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Going on a Safari in Africa is a big item on my bucket list, but it wasn’t looking like 2020 would be the year it would happen. My mom is a big fan of Samantha Brown’s travel shows, and when I visit her she saves a couple of episodes for me. In an episode about Sonoma county, we weren’t really expecting to find any surprises, having pretty thoroughly explored California as I was growing up, but sure enough! Surprise! There is a Safari in Sonoma county, only two hours away!
Over the course of the pandemic, I kept an eye on the website. I watched as it closed, softly opened, closed again. I put out feelers to see if anyone would want to go with me. Selina wasn’t interested. The glamping accommodations looked really fun, but about as expensive as they are in Africa. As Wendy’s spring break approached, she said that she and Stu would go with me! That gave me the boost I needed to make it happen. I jumped on the website, but there were only single spots available. That was okay. I would go check it out on my own. If it was awesome, we could get a group together, but we would have to plan way further ahead.
I set out at 6am to be sure to have enough time for my 9am tour. I was delighted to come across a festival of balloons!
I don’t think there was an official festival, but I just looked up the collective noun of balloons… and it’s festival! I’ll have to save that for a general knowledge trivia.
After a stop at a delightful bakery in St. Helena I arrived with plenty of time to go to the bathroom and check out my surroundings before my tour group gathered. There were lots of families with kids.
This was our vehicle. We rotated so everyone would get a chance to sit on the bench on the top.
Our first stop was to visit the Rhinos. These two shared a habitat- there was one male and one female.
This guy was on his own. If they put two males in the same habitat they would end up fighting too much in an attempt to establish dominance.
Our next stop was in the Zebra habitat.
Every Zebra has a unique face pattern- like a fingerprint.
I was fascinated to learn that under their fur, Zebras have all black skin underneath.
Our next stop was to visit the Buffalo habitat
So that’s what a Wildebeest looks like!
Apparently Ostrich eggs are very thick- they don’t crack easily like a chicken egg- you need a hammer. Ostrich’s lay eggs about every other day, so there were a few extra to play with.
The baby giraffes were my favorite!
These baby giraffes were half-siblings- they had the same dad but different moms. The little one is 3 weeks old and the bigger one is a month old. They can be up to six feet tall when they’re born!
During this part I was on the top of the truck. We drove right up to this Giraffe!
I loved watching how they did the splits to bend down
The last part was a walking tour. There was an aviary with TONS of birds of so many colors.
I love the kitties.
They had no idea how old these turtles are- they were alive for as long as they’d had them!
These guys had so much personality!
More kitties!
At the end of my tour, I upgraded to include lunch at their restaurant (I figured after three hours I would be hungry and it wouldn’t be easy to find a place nearby. I was right). It seemed like it had previously been a buffet situation. They adapted to COVID by giving us a list of options- we could choose as many (or all of them) as we liked!
It was so nice to get out in the world again. I posted on Facebook that it was like a port day, which confused a few people. On the ship I have adventurous days like this as often as I can make it happen. This was the first day in a while that felt like an adventure. I decided that I should try to create more adventure days while I wait to be called back.
I also captured parts of this day on video, which are too big to post on this site. I’ll attach them in a post on Facebook if you’re interested in seeing those.