Africa lives...here

Well, it was fun Los Angeles, but the road calls...at least to San Diego.  I spent the day at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Escondido.  At one time, it was known as the San Diego Wild Animal Park, but they changed the name a few years ago.  The main goal of this zoo is to breed animals for the world famous San Diego Zoo, and species conservation. I like animals, and I like to visit zoos to see animals.  I saw a lot of nice animals at this zoo, and I took some very nice pictures of some very nice animals.  After you see these photos, maybe you'll agree these are nice animals.

  

This is Monroe, a one and a half year old gorilla.  Isn't he cute?  And, look at the sweet male lion licking his lady.  She seems to be enjoying the pampering.

  

The zoo has a wonderful butterfly exhibit...beautiful live butterflies flying all over the place!  But, the highlight of the day was feeding nectar to the lorikeets.  I literally had them feeding out of my hand! 

 

I ended my day at the zoo with the Cheetah Encounter.  I opted to pay extra to get the special VIP close up look at a cheetah and a caracal, too.  All the zoo visitors also got to watch the cheetah run...awesome sight! 

Even though the regular San Diego Zoo is terrific, I would definitely visit the Safari Park again in the future. Feeding the lorikeets is definitely addicting...I did it twice!  Tomorrow, I'll doing museums in Balboa Park. Feed the mind.