Wild Animal Park

Saturday, we were encouraged to visit the Wild Animal Park in Escondido by Meline Akashian, a fellow English teacher at TVHS. Rik and Meline thought it would be fun to geocache part of our wedding gift in the Wild Animal Park, and since they have memberships, they would check up on their gift, hidden in the park. After about 10 months, Meline mentioned that we hadn't yet picked it up, and I told her that she had underestimated how busy we were =) So we decided to go, the weather has been warming up again, but a little south into San Diego county there was a nice breeze which made the day lovely and pleasant. We also met Karen, another teacher at TV, and her husband Mark at the park.

We wandered around the native plants area and the bonsai tree exhibit before heading over to the tigers, lions and cheetahs.

 

It was around this area that we pulled out our GPS and started tracking the gift. I punched in the coordinates and tried to head off in the right direction,

 

I did my fair share of wandering, and Tim eventually lead the way for a while, but in the end, we found it together. On the postcard Mel gave us she wrote that our marriage "be gracious and spirited in sentiment and deed" and when I saw the dedication placard, I knew where to look. 

Under a very realistic rock was hidden a little vase that matches the pottery thrown plate they bought for us. It sits on our counter holding fruit and now I have a vase to put little flowers in that matches. So, thank you again to the Akashian's. We ate a relaxing lunch and after the kangaroo encounter, where we met Ruby,

 

we wandered around the warthogs, gibbons

 and okapi (of which Tim told me he wanted a baby one.)

We ended up petting a few deer and then called it a day because the park was closing. It was a relaxing workout, for the park is built on quite a few hills, and I enjoyed spending time with colleagues outside of school. 

Thank you! 

Love, Lauren & Tim