23 July -- Nairobi (by Linda)

Today was our first foray out of the hotel and into the city. The Israeli Embassy is directly across the street from our hotel and is well guarded. We went to three major sites that included the Karen Blixen Museum, Langatta Giraffe Center and the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.
The Karen Blixen museum is actually a farmhouse where Karen Blixen lived between 1914 and 1931. KB (aka Isak Dinesen) wrote “Out of Africa” in the early 1950’s after returning to Denmark, her homeland. The grounds around the house are simple but beautiful. The plants and trees look like giant versions of the ones that we know.
Our second stop was the Giraffe Center which currently maintains 10 Rothschild giraffes, an endangered giraffe species. We got to hand feed Daisy who tried to head butt Caroline several times when she ran out of food. Later, a very young male giraffe, Mark, also came for food. There were several warthogs running around rummaging for food. We had a great time with Daisy and the staff were so willing to teach us about giraffes – it was great!
Our last stop was at a Wildlife Trust where orphaned baby black rhinos and elephants are raised and reintroduced back into the wild. Five young elephants, no rhinos, between 10-23 months were hanging out with their keepers. To a baby elephant, it is the family that is all important. In fact, each keeper actually sleeps next to a young calf and tends solely to it’s needs. Elephants only thrive if they are happy. At 2 years old and in their own time, they return to the wild. We enjoyed learning a lot about elephants! All of us are leaving tomorrow for Uganda on a 1pm flight. Linda Lion posting here.