Must-Do List for Animal Lovers Visiting San Diego, California

Living in the city doesn't mean that one must give up all hope of ever getting up close and personal with wild animals. Aside from the City's world famous San Diego Zoo at Balboa Park, here are a few places and programs in San Diego area that, for a price, will reawaken your innate connection to the other magnificent species of the Kingdom Animata. Click on the name of each adventures listed below for a direct link to the program's webpage.

1. Take a Photo Caravan Tour at the San Diego Wild Animal Park:
San Diego Wild Animal Park: 15500 San Pasqual Valley Rd, Escondido. (800) 934-2267.

Situated to the north part of San Diego County (south of Escondido), the San Diego Wild Animal park will let you roam around the park and peruse its wild animals from the back of a pickup truck for $90-150 per person (depending on the type and length of tour you choose). You can also take a 3 ½ hrs guided Walk on the Wild Side tour to the dens of the parks' most beloved large mammals... and meet some of the friendly animal ambassadors.

2. Paddle with the gray whales on the Aqua Adventures tour:
Aqua Adventures: 1548 Quivira Way, Mission Bay. Tel (619) 523-9577.

Kayak out with a guided group 4 miles off the La Jolla shore into the path of the gray whales migration route from the Arctic Ocean to the warmer water of Baja California in January and February from 8AM-12PM for only $65. There are also many other cool kayaking tours to choose from even when the whales aren't around, like discovering all the 7 sea caves around the spectacularly eroded shore line, a nature-friendly trip around the San Diego-La Jolla Underwater Park, etc.

3. Swim with the Dolphins at Sea World's Dolphin Interaction Program:
Sea World: 500 Sea World Dr, Mission Bay. Tel (877) 436-5746.

You don't have to be Luca Braschi to get to swim with the fish when you visit San Diego... (and you don't have to become fish food afterward either). Sure, anybody can come back from a trip to Sea World San Diego boasting of getting splashed by Shamoo (or the other fun-loving orcas there), but not many can boast of having actually swum with the institution's well educated dolphins and hop a ride on their fins around the pool. The hour long program (spending 20 min in the water) starting at 9:30AM. $170 plus park admission is money well spend for a once in a lifetime experience. You must be at least 6 yrs old and at least 44" tall and bring your own swimming suit, though. I think the dolphins wouldn't mind sharing theirs, but even their smallest size would probably (or should I say hopefully?) be too big for you... Reserve at least 4 weeks in advance just to be sure! Those who don't like to get wet can just try hand feeding them at the Rocky Point Reserve (for the regular admission price $43), too.

4. Flock with the birds at Freeflight in Del Mar:
2132 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar, CA. Tel (858) 481-3148. Hours: 8:30AM-4:30PM daily.

This small avian boarding school and breeding center with outdoor facilities right next door to the Animal and Bird Hospital of Del Mar is a paradise for bird lovers... especially ones who bring their feathered friends with them while visiting the area. You can deposit your bird here during the day and come back to pick up the well pampered pecker in the evening... Or if you come by yourself, for a public viewing admission of $5 you can hold and pet consenting birds living at the center while gawking at the others sunning themselves or practicing imitating a race horse nearby. Look for Abbey the hyacinth macaw, Oscar the blue & gold macaw (Freeflight's resident clown, or so I'm told), Princess the photogenic (from relentless practice) African crowned crane. The center is opens daily from 10AM-4PM.

5. Visit the wild seals and sea lions at the Casa at Children's Pool in La Jolla:
Children's Pool: 850 Coast Blvd, La Jolla.

Located at the tip of the La Jolla Peninsula, the City built a curving concrete sea wall here many moons ago intending to create a tide-safe cove for kids to swim in. The structure drew in sandy deposit instead and resulted in this artificially protected sandy beach that the area's harbor seals (and quite a few sea lions) took an instant liking to. They flocked here in numbers and (thanks goodness!) wouldn't leave. Harbor seals are protected mammals, apparently, so the place has been at the center of a controversy on who has the right to use this beach ever since. Opponents of seals have tried repeatedly to get the City to drive these cute but stinky beach squatters out, but animal lovers and other residents who realize that the seals present much bigger audience/tourist draw to the local business than kids or tanning local residents do have put up a good fight. For now, the seals still rule at Children's Pool and anyone can visit for free (as long as you don't try to disturb them, of course... it's against the law!).

6. Visit Gracie and Billy the domesticated seals at the Bahia Hotel in Mission Bay:
Bahia Hotel 998 W. Mission Bay Dr, Mission Bay (858) 488-0511

Gracie and Billy are rescued harbor seals given to the hotel by the San Diego Zoological Society, I suppose because they got too human-friendly to be released into the wild. Now living in a salt water Seal Pool at the Bahia Hotel in Mission Bay, they like to look at the hotel visitors as much as they enjoyed being looked at. You're not supposed to feed them, though! They've got a vet who does that twice a day at 9AM and 2PM (you're more than welcome to come and gawk).