Goodbye Aruba!

Already Saturday and time to go home.  It's amazing how fast time flies when you're having fun. To make the most out of the last few hours in Aruba, I woke up early this morning.  I walked along the beach and went to grab one last geocache hidden by a fellow Wisconsin geocacher.  I'm glad I went back to grab it as I hadn't realized we walked by this same spot two other times.  I contemplated on going back to the lighthouse to grab the cache that I had missed there, but after checking my watch I decided it was probably best if I just turned around and headed back.

After breakfast and packing it was time to head to the airport.  It is not a long drive (maybe 20 minutes), but you do have to be there three hours before your flight.  I can certainly see why you need the three hours as you have to process through Aruba Customs and US Customs.  It was nice to take care of Customs and Immigration in Aruba so when we landed back in Chicago it was just a simple manner of picking up our luggage and getting our ride home.  The terminal was packed and we soon learned that our flight was delayed two hours.  Good thing we didn't have any connections to make.  We were finally in the air and back home.  Our limo driver was waiting for us and we were soon back in the cold air of winter.

This has been an excellent vacation and would go back to Aruba in a heartbeat.  I can see why Aruba is called "One Happy Island".

Jolly Pirates

I can hardly believe it's already Friday.  The week has gone by so fast. After breakfast I parked my butt by the pool and continued to read my book. At 1:00 we headed to the Jolly Pirate ship.

The excursion consisted of going to two different spots for snorkeling and a third stop to swing off a rope swing.  The first snorkeling stop was at the sunken ship Antilla.  The water was a little deeper and didn't have the clearest view of the ship or fish.  At the second stop we swam in much shallower water and saw some pretty fish.  At each stop we had approximately 20 minutes to snorkel.  We were also allowed to jump off the side of the ship . . .or walk the plank as it were.  At the final stop there was a rope swing that we could swing and jump into the water.  Tom particularly liked this and tried to do a back flip.  He came close, but ended in a dive.  I didn't even try the flip.  The kids really enjoyed jumping off the ship.  We got back at 5:00 and Tom and I sat on the beach waiting for the sunset.  We missed photographing some excellent sunsets earlier in the week.  As we waited, I finished my book!

After watching the sunset we got ready for dinner and headed back to the Mexican restaurant.  I had the chicken fajitas and once again was super happy with my meal.  We roamed around a bit after dinner and not finding anything exciting going on we headed back to the room where we watched the Pat Tillman story.  Tomorrow we head back home.  This has been an excellent vacation. I would highly recommend Aruba!

4x4 Excursion!

Today was our excursion to the other side of the island in two-seater all terrain vehicles!  We were picked up at 8:30 and drove to Philip's Animal Garden where the excursion began.  The tour started with walking through the zoo.  We learned that they were an animal rescue and all of the animals were rescued from individuals who had the animals as pets and no longer wanted them, from a zoo on Aruba that had shut down, and from other places in the Caribbean.  They gave us carrots and food pellets to feed the animals.  We saw donkeys, cows, llama, monkeys, birds of all types, snakes (ewww), kangaroo, tortoises, geese, ostrich, camels, and probably a few others I can't remember.  It was neat that we were able to feed them and I think the kids enjoyed it.

Then it was time to start the real part of the adventure.  Tom drove our vehicle and our first stop was at a chapel.  I remembered a little too late to dig out my phone to check for geocaches.  There was one about 250 feet from the parking lot, but I didn't have enough time to wonder off to get it.  I kept my phone on the ready though for future stops!  We drove along dirt paths in the country side and really got to experience the Aruban countryside.

The next stop was at Baby Bridge which is a natural rock bridge.  This was another spectacular view where we took a few pictures.  We stopped at ruins of an old gold mining building.  Laurie and I diverted off to find the cache and then explored the ruins.  The next stop was the ruins of the Natural Bridge.  This was another larger version of Baby Bridge, however in 2005 it collapsed.  Although Aruba is out of the hurricane belt and doesn't actually get hurricanes, the hurricane in 2005 that really pounded Florida, caused huge waves in Aruba.  Scientists think the pounding of the huge waves cause the bridge to crack and the eventual collapsing.  It collapsed in the middle of the night when nobody was around so thankfully nobody was hurt.  There was a restaurant at the site and it was the restaurant owner who came to work the next day that first discovered the collapse.  Laurie, the kids and I took Aunt Kathy along to find the nearby geocache.  It was an easy find that could be spotted from the path.  Back on the road and up the hillside we went really enjoying all of the views.

