Is it a gift shop? A theme park? A discovery center? Jungle Vibes Gift & Toy Emporium obliterates the line between retail and entertainment, making shopping an exotic, often educational and occasionally uproarious diversion from the usual retail experience.

Jungle Vibes is part of a downtown renaissance that has drawn explorers from all over the bay area to Petaluma's quirky and decidedly local business mix.

Before you enter, the storefront hints at the larger-than-life eclecticism within. In one display window, a huge stuffed penguin surfs a painted wave beneath a paper-mache palm tree, while beach toys and sea critters nestle beguilingly in the sand. What is a penguin doing in a tropical setting? Is it some sort of global warming message? But then you might as well ask why, in the other window, giant Pirates of the Caribbean cutouts are swashbuckling next to an austere and lovely Zen tableau complete with Kuanyin and spiritual books.

Neon palm trees bring a tenuous unity to the storefront, and a hand-painted thatch-roofed wooden cart chock full of inflatable balls raises an anticipatory smile. It's when you go inside that you get the full theme-park effect, complete with the aroma of fresh popcorn. It's like stepping through a portal into a whole eclectic universe, part Disneyland, part Indiana Jones, part Haight-Ashbury, part African savanna, part… but you get the gist. . Straight ahead, a larger-than-life Disneyland-style pirate invites you in menacing tones to take a look at the treasures within, "but take none of it, or it's the plank for you! Arrh!" African music bathes the front half of the store, while in the distance, "natives" beat drums, gongs and other percussion instruments.

To your right is a high-ceilinged brick wall covered with sixties rock posters and other Summer of Love memorabilia, along with old movie posters—and more pirates. Parts of the store seem to have sprung up organically. To your left, a waterfall gurgles and splashes from high overhead onto the tangled roots of a banyan tree, flanked by more palms, monkeys and birdsong. Going deeper into the store is like going deeper into the jungle, until you reach a high back wall where you don't realize until you look up that you are being watched silently by lions, tigers and giraffes perched on a high ledge next to Nairobi street scene painted in African colors from a design by owner's mother. On a veritable tower of hand puppets, you will find every sort of animal you'd care to have wrapped around your hand, and some you might not.

Petaluma entrepreneur Wayne Morgenthaler founded Jungle Vibes Gift and Toy Emporium 13 years ago, turning his unique retail vision into an authentic, creative, multi-ethnic experience. On the way, the store has outgrown two locations and now sprawls from Petaluma Boulevard to water street, where an added deck looks over the Petaluma River. The gift-shop-as-performance-art motif might have its roots in Morgenthaler's unusual hobbies—like large puppet construction, performance, stilt walking, juggling and stunt kite flying.

But the driving force is Morgenthaler's love of community interaction. He provides the global aspect, and revels in the local. "I moved from Los Angeles to the North Bay specifically to find community," says Morgenthaler. "I didn't want to be a suburbanite who just came downtown to have lunch. Having a business in the community is a perfect way to be right in the middle of the action." Jungle Vibes is full of things begging to be touched, played, turned on, listened to and test driven, from the magical "Doodlebugs," low-slung vehicles that are powered by body motion alone, to every kind of traditional percussion instrument, giving forth a pleasing cacophony as hands large and small exercise their power to make music. And then there are the events. From Family Fun Day to Sing Like a Pirate Day to the Full Moon Drum Circle, to the annual Poetry Walk, many suited to the deck out back on the riverfront. The mix has included juggling lessons, henna tattoos and portable safaris.

It's a particular tribute to Jungle Vibes' success in bridging communities that the youth of Petaluma have embraced the store. It's partly because the store's youthful employees have say in the purchase of a clothing a

nd jewelry, but perhaps also because Morgenthaler has gone to bat for the youth community, defending their right to gather in the park across the street and inviting them to hang out on his deck.

For children and their grandparents, Jungle Vibes is a place to find a gift no one else will have thought of, from genuine ethnic musical instruments, to truly valuable fossil or crystal specimens to a wonderful snuggly plush cat or dog that is destined to become somebody's best friend. The bookshelves entice every age group with a gemlike selection in science, politics, spirituality and humor.

Many are finding Jungle Vibes worth a trip to Petaluma. Where else can you go to get both pirate paraphernalia and a book on Zen, and perhaps learn to juggle as well? You may not be a kid when you walk into Jungle Vibes, but you'll be one by the time you walk out with a goofy smile on your face and an armful of gifts that you won't find in the average toy store inventory.