Lions and Dinos and Snakes, Oh My!

We made our rounds to the San Diego animal parks this week. We started off at the zoo where we saw our usual giraffes and birds for Garrett and zebras and crocodiles for Blake. We even braved the sky gondola, the reptile house (check out the picture of a real, live rattle snake)...

...and the crowds. We played "name the animal", "find the exotic lizard", and "where's dad" (since at any given time one of us was wandering the park with the stroller trying to pacify the babies who were mostly unimpressed with looking at walls and people's backsides...).

(Blake with a crocodile skeleton)

(Garrett giving gorilla hugs)

Later in the week we made our way to the Wild Animal Park where we went on an African safari and answered the age-old question that zebras are in fact black with white stripes, traveled back in time to see life-like dinosaurs (complete with realistic roars),

came nose-to-giant-paw with a napping lion,

and grew smitten with a litter of cheetah cubs...on one of the hottest days of the year so far (uhg!).

After a fun but long week of experiencing the world's ecosystems, I'll be happy if the only zoo I see is my house and animals are my children...at least for a while.