Zoo-fari Adventure!

The Friday after Christmas, Scott and I planned to go to the San Diego Zoo.  So, we drove out there, only to find that all of the parking lots were full and the closest street parking was about a mile and a half away.  Ummmmm...not so much!  We decided to change our plans and go to the Safari Park instead.  That was a success and we were able to park less than a mile away!  We parked on the dirt, walked up the huge hill, and made it into the park.  Neither of us are great with directions, so we wandered around for a bit, but still managed to see some cool animals...and some birds.  Our favorite birds were the White Bellied Go-Away Bird (for me, since I hate birds) and the Kori Bustard!  lol  We got to see the cheetah run, a lion standing up and roaring with full force, the elephants, some lazy tigers, gorillas, and giraffes!  We had so much fun!  It was a day that started off absolutely nothing like we had planned, yet we both thought it couldn't have been better!  It's nice to be with such great company!  

After the Safari Park closed, we drove back to San Diego (the Safari Park is in Escondido) for dinner.  You may know one of the things I am BEST at is getting lost!  So, naturally, I had to show off my greatest talent and we ended up going around Hotel Cirlce (that was the off-ramp my GPS took us to for Old Town) about 3 times.  lol  Fortunately, Scott gets lost too, so we were able to just laugh it off.  When we got to Old Town, we stopped in a little candy store and got some fudge for dessert and then went to this awesome restaurant in Old Town, called Casa de Reyes.  When we got there, we were told that it was a 35 minute wait.  We were both starving, but decided that by the time we got anywhere else to eat, we would be waiting that long anyways, so we decided to browse Old Town a little bit.  I got to introduce Scott to one of the magical things of my childhood: Gepetto's Toy Shoppe.  I used to go there with my family all the time when I was a kid.  Scott found it to be pretty magical as well, since they carry some old/obscure games that he had been looking for.  When the restaurant pager went off, it was like we heard angels singing!  haha  SO hungry!!!  The food was great and we had a good time.  We asked our server to take a picture for us and then, bizarrely, she asked if we were related because we had the same smile.  We are both still baffled, since we don't think our smiles resemble each other's at all.  Whatevs!  : )

 When we finished our dinner, we trekked back to the car and then decided to stop in at the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center.  Their last tour had just left about 10 minutes before, so one of the missionaries took us into the last room of the tour to show us some of the artifacts.  On our way out, we went up into the lookout tower to see the beautiful view of San Diego and then went home.  It was a super fun day and it just goes to show that some of the best times can be had when everything goes "wrong".  We didn't miss the Zoo at all, had tons of fun at the Safari Park, and still got to eat at a fabulous restaurant for dinner.  What a fun day!