Country Roads

Yesterday, we headed out of the city to Animal Acres farm. My friend Margaret and her daughter Gabriella had gone a few days before and suggested we check it out as a possible location for Lucy and Gabriella’s birthday party. It was a good day to take a break from LA - it had been uncomfortably hot all week, resulting in a blue sky directly over head but a cement gray horizon of smog obscuring the views of the mountains surrounding Studio City. As I was driving, I kept squinting my eyes and looking around to try to even get a glimpse of the outline of the mountains, but it was as if they had been erased altogether.

After twenty minutes of driving, we finally arrived at the mountains (still in existence) and the smog began to clear. We continued driving through the dramatic scenery that these tall brown mountains offered, set against the now perfectly blue sky. As we drove further, it became more and more rural. When we turned off the highway, we took a wrong turn and ended up driving by ranch after ranch on a dusty dirt road. We finally stopped to ask an old man wearing overalls and a baseball cap for directions. He smiled, crinkling his sun-worn skin, and pointed us the other way down the road. I thanked him and thought to myself that even if we turned around right at that moment, the whole trip would’ve been worth it, just for the taste of country that he offered.

When we pulled in to Animal Acres, we were greeted by the largest pig I have ever seen. She towered over Noni, whose eyes widened with awe and fright. Evie pulled the brown twine cord to ring the bell and a young woman in pig tails came out of the building and, pushing pigs out of her way, let us through the gate.

Animal Acres is a rescue farm and all of the animals there have been saved from either a slaughter house or another type of abusive situation. The girls pet the scratchy fur of the pigs, rubbed the goats’ noses, and took pictures with the sheep. Noni walked around instructing the animals on what they should say - “maa”, “baa” or “moo“. (She’s still working on “oink”.) By the time we left, there wasn’t much question that Lucy would have her birthday at Animal Acres.

When our tour was over, we still weren’t ready to head back into the city, so we drove down the road and found a park where the girls picked flowers, played in the dust (Noni did at least) and chased huge balls of tumbleweeds. {Evie’s piano teacher later informed us that in LA you make snowmen by collecting tumbleweeds, stacking them, and decorating them. Tumbleweedmen.} As for myself, I mostly just breathed in the fresh air and enjoyed watching them romp with a beautiful landscape for a backdrop.

Since arriving to Los Angeles, we’ve escaped the city either by trips to the beach or to the mountains, but there’s something about a rural farm town though that’s relaxing in an entirely different way. I have a feeling that Lucy’s birthday party isn’t the only time we’ll be back.