The last stop was at the Natural Pool.  This is ocean water that is trapped in by rocks causing a natural calm pool with ocean waves pounding in around it.  We made the trek down and over some slippery rocks and got in.  It was a little crowded with the people from other tours, but nice to cool off and get some of the dirt off.  Tom, Laurie, and the kids jumped from a rock into the pool and they also did a little bit of snorkeling.  After the Natural Pool it was back into the vehicles for the ride back to the animal sanctuary.  Our guide, AB, was really great and the vehicles we were given to drive were just a few weeks old and operated smoothly. All in all this was an excellent excursion.

We got back to the hotel around 2:00.  After lunch I spent the rest of the afternoon reading my book on the beach.  Just 100 or so pages to go!  Dinner was at the Italian restaurant of the resort.  I had a smoked cheese soup, seafood pasta appetizer, and shrimp dinner.  It was good, but so far I walked away from the Mexican restaurant feeling most filled and satisfied with the food.  I think for our last night dinner that we might go back to it.  After dinner, Tom and I headed across the street to do some souvenir and jewelry shopping.  I had mentioned to Tom that I didn't have any "real" necklaces as everything I own is costume jewelry. We visited several stores and went back to the first one we went in to get the second necklace I tried on.  I now own a "real" necklace.

I can't believe tomorrow is our last full day in Aruba.  The week has gone by so fast.  The plan is to relax in the morning and go on the Jolly Pirate ship in the afternoon to sail and snorkel.

Currier-Sobczyk Excursion Company

Wednesday's adventure started with a search for mountain bikes.  Laurie called the place we had walked to the day before, but they said they didn't have any available to rent.  We walked to a sales stand at the hotel next door that we had seen the day before when out and about, and they called a few other places to see if anybody had bikes.  One of the suppliers was not answering the phone, so we opted to go to breakfast and wait to see if they would call us back with bikes.  We began talking about alternative possibilities to get us to the Hooiberg Mountain, such as taking a taxi or renting a car.  At breakfast we got the call the bikes were available, but we abandoned the bike idea and went for a rental car instead.Pete and Tom walked across the street to the rental car place and got a jeep.

Our adventure started with Hooiberg.  With a lot of side roads and Tom navigating with the map from the rental car company, we thought getting there should be no problem.  Finding street signs proved to be difficult so it was hard to find where we actually were on the map.  Eventually we made it.  Thank goodness we didn't try to get there on bikes!  Over 500 steps up and we had a marvelous view of the entire island.  In addition, Laurie, Vince, Ryan, and I set out to find the geocache that was on the top.  The GPS was off a bit but we were able to make the find!  Back down the mountain we went.

Our next planned destination was to Baby Beach on the southern tip of the island.  Along the way I kept an eye on geocaches to see if we could nab and nearby ones.  Unfortunately the geocaching app did not provide us with a detailed map as it normally does when I'm using it with web access at home (which could have been useful in getting us to our destinations and to the caches).  I found a cache we were getting relatively close to and used the compass to navigate us there.  With a few wrong turns down some dead end streets we found it.  The location was a beautiful lagoon where the water was magnificent colors of blue.  Alissa found the cache and after a couple of photos (which ended up not turning out because the camera was on the wrong setting) we were on our way to find Baby Beach.

Along the way we stopped at another cache at a memorial for men at sea.  I quickly found the cache and we were able to get a group photo in front of the anchor.  Back on the road to Baby Beach!  We made it to the beach where the kids swam for a bit and we walked to the far end of the beach where we found a restaurant that was themed from the Flinstones.
We had burgers that weren't all that great, but nice to sit down and take a break.  After lunch we were back on the road to find some caves that the rental car company mentioned.  We drove in the direction that we thought and headed for some off roading.  Circling a couple of times and stopping to ask a local coconut salesman at the end of the road for directions (thanks Vince for translating for us), we still never quite found them.  I think we were on the right path, but time was running out as we needed to get back to the resort to get ready for our 7:00 dinner reservations.  We made it back with just enough time to be showered and ready for dinner.

