Inception a la Menagerie

A beach - I was on a tour bus and we arrived at a large beach. I got off the bus, but I had to carry this old woman on my back. I didn't really want to, but I did it anyways. She kept asking me if the little crabs on the shore were "sugar crabs." I finally found them and pointed them out to her, as well as these pretty stratified stones left in stacks in the small tide pools. I carried her to a nearby staircase built into a dune - made of metal and glass. Crawling across on one of the staircase platforms was a giant snake - it was black, red and white with a sort of diamond pattern on it, with a large diamond shaped head. That meant it was venomous. It looked about and finally slithered away into the dune grasses. After it was gone, I set the woman down and told her to follow the steps. Then I climbed the stairs.

Over/around the next bend I saw two big clouded leopards. They were wild, and I wanted to photograph them, but as soon as I thought that, they leaped over a fence and back to their cage. Then I noticed there were employees around, in blue shirts. I decided to go and get my camera from the bus. As I tried to go back to the beach, a giant white tiger appeared at my side, sort of wuffing at me. - it was more white than white and black stripped. I put my hand on its neck and it led me back. At this point I noticed a new structure in the top of a large mountain/cliff - it was a grey concrete visitor's center. There was a toy/food truck driving around.

At some point I was walking along what looked like scaffolding, and I saw that Samantha from Sex and the City was trying to train this red macaw to not say dirty words. Then there were monkeys. They started mating, but it was awful - they were sinking their fangs into each other. I ran away from them when they started leaving their cages.

Suddenly, on the horizon I saw a giant thunderstorm. We (?) were back on the beach, but not near the buildings. All the zoo staff were packing up. I could see a dozen bolts of lightning interlacing from the clouds to the ground, and four black funnels were picking up dirt. I grabbed D. and we moved. He didn't want to go, but I was yelling about the storm. It was towering closer now. We made it to the staircase, but the wind was so strong I had to pull us up to each stair slowly. I didn't want to hid in the parking garage with the others - I wanted to be inside, in the bathroom where there wouldn't be any windows.

The wind was so strong - there was no rain.

We made it inside, to the bathroom, when the building started to collapse. The bathroom floor caved in under me, and I fell to the basement below....

And then I woke up in 2008...or 2006. I woke up, and P. was laughing about going to college. He had just got some sort of ridiculous exercise equipment that looked like half a jungle gym, which he wore on his shoulders. I was shocked, but then I was filled with relief to realize that I could do the past 3 years over. That none of it was real. I kept asking to confirm that I had just been asleep - that whole years had gone by in a dream.

* * *

At some point in this dream - I met a British African man who I remembered from somewhere. I told him so - and he seemed to agree with me? I think he was wearing a mask - either he was wearing a mask, or he was carrying a bunch of feathers - I can't remember

* * *

It's good to have such a clear dream, even if it is sort of a movie rip-off. There was more, but I can't remember it...I find it interesting that all the animals I saw where bigger than normal, except for that parrot.