The Amazing Vacation Blog, Day Fifteen!

7:30 AM - Tracey's alarm goes off...much too soon. She informs me that she was having a great sleep before the alarm woke her up. I suggest that this means she gets to enjoy two words today: Afternoon nap!

She brings up two different words: Grouchy Bear.

Uh-oh.

9:30 AM - We arrive at the Safari Park to finish up everything we missed the other day. We came early on purpose, as the animals don't care for the heat any more than we do, and they are much more active in the morning. We are so lucky, as we get some great pictures of many different animals, including this beautiful tiger:

These gorgeous eagles:

A condor, who seemed to be posing for our pictures:

Oh, did I mention two three-week old Cheetah cubs????

Yeah, that's a pretty good day right there. And there was lots more.

12:30 PM - Done what we wanted to do and back at the resort for some lunch. After lunch, off to the pool, where Tracey spends a few hours ( I manage an hour or so, my usual limit).

1:30 PM - While I'm back in the room, our maid, Lupe, comes in and cleans up a bit. Of course her name isn't really Lupe, but if you watched Seinfeld, you'll get it. Every maid is named Lupe.

One tuck, one no-tuck, Lupe.

5:00 PM - After some relaxing we head down to dinner at the restaurant on site, called Canyon Grille. My first impression is that it's a pretty crappy restaurant that is masquerading as a high end restaurant. I'm wrong, however, as the food is actually pretty damn good, and we have a really nice meal for only $60 (it was a lot more than that of course, but only 60 before the wine). Quite impressed.

7:00 PM - I Google "wine" and "Escondido" and find one really nice wine store in Escondido, so we go there and spend way too much money on wine we can't possibly bring across the border without paying duty. Seemed like a good idea at the time. They had a little automated tasting bar in their basement where we got to try a bunch of wine for a nominal charge. Very cool. Great store.

11:00 PM - We had planned to go to the San Diego Zoo early tomorrow but since it's already past 11 PM and we are finishing up our second bottle of wine, that ain't gonna happen. Hopefully we'll get there early enough that some of the animals will actually be awake. If not, I'll have the wife yell and scream and wake them up so I can get some good pictures. Seems like a plan.

Can't believe this trip is in it's home stretch. What a terrific vacation so far!