Guest Post by Amy Perry Basseches
My daughter Sophie and I have done many road trips together, and she is quite used to stopping in unusual places along the way (often with the assistance of ActiveTravels resources). On a sunny Friday in Southern California, we shared another such adventure. Visiting her for Parents’ Weekend at the Claremont Colleges, but this year wanting to spend time away from the crowds, we set out for Acton, California, with the explicit goal of visiting Farm Sanctuary.
Sophie has been an ardent vegetarian since the age of 7, and spent many hours in her youth as a member of the
Sunnyrock 4H Sheep Club in Sharon, Massachusetts. She’s just always loved animals, and a wide range of them too. So, when I heard about Farm Sanctuary from an ActiveTravels member last fall, I knew I had to visit with her.
Farm Sanctuary is a national non-profit whose goal is to end farm animal abuse. They have 3 locations where they rescue, rehabilitate, and provide long-term care to farm animals who have previously been in factory farms, stockyards, and slaughterhouses. Of course, the staff at Farm Sanctuary also educates the public and advocates for policy reform. The 26-acre Acton Shelter is located on a hacienda ranch northeast of Los Angeles, in the Sierra Pelona Mountains. The town has a rural western theme, which can be seen in its homes, commercial buildings, and historical buildings, some of which date back to the late 1800s.
A little early for our 1 pm tour, we had lunch at Wences Bistro, a small restaurant in town serving “Italian, Chinese, American, & Mexican” cuisine. Then we met our group for the tour. Let’s just say that Sophie had to cover her eyes for the short video which depicted various terrible conditions at factory farms. But then we met Jumper the 700-pound pig, various cows, goats, sheep, chickens, roosters, and horses…and we were smitten.
A vegetarian or vegan lifestyle isn’t for everyone, but there is no doubt that factory farming is problematic on a number of levels (even if you aren’t too concerned about animal care, they are usually
polluters of the surrounding environment). We appreciated the work that Farm Sanctuary does and the chance to learn more. If you ever find yourself on a road trip from point A to point B, please ask ActiveTravels if there is anything interesting to do on your route. We’d be glad to help!
(Photo by Sophie Basseches)
We’re headed to Niagara-on-the-Lake this morning to start our bike trip. Yesterday, I was fortunate to spend Victoria Day in one of my favorite cities to dine, Toronto. No need to travel the world to find varying culture when you can simply walk around Toronto’s ethnically diverse neighborhoods. Start with dim sum in Chinatown, where we dined at Rol San on Spadina (worth the wait). Or grab a traditional walnut cake in Koreatown, head to Greektown for helpings of saganaki and lamb souvlaki, order a cappuccino at one of the outdoor cafés in Little Italy, find chicken tikka masala at the Indian Bazaar in Little India, and dine on your fair share of pierogies and borscht in Little Poland, or “Ronceys,” as the locals call it. If you’re looking for more innovative multicultural fare, sample the sublime Duck Egg dish at Café Boulud, Daniel Boulud’s French restaurant at the new Four Seasons Toronto. Or venture to the Parkdale neighborhood to try the tasty smoke trout at Keriwa Café, the Native Canadian restaurant that I recently wrote about for The Washington Post. 
Yes, the chance to kiss a giraffe as he sticks his head through the window of the estate should not be overlooked. Take it from someone who has done this personally, a giraffe’s tongue is almost as long as his neck. No, the reason we like to book 
Day Four of our 
After the overnight flight to Rome and a 2-hour train to Florence, we took a taxi to our hotel for the first two nights,