San Diego

Over Memorial Day weekend we headed down to San Diego for two days with our friends, the Perrys, to celebrate Keaton's second birthday. We met them at the San Diego Safari Park (formerly the San Diego Wild Animal Park). Collin was the only one of the six of us who had been there and even then that was YEARS ago.

Waiting to buy tickets to go in

About to go in...just waiting for the Perry family

Posing...enough pictures Mommy!

It was a cool morning which would probably mean a great time to see animals out and active. We started by walking through the bird sanctuary and seeing some amazing birds. We then wandered through the rest of the park, working our way to the highlight of the park and the day - the Safari Tram Ride. By the time we wandered our way over there, the line for the tram was 4 hours, yes, 4 HOURS long. Harry did some investigating and determined that we could buy a ticket to the front of the line. We decided that was worth it and within minutes were on a tram ride. What an amazing experience. My wish to go on Safari to Africa grew greatly this day. We had great seats and luckily for me Tyler wanted to sit with Daddy so I could photograph the whole ride. They have done an amazing job trying to recreate the African landscape and animals live in harmony with one another. It's amazing! Have I mentioned that already?!?

Lounging zebras

Leopards

We were so close...not as close as those in the jeep, but really close!

Baby feeding. Do you see it?

Such beautiful animals

There were so many of them. Tyler just kept saying "graffe, graffe!"

A little family

Loved that the Rhinos were just lounging right next to the giraffes

 Tyler loved the tram ride too. He pointed to all of the animals and kept saying, "another, another" while pointing out another giraffe, hippo, antelope, etc. We then headed to see the tigers and the elephants. Somewhere between the two Tyler passed out. Keaton had already fallen asleep on the tram and missed all of the animals but woke up for the elephants. The one tiger hid for a long time but we finally saw him from far away. The elephants were so cool. There were so many of them and I believe there were eight babies in all. It was fun to watch them play. We were some of the only people on the platform so we could linger and watch for quite a while.

Didn't quite make it to the elephants

Harry and Keaton checking out the elephants

Mommy and baby - there were 7 babies altogether

Baby taking off to go exploring without mom

Aren't they just so cool?

So peaceful

Shortly after the elephants, we hit the road. I LOVED the Safari Park and can't wait to go back again. When Tyler is older we will definitely go back for the Roar and Snore camp where you get to sleep inside the park and listen to the animals all night long. It sounds so fun! We headed into the downtown San Diego and got settled into the Hilton at the edge of the Gaslamp District and the Convention Center. It was a perfect location and I'm so glad we decided to stay there.

We met the Perrys for dinner at Hodad's - a Diner's, Drive-ins, and Dives place. The food was really good. We enjoyed the burger and argued over whether it was really better than The Squeeze burger as Guy Fieri has claimed these are his two favorite burgers. We then headed for dessert at Ghiradelli's. YUMMY! We called it a night after a very long day.

Keaton at Hodad's

Relaxing after a long, long day...with some MMC of course 

Don't bother me...it's Mickey time!

I love my Mickey!

Monday morning we met again with the Perrys. Collin and Harry took off for the USS Midway Museum while Ashlea, the boys and I wandered around the Gaslamp and the mall. It turned out to be a beautiful day and I was a little disappointed we didn't decide to do something outdoors in such gorgeous weather but had fun anyway.

It was a great couple of days in San Diego. Tyler had lots of fun at the Safari Park, playing in the hotel bed and hanging out with Keaton. I know Tyler and Keaton will continue to remain the first friends each had!