Dinner was at the Caribbean themed restaurant of the resort.  Tom and I had the surf and turf dinner that consisted of a steak, piece of shrimp, and tiny scallops. It was ok, but really enjoyed sitting outside for the meal.  The temperature and breeze was just right.  After dinner we had a drink and was off to bed!

Tubing & Geocaching

Tuesday was another day without any scheduled activities.  We started the morning late after having slept in.  I wish I could say these beds were as great as ours at home, but unfortunately it's not even close.  After breakfast I walked with Pete and Laurie to find out information on renting bikes.  We are thinking we would like to bike to the nearby dormant volcano, Hooisberg.  The walk took us down the beach to to the end of all the hotels.  We found for $25/day they would drop the bikes off at our hotel. After Tom's and my last bike experience in the Bahamas (where we used some free hotel bikes, and Tom's bike tire was mostly flat and then the chain came off) he is a little leery of trying bikes again. We saw some bikes parked outside the trailer in which they were operating and asked if those were the bikes.  Thankfully she said no, and said they keep theirs stored in their facility to protect them from the sand and salt water.  We liked the sound of that already.  With no commitments made, we headed back to the resort.

As we came back upon our beach we saw Vince, Alissa, and Ryan with Uncle Tommy getting ready to go on their tubing ride.  Tom strapped our GoPro to Vince and off they went for their 20 minute ride while Uncle Tommy rode along in the boat to take pictures.  We watched from the shore and saw the kids getting whipped around and flying out a couple of times.  When they got back they said it was awesome!!  We weren't sure if the GoPro was on and recording, so we waited until we got back to the room much later in the evening to see the results.  I was happy to see that it recorded the beginning 6 minutes of the ride.  So fun to listen to the kids screaming and laughing.  The GoPro must have got bumped along the way because it did stop recording and took some pictures too.  The pictures didn't turn out as great, but happy to have the video.

After lunch I took Alissa and Vince and we went to find a couple of nearby geocaches.  Once again I'm impressed with Aruba in the fact that we could walk out the hotel doors and feel completely safe walking the sidewalks to the geocaches.  The caches were an easy find and nice walk.  When we got back Ryan was disappointed that he didn't get to go, so we decided to head back out the opposite direction to get another.  Ella wanted to go along on the adventure too, so we waited for her to put on shorts and sneakers.  Well all that waiting made Ryan change his mind and wanted to go swimming instead, so Pete, Laurie, Ella, and I headed out to find another geocache .7 miles away. When I was researching geocaches before we came I noticed there was a cache close to our hotel placed by a geocacher from Wisconsin who I am familiar with.  This was her cache that we were set out to find.  As we got close to ground zero it was Laurie who made the find!  Still can't believe all the way in Aruba we were looking for a cache by WisJanine.  By the time we got back from our walk it was dinner time.  I can't believe how fast the day flew.  I never even sat in a beach chair all day!

For dinner we went to the Mexican restaurant in the hotel.  We found the food to be quite good and enjoyed our mixed fajitas of chicken and steak.  After lounging in the lobby listening to some music for a bit, it was back up to the room to finish our game of Phase 10.  Alissa ultimately won by getting Phase 10 first. It had creeped past 11:00pm again so off to bed it was.  We didn't secure our bikes for Wednesday, so that will be the first priority of the morning.  If the bikes don't work out, I anticipate another lazy day of reading and sun.

Lazy Monday

Monday in Aruba and we had no big plans.  We slept in after the disappointing Packer game and I did not even think about going for a walk or run.  My legs weren't too sore, but I thought I would give them a break.  My goal for the day was to do a lot of reading.  I had received the first Jack Reacher book a while ago and I even took it with me all the way to Djibouti, but didn't get a chance to read it.  I sat and read on the beach for a couple of hours and eventually wondered up in a nice quiet spot on the roof top above the beach restaurant and read for a couple of more hours.  I got about half way through the book.

