting my goals and education.

I was absolutely delighted to discover that the zoo has a popular orangutan named Karen! Coincidentally, I also love to twirl on bamboo polls and roll around on the ground.

One of my all-time favorite zoo encounters was with the hippos at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I was scheduled to take a behind the scenes tour and employees allowed me to enter the park prior to opening. I had about an hour before my tour/ park opening, to observe the hippos, watching a mother and baby play in the water. They were so active, including the baby giving me curious looks through the glass. I was alone with them. A truly magical moment on my Disney vacation. The hippos are always a favorite stop, even when they are napping.

When I was part of the behavioral research department at the Los Angeles Zoo, I had the privilege of contributing observation hours towards an international polar bear study, which the San Diego Zoo and Sea World, were also participants. Visiting the polar bears is always a must.

One of the non-animal highlights was a ride on the skyway. The zoo is vast. It has both the skyway and a tram system to help visitors navigate the terrain. Of course, these both come with a small extra fee. The skyway has beautiful views of both the zoo and San Diego.

This sign feels very personal.

And finally, those damn flamingos. For those not in the know, I spent over 2000 hours observing flamingos at the LA Zoo and I have a love/hate relationship with the birds.

We had a wonderful day at the San Diego Zoo. It’s a stunning park that does so much for conservation, education, and animal welfare. I was disappointed that we didn’t have the opportunity to use our passes more than once, but it was also a good feeling that the money spent on the passes went to a great organization.

2019: Annual Wrap-Up

It’s my annual wrap-up post: time to take stock of my year and to appreciate all of the incredible things that happened in these past 365 days.

Admittedly, 2019 was a hard year. It was filled with difficult changes and challenges. We had losses and blessings. We are hoping that 2020 will be easier.

We started the year with a blessing. We had my step kids, Zoe and Felix with us for the holidays. We rang in 2019 with fireworks at Knott’s Berry Farm and spent the first day of the year on the beach in Santa Monica. It was wonderful to have the kids with us and we even experienced a magical “White Christmas,” when it began to snow as we were in the middle of opening presents.

Then the plague hit…on the drive home from Santa Monica, I started to get the chills and had a high fever. I was intensely ill for several days, but had to fly the kids back to Sweden, so I got started on a course of antibiotics. Dan caught my cold the day before the kids left and was ill for over a week. Zoe and Felix miraculously escaped catching our bug.

I flew the kids home and on the way back, I stayed three nights in England at my sister-in-law’s house. It was great. I spent time with family and even went with my niece Pippa, for a day of drinking and theater in London. We saw Kit Harington in a production of True West. On that trip, I also spent time with my mother-in-law, Jan, which ended- up being very special.

On my flight home, I had the good fortune to be upgraded to British Airways Club World (essentially business class, with my own pod area). The guy ahead of me in the queue to board was obnoxious and basically demanded an aisle seat, so he was given my original booking and I was granted a major upgrade! It was awesome, but mid-way through the flight, I started feeling achy and by the time we landed, my fever was back. I was very ill for about two weeks and needed more antibiotics.

January, February, and March were a blur of bad weather and mini-trips, especially to Palm Springs for Dan to under-go painful dental work. Excuse my language, but it was a shit-show really. We had a massive storm on Valetine’s Day, when Dan was away at an annual conference, that actually made me feel worried that the house would slide down the hill. It was swaying and we lost power, so I cuddled with my cat and tried to keep calm. In the end it was okay, but there was more snow than this Glendale girl could handle. I was trapped in the house for a few days and had to dig myself out.

We took one memorable to trip Arizona, visiting Phoenix and Flagstaff on a four day road trip. We went in an attempt to find sunshine and warm weather, but ended up realizing it wasn’t quite as nice for the pool as we had hoped. The best part of the trip was a morning spent at Bearizona. Bearizona is a wildlife park where visitors can drive through some of the exhibits- animals coming up to your car! We visited during an off-peak, weekday and we were alone with the bears, wolves, and other wildlife. It was one of the best days of the year!

At the end of March, I was booked to attend the AWP conference in Portland, while Dan worked, but we got terrible news that Dan’s mom was in the hospital. We changed our plans to fly to England, but she passed before we arrived. It was unexpected, sad, and surprising. It’s also weird to think that now, all of our parents have passed. The upside of the situation is that we did get to spend time with Dan’s sister and her family, plus a day trip to see Dan’s uncle Barry and his wife Jo. We also saw a few friends, including Dan’s best friend Paul. Despite the terrible circumstances, the time we had with family and friends is to be cherished.

