Yechiel and his family came to La Jolla for the weekend and we decided to cap the week end with a day at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.  The day was like most days with children at a zoo.  Where are the elephants?  Can we eat lunch now (at 10:15 AM) ?  Look at those birds!  You get the point.

The Wild Animal Park has changed since our last visit eight years ago and the tram that used to circle the park is gone, replaced by a shorter ride around the African Veldt area of the grounds.  By 11:30 we had worked our way back to the Simba Station where the “African Safari Tour” begins. The line was fairly short.  We decided that we would ride now and eat lunch after.  The ride was fairly typical, if anything about this immense park can be said to be typical.  Here is a herd of 5 or 7 black rhinos and there an uncountable number of springboks and oh my gosh the number of giraffes.  Oh look, that herbivore with the corkscrew antlers has an infant, the guide says he doesn’t remember it from the day before and it is shaky on its legs it must have been born today.  As we watch a giraffe seems interested in the newcomer and ambles over; mom is not happy and begins to threaten with her antlers and gets really protective although the giraffe is more than twice her size.  Oh my . . . the giraffe has kicked or stepped on the newborn and it is not moving.  The tram accelerates away.  Next stop the lions. 

I will spare you the pictures.