There was a welcome party for vacation club members that we caught the tail end of.  Aunt Janet and Uncle Dave won massages for a dance competition and Heather won a couple's massage in a raffle.  Maybe we should have gotten their earlier!  After was a bbq on the beach.  The food was ok and the show that started after it was not overly exciting.  Pete, Laurie, Tom and I wondered back up to the suite.  The balcony actually overlooked the bbq and show so we could watch from there.  As it had become somewhat boring, we opted to play Farkle instead, but left the patio doors open to listen.  At the end of the party another raffle was held and Alissa won a dinner for one at Senor Frogs.  When the rest of the gang came back upstairs we played Phased 10 . . . well we aren't quite done yet.  That game takes forever and at 11:30 we were all feeling tired and decided to suspend the game until tomorrow.  Tuesday holds no big plans either.  On Wednesday or Friday we will go on a Pirate's ship excursion to sail, snorkel, and swing off the side of the ship.  On Thursday we are taking an ATV tour around the island.  Plenty of time for me to walk to some nearby geocaches . . I hope!

Aruba!!

ARUBA!!!  Our vacation 2015 has finally arrived.  After booking this in February 2014 and a long winter last year and an already super cold start to 2015, we are so happy to finally be in Aruba. Flying directly out of Chicago proved to be a good choice with no worries of missing connections.  The only downside of leaving out of Chicago with an 8:25a.m. flight was the 2:30 wake-up so that we could get to Tom and Linda's house for our ride to O'Hare. Linda found an excellent deal from a limo company out of Racine.  We had a giant stretch limo that just barely fit our 14 passengers and luggage.  Although a limo sounds fancy and luxurious, we found the seats to be a little uncomfortable and lack of heat near the floor left our feet begging for the warmth and sand of Aruba.

On Saturday we arrived and drove through a bit of town to get to our resort.  The island does not have the same poverty feel that other islands we have been to.  We went by where the cruise ships dock and could definitely tell that part of town was built for them.  Lots and lots of upscale shopping and some chain restaurants.  Our resort is several miles away from this area.  When we got to the resort we found check-in and received our room assignments on the 9th floor.  This is the top floor and reserved for First Club vacation members.  We are so thankful that Pete and Laurie have this vacation club that we're allowed to be a part of.  Our room is conjoined with Pete and Laurie's enormous suite overlooking the ocean.  Tom and Linda's room conjoin on the other side.  Our room is like a standard hotel room with two queen (maybe feels a little bit smaller, but not as small as a double bed) beds.  Pete and Laurie's room has a huge living room with full kitchen. All of them have great ocean views.

Saturday night as we were getting ready to say our good nights for the evening, when Pete and Laurie mentioned they were going for a walk in the morning at 7:00 . . . to the lighthouse.  I read about the California Lighthouse and knew it was on the North side of the island.  I wasn't sure how far it was exactly, but they thought it was about 4 miles one-way.  My first thought that it sounded crazy, but come 6:30a.m. on Sunday morning I was all in.  Our walk started along the nice sidewalk/boardwalk that connects all the hotels to each other. When the hotels ended we moved up to the road and walked along the road.  We started noticing a lot of people walking the other direction and thought a lot of people sure did get out and exercise here.  We soon realized they were part of a local 5K that was fundraising for a tennis club. When we got close enough to the lighthouse to see the landscape around it, Aunt Janet said she had gone far enough. Pete, Laurie, and I were committed to go the whole way.  It was 3.75 miles to the lighthouse!

From the lighthouse we saw some off road tracks down to the beach.  The water look relatively close so we decided to check it out.  .3 miles later and we were looking at some beautiful scenery.  Two and a half hours and 8.6 miles later we were back at the resort.  My legs felt a little sore and I was quite thirsty, but loved the adventure out.  The only downfall of the trip was that I took my phone to do some geocaching along the way, as I knew there was one at the lighthouse.  Unfortunately I didn't find out until we started walking that I couldn't access the caches because they were stored on-line (I had thought I saved them to the phone), so I could not do any geocaching.  On the upside, I knew I could remedy this as soon as I had access to WIFI.

