Safari!

We signed up for a tour at Safari West is Santa Rosa. The place is an animal preserve. They take you on these big bus/trucks out into the fields where the animals are - you go right in the same field - no fences.

It was quite exciting - the truck ride on hills, up and down ruts and mud was an adventure in and of itself!

Those of you who know me know I do not like animals. Those of you who know Gene know he LOVES animals.

So going on this adventure really showed how much I'm willing to do for that luck guy!

The tour lasts 3 hours - which we were a little leery about at first - but it ended up being so FUN!

Our tour guide was a guy named Danny whose favorite word was "adaptation".

Gene was shocked that I would sit way up on the top bench - anything for you, babe! Of course, this is not a pic of our bus - we couldn't take a pic of ourselves! But on ours, I was seated right where the tall guy is.

While we saw many animals (cheetahs, rhino, etc.) Danny seemed most concerned about this male ostrich

This is the ostrich right next to Gene's shoe -
that's how close we got!
A big buffalo

This place has cabins that you can stay in overnight.
I had originally thought it would be fun to stay overnight - with the animal sounds going it would be like being in the jungle...
but then we saw that they had one species of animal that we could do without...

Its one of the reasons we came on this vacation - to get away from this!

I highly recommend this Safari West. Its pricey - and you must reserve weeks ahead - no walk ups. But totally a great experience ...even if you don't like animals.