As far as I'm concerned, Safari West in Santa Rosa is a magical place everyone should go at least once. My mom was having to go to San Francisco every couple of weeks for her chemo and her nurse had told her about it. Mom asked if had ever heard of it and I had not. Mom and Dad decided it would be fun if one of the times they had to go up that way they would take me and my grandparents up with them and we could stay there after mom's chemo. For those who have never been to Safari West it is kind of a drive thru zoo. You pay and they put you in a safari jeep and they drive you thru the enclosures. What makes it even more fun is that you can opt to stay the night on the property in canvas safari tents and have dinner on an open patio with a fire pit over looking the animals. SO COOL! We got lost getting there because there isn't a whole lot of signage and the road is a curvy one. You have been warned. We did find it and Dad checked us in. They took us and our stuff to our tent in a jeep. All the cabins/tents over look the giraffe yard. I was in heaven. The girl who took us there explained to us that we should turn the heater on before we go to dinner and turn the ceiling fan on low to keep the heat from rising. I was thrilled! My parents and grandparents...not so much. They all looked a little scared now that I think about it. We went to dinner and had a very good time. The food was awesome. Then when it got dark they take you up to...I'm not sure if it was a very large pond or a very small lake. Anyways, They take you up to it (they give you flash lights so you can see where you're going) and they throw big chunks of raw chicken into the water. Suddenly these monster catfish (like 5 feet huge!) are fighting in the water trying to get at the chicken! It was the craziest thing. After they run out of chicken you go back down to the fire pit for hot chocolate. It was around 11pm when we got to our tent and we had our tour around 8am the next morning. We all got ready for bed (I had a bed on the floor, my parents and grandparents had twin beds) I was really very comfortable but everyone else was used to having king beds and were no longer accustom to sleeping that close to and (God forbid) touching each other! It lasted all of five minutes before my grandpa got up and announced to the tent that he can not sleep that close to my grandma and took the comforter and made a bed on the wood floor. There was a lot of giggling. I fell right to sleep listening to all the animals that were right outside. I was the only one. I was woken up every hour on the hour with my grandpa and dad taking turns calling out, "1 o'clock and alls not well!" There was a lot of giggling that night and I was the only one who got any sleep. In the morning I got up happy and ready to greet the day. I took a shower and headed down for some coffee along with my grandpa. My mom and grandma went in to assess the shower situation. I'm not going to lie. The shower is crazy small. Like you need to step out to turn around small. So they opted to not take one at all. They would rather stink. So we all had breakfast and climbed into a jeep for our tour. Me and my grandpa sat on top to get the whole experience. Some of the hills are a little steep and the road is mildly bumpy. It's kind of like the ride at Disneyland only better. I was all "Woohoo! This is great!" Everyone else was acting like they were in mortal danger. Once the ride was over it was time to pack up and go home. I couldn't wait to tell everyone at work how amazing it was. My parents were hoping I would never ask to go again. I've been back twice and it was just as much fun then. It was the last trip I would get to take with my mom. Our trip was in October and she died in January but it is a good memory. :)
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