We have been hanging out in San Diego since we returned from Mexico, waiting to get some warranty work done on the RV.  We didn’t expect to have to wait ten days for an appointment, but it has given us some time to do laundry, shop for groceries, wash the car, clean the RV, catch up on our mail, planning and making reservations for the next sixty days.  I mentioned in a Mexico post about the cacti that are served in restaurants that taste like green beans.  We found them in a grocery store here in San Diego.  There are certainly worse places to do all these chores than San Diego!

Our campground is in Mission Bay, and we are enjoying being so close to the beautiful water and scenery of San Diego.  

Today we went to the San Diego Safari Park  which is a part of the San Diego Zoo.  We went to the zoo back in January.  The zoo is in downtown San Diego while the Safari Park is about 40 minutes north in Escondido.  Instead of seeing animals in cages, many of the animals roam free in surroundings as close to their natural environment as possible.

One of the first things we did was take a ride in a helium filled balloon.  The balloon did not soar around like a typical hot air balloon, but instead it hovered 400 feet over the park, giving us a spectacular view.  We were so glad we did this early in the day since the ride was closed in the afternoon due to wind.

We loved seeing the gorillas and were there for their feeding time.  The zoo workers stand above and drop the food down to the gorillas.  The gorillas are always entertaining!  The silver-back male gorilla refuses to eat his food if it is dropped on the ground so they serve it to him in a bag….his version of a bag lunch.   We were told that one of the female gorillas is believed to be the third oldest known gorilla in the world at the age of 57.

We saw three month old lion cubs who were rejected by their mother at birth and are being raised by the zoo staff.  It was cute seeing them play tug of war with each other!  We took a tram ride around the park and it was amazing to see giraffes, rhinos, and zebras to name but a few animals roaming around.    The lions all seemed to be napping today. 

We also saw lemurs and many colorful and talkative birds.   Bill had planned on doing a zip line at the park which was two thirds of a MILE long, but there was a 90 minute wait, and since it was the end of the day and we were tired from all the walking and wanted to beat the freeway traffic home, he decided not to wait.