In April, we went to Las Vegas for a trade show that Dan attends annually. I like to tag along and get pool time. Of course, the weather was unseasonably cold and windy.

In late spring, we started to push getting our house ready to be sold. We knew that we wanted to move, but had severel projects that needed to be completed in order to put it on the market. Getting contractors moving was a full-time job and nothing moved fast. It was expensive and frustrating.

We spent the 4th of July holiday at our favorite resort, The La Quinta Resort and Spa in Palm Desert. It was boiling hot and we both got sick again with fevers. We went to a local urgent care and we were both diagnosed with sinus infections. I suppose if you have to recover, a fancy hotel isn’t a terrible place to be sick. We mostly slept in the room, but as soon as the antibiotics kicked in, we were poolside..

Zoe and Felix were back with us in mid-July and this was the best part of our year. We took a two-week family trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, where we snorkeled, went horseback riding, attended a luau, toured a chocolate plantation, went rafting through an old sugar cane irrigation system, rode a zodiac boat, visited the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory, and spent a day at Volcanoes National Park. It was the best vacation that we have ever taken! To book-end the weeks in Hawaii, we spent several days at the La Quinta Resort in Palm Desert. I’m surprised that we didn’t turn into raisins from all of water activities.

August was spent putting the final touches on getting our house ready to sell. In the last few days of the month, we embarked on a road trip to Oregon. We went through Death Valley and Yosemite National Park. On the drive back, we went through Sequoia National Park. California has so much natural beauty!

Dan left his job in September, which occurred right around the same time as we put our house up for sale. We also brought Slinky to stay with a family friend, until we got settled in our new place. This was a very stressful time for us, but we tried to keep positive and we enjoyed a few small trips. We went to Las Vegas to relax at the Waldorf Astoria and we also traveled to San Diego, where we bought annual passes to the zoo and wild animal park.

Our house got an offer in October and Dan did too, a great new job that brought us to Colorado. Prior to his accepting the position, we visited Colorado, to make sure that it would be a good life for us. We were worried after our bad experience in Portland. Colorado immediately won us over. It is so beautiful and the people are welcoming. Plus, although it has snow, it has tons of sunshine. We treated that first visit as a bit of a tourist trip, incase the opportunity didn't work out. We visited the Coors Beer factory and saw Buffalo Bill’s Grave.

November was spent anxiously hoping that the sale of our Big Bear house would go through without any delays. We found a new construction home in a new estate called Sterling Ranch, in Littleton and put a down payment to start the buying process. We drove our Camero out to Colorado, taking the Arizona/New Mexico route. In New Mexico, we took the cable car up to the top of Sandia Peak, discovered “Christmas” chili, and had our car cleaned at the car wash from Breaking Bad. We flew back to California to finish packing up our house. Our move was not simple and involved three different companies. Our big Timothy Oulton furniture required a crane to get it out of our house. We also had to have certain items crated. It was a logistical nightmare that somehow worked out. We had a goodbye dinner with our friend’s Bryan and Valerie, hitting several of the local restaurants in Big Bear Village. The next morning, we set off in our Ram Truck, taking a Nevada/Utah route to Colorado.

We spent about two weeks at a local Hampton Inn, as Big Bear was nearing the end of escrow and the finishing touches were being made on our new home. The staff at the Hampton Inn were terrific, but we were thrilled when we finally moved out the week before Thanksgiving. With a huge amount of luck, everything regarding the sale of Big Bear and buying in Littleton worked out exactly as it needed to. Our new home is gorgeous and our neighbors are welcoming. We live near a giant field with cows!

I’m writing this a few days before Christmas and we finally feel settled into our home. It feels like our home in a way that the previous places we lived, never did. Last week, I flew back to California to pick up Slinky. He experienced his first plane ride. I was very worried about flying with a cat, but it was less traumatizing for both of us than I Imagined. We missed him so much and are just happy that he is back with us.

Speaking of cats, we have a new one! We adopted a ten month old kitten that we named Tom. He’s a long-haired ginger, fluffy ball of trouble. Slinky isn’t so sure about Tom, but Tom adores Slinky. Slinky can’t eat or use his litter box, without Tom following him.

We are ending the storm of 2019, on a calm and happy note. Dan’s company even closes for the holidays, so we get a bonus vacation that starts on Christmas Eve. We tossed around the idea of a holiday trip to Orlando, which I never thought I’d think was a bad idea, but we decided that it would be better to stay home and just relax with the cats. We haven’t decorated for Christmas and we have zero plans for either Christmas or New Years. Yesterday, we did join a local gym, so maybe we will just get a head start on those resolutions.