Rightly or wrongly, the very word safari conjures up images, in my mind, of a lonely acacia tree standing tall on the horizon as well as migrating herds. It has always been my dream to go on an African Safari, however, it is a dream hampered by the two little ones and a dream that has to wait until my boy grows up a bit more. In the meanwhile, I suppose the closest experience we could safely get is Safari West, a 400 acre wild life preserve home to over 400 exotic animals, in Santa Rosa, and that's where we decided to go on the day of the Fourth of July.
We went together with our friends - three kids between the two families.
The tour started at 1pm. Our guide was Mark who turned out to be very knowledgable about the animals and added lots of fun to the tour by telling us interesting facts and anecdotal stories of the animals. The first part of the tour took about 45 minutes. It's a guided walking tour to get people started.
Here my daughter was taking pictures of the animals.
My favorite part was walking through the aviary.
The little animal is an antelope, the world's smallest..
An interesting encounter of the same kind - baby to baby :-)..
Learned anything from these beautiful birds on color coordination?
After the walking tour, we were loaded onto the jeep. There were 6 kids in total, and of course, every one of them wanted to sit on top. An agreement was reached that they would take turns, 3 at a time..
At the beginning of our journey, I spotted this tree and asked my hu*****and to take a picture. Even though I don't know the name of the tree, but it's the closest I could find in the US that resembles 四川的榕树. I remember the very first time I saw this kind of tree was in Florida..
Further up we passed its tent lodging area. These are the fancy tents where one could enjoy modern plumbing. 
Looking back from the jeep..
The animals we encountered on our trip.
Of special note were these African Cape buffaloes. They are apparently a revengeful bunch. Mark told a story of vengeance by the buffaloes. Two people among a group of tourists made a side trip trying to hunt for a bull, but they were no match for the bull and the herd. Luckily they got away and went back to their camp. Then that night, the herd traced their scents and found their camp. Those two people were stampeded to death, whereas the rest of the group was left unharmed.. 
These antelopes with striped back are kudus. Only the male has horns..
Now here is a funny story. See the animal with a darker skin tone below? It's not a kudu but a bongo, and it's a she, since both male and females bongos have horns.
This particular bongo, however, thinks she is a kudu, because she was the only bongo in Safari West and grows up together with the kudus. A male bongo has recently been brought to Safari West in the hope that he would woo her, but so far he has failed miserably, the female bongo thinks she is a kudu and has no interest in a male bongo:-).
This is Suzie, one of the five ostriches at Safari West. According to Mark, she likes to be on her own, while the other four tend to go together. 
While we were driving ahead, there was a scream coming out of the back seat. It was my daughter's friend's Grandma. Suzie pecked her, though no physical harm was done! She persistently followed us for a while and then stopped the pursuit on her own, perhaps finally coming to realization there was no food..
This is a male giraffe. He is of a different subspecies from those on the other side of the fence. 
On the day, he was apparently very agitated, pacing back and forth and trying to pushing down the fence to join the other giraffes. Mark said that one of the giraffes on the other side was in heat, and he knew it and wanted so bad to go over there. However, since mating between these two subspecies don't typically take place in the wild, Safari West does not want to see that happen, therefore the forced separation. Upon hearing the story, my 5 year old son asked for confirmation, "he likes her?". Hahaha..
The jeep ride took about 2 hours. It was so much fun! I will leave this as the parting picture for Safari West..
On our way back, part of the bridge was shrouded in fog..
Almost every year, we watched fireworks from our backyard, and for this year, both kids were adamant that they wanted to be watching the fireworks by the water.. So off we went..
Now you have seen the fashion shoot of the animals, and to stay true to the title, here is me trying on an old dress. The last time I wore it was likely close to 20 years ago.. Now the hemline is way too short for my age, and perhaps trying on at home would be the only utility left for it..
Now a really young me standing guard while in military training long long long long time ago..
Thanks for reading. I hope you have enjoyed my story.
- 真人秀 - Mother- Daughter Day Out（图)
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