the lion sleeps tonight

Achieving the status of Best Present Ever, Dane took me to The Shambala Preserve last weekend for my birthday to go on their "Safari Tour" they host one weekend a month. The Shambala Preserve is run by The Roar Foundation, which states its mission as: "To educate the public about exotic animals and to advocate for legislation to protect them. To provide sanctuary for exotic animals who have suffered from gross mistreatment and neglect so they can regain their physical and mental health and live out their lives in dignity." (taken right from their website, here). You can also click on that link to read a beautiful mission statement about the exotic cat trade and Shambala by its founder, Tippi Hedron.

Getting to see these amazing big cats up close felt like such an honor, and I was giddy the entire way to the preserve. My favorite animals, lions, didn't seem quite as excited to have me visit. I don't know how vigorous their morning was, but it seemed that we had arrived just in time for their afternoon naps in the warm sun.

But one guy, Zeus, was awake! Unfortunately, he chose to hang out waaaaaay on the other side of the compound.

The good news was that the tigers and the black leopard were much more active. 

The entire preserve was so well maintained, and all of the workers (mostly volunteers sporting "Proud Parent of _____" adoption pins) exuded such a love and respect for the cats.

Oh, hi, Ojai!

It's fitting that this post is about Ojai (pronounced Oh-hi) and that I'm saying hello again to my readers after a bit of a break. What can I say, sometimes life and other things get in the way of writing things on the internet; I'm not going to beat myself up about it. But, welcome back!

This trip was in celebration of Dane's birthday this past month. We love taking little day trips out of the city, so the small town of Ojai was a perfect little getaway. Our first stop was the pumpkin patch (a little bit of an upgrade from the pumpkin patch in a parking lot that we visited last year). This one had actual grass and big, beautiful trees!

After the pumpkin patch, we walked to the farmer's market and up and down the Arcade, an outdoor shopping area full of boutiques and small art galleries. We wound up at Bart's Books, a large outdoor bookstore--right up our alley!

All of the book browsing and pumpkin picking had someone a little tuckered out...

And we ended our day with an al fresco dinner during the famous Ojai sunset that bounces its color off of the surrounding mountains, followed by a peaceful drive home. Sometimes it's nice to remind ourselves of the small town life.