Northern California - August 18, 2017


Friday morning, we met our guide, an odd man with a gigantic white beard and a pronounced limp named Robert. We walked around the grounds, looking at the animals in small enclosures first - lemurs and other monkeys (like the one that looked like a skunk - skunkey), crested porcupines, tortoises. Then we saw giraffes, antelopes of various types, and cheetahs (the only big cats they keep, because they don't climb and so are relatively safe). Guinea hens ran free with their tiny chicks - so cute.

Safari West's animals have never been in the wild - they are all bred and raised in captivity, leading to behaviors like this:

Bird taking the tour with us
Bird hanging out with Anna



The aviary was very cool - a big area that felt open, in spite of the mesh on all sides.

Scarlet ibis





Then we got into the truck and saw the herd animals. The landscape was like the Serengeti - dusty, sunny and dry - except very, very hilly.
Lunchboxes of the Serengeti
Black rhinos (possibly white rhinos). The mud acts as sunscreen.
We had one adventure - a run in with a crafty ostrich. She trapped us against the gate and two other ostriches. She fixed us with her steely eye and came closer and closer....




Robert shoved her in the butt and then backed us out of there. He said he'd been bitten by ostriches several times. They had to get rid of their males because they were too aggressive. They must have been pretty scary.

Then it was our turn to be on top of the truck.  Wheee!




 After the safari, we met Judy, Anna and Edward for lunch at Bowl and Roll, a tiny place in a strip mall, where I had really good pork kalbi. Then we split up -- Judy and family back to Oakland, and us to the Bolinas house.

The drive to Bolinas was gorgeous - down the coast with lovely views.

The Bolinas house wasn't great - it was cute, but also damp and the kitchen had left "quaint" in the rearview and was well down the road to "dumpster-bound". Plus, when we arrived, the house hadn't been cleaned. The cleaners actually came 15 minutes after us, so we had to wait an hour and a half to get in, during which time, Noah slipped on gravel (steep downhills) and skinned his knee. The house did have views of the ocean, but since the sky was uniformly gray, it was more forbidding than beautiful.

David hung out with Noah, and Evan and I walked down to the beach, where we were greeted with a sign saying, "Keep away from the dead whale on the beach." Ugh. Thankfully, no evidence of whale  (Judy said it happened a long time ago), but it was high tide, and there wasn't much of anything to see.

I drove to the nearest grocery store to stock up. The town was about half a block long, and I had the feeling that everyone was staring at me - I think because it's no small that everyone knows each other. Even though every person I talked to was very nice, it still felt weird. The grocery store was really a teeny, tiny store with a lot of liquor. I guess there isn't much else to do besides drink in Bolinas. The butcher counter was good, though. I also stopped by the co-op, which had nice organic fruit and veggies. (We went to a bunch of grocery stores during our trip, and most stuff was more expensive than home, except for the organic produce, which was significantly cheaper. And delicious!)

Made spaghetti and meat sauce (the best VRBO dinner) and salad for dinner. Found 221B Baker Street and played a game. It was great!

The downstairs master bedroom was too damp for me, so David and I slept upstairs, Noah took the other bedroom, and Evie slept in the loft.

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