The afternoon was spent lounging by the pool and playing in the ocean.  At 3:00 we headed over to the Holiday Inn where we had heard they had a sports book in their casino so we could place bets on the Packers/Seattle game.  Tom Sr and Uncle Dave went with the Packers (8.5 spread) and Tom went against our team with Seattle in the hopes that if they loss, he still might be happy winning the bet.  We found a great bar on the beach that was filled with other Packer fans to watch the game.  The game started out great.  We couldn't believe the Packer's were winning.  Of course it all came crashing down and Tom didn't even win his bet because Seattle had only beaten us by 6. Even though our team lost, it was still a lot of fun to be able to watch the game in Aruba.  Of course it would have been 10 times more fun if they had won.  Oh well maybe next year.  At least we have the sun and beach to look forward to tomorrow.

Uganda = AMAZING!

Uganda is amazing!!  But before I get to that, I should probably back up and start with how I got there. This deployment allows for an opportunity to take a 96 if you are deployed for more than 179 days.  A 96 is a 96 hour pass to do whatever you like.  You can go anywhere or stay in your CLU for a "clucation".  I opted to book a 96 through the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) to go to Uganda for mountain gorilla trekking and white water rafting.On Wednesday our flight left Djibouti around 7:00pm.  We had a connection in Addis Abba, Ethiopia.  While here, we grabbed some dinner and I opted to try a traditional Ethiopian dish.  This however, turned out to be not such a good choice as I really didn't enjoy whatever it is I ended up with.  We landed in Entebbe, Uganda after midnight.  Our tour guides picked us up from the airport and we bagan the hour or so drive to Kampala.  We had two vehicles, and unfortunately one of them got a flat tire on the way to the hotel.  After a tire swap we were back on our way.  By the time we finally got to the hotel and settled into our room it was almost 3:00a.m.  Not a lot of time to rest before our 6:00a.m. wake up call!

After very little sleep we were on our way to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest where we would do the mountain gorilla trekking.  We were told the drive would take 9-10 hours.  We stopped at the Equator and enjoyed taking pictures and watching a demonstration of how water twirls down the bowl depending if you are in the Northern or Southern hemisphere.  A couple of hours from the Equator we stopped and enjoyed a buffet lunch.  After lunch it was all car ride until we got to our lodge at around 7:30p.m.  It was a very long day in the car!!  The last 4 hours or so of the trip were all on dirt roads, which our driver affectionately called our "African Massage".  The countryside of Uganda is stunning!  It is super green and hilly.  We also really enjoyed waiving to all the children who were walking along the dirt road.  They would get so excited when they would see us.  After awhile, I felt like I was in a parade and waving all the time.  The children brought such joy!  After we finally arrived at our hotel, we got to our room which was very nice.  No glass windows, but it was surrounded by screens. The temperature is very cool at night which is a great difference from what we're used to in Djibouti.  Dinner was a fixed course of a stuffed tomato appetizer (super yummy), fish and mushroom soup (also very good),beef, potatoes and vegetables for the main course (amazing), and lemon pineapple pie for dessert (delicious)!  All in all the meal was outstanding and then it was time to hit the sack after an extremely long day.

After breakfast it was time to begin our mountain gorilla adventure.  We had a briefing by the rangers and our group of 11 was broken up into a group of 8 and 3 of our other people joined another group.  Only 8 people are allowed in each group.  I was with the 8 from our MWR trip and along with our guide, 2 armed rangers, and a porter that one of our people hired, we began our hike.  The hike started nice and flat and felt like I was about to go geocaching.  We came to a creek where we crossed a bamboo bridge and then began the climb up the mountain.  The climb was steep and difficult in some spots, but doable.  I was so glad that they had given us walking sticks to use.  That helped a ton!  The vegetation was thick and our guide and ranger used a machete to help clear the way.  After about 2 hours of climbing our guide heard the news on his walkie talkie that the trackers had found our family of gorillas.  So onward and upward we went and as I

looked down I exclaimed "Whose poop is this?"  Our guide informed us, it was in fact the gorilla's poop and we had found their nests from the night before.  Gorillas make a new nest every night and then poop there the next day before they leave so nobody else will use it.  We were getting closer!!!  When we finally met up with our trackers we put down our bags and walking sticks and move a very short distance where I got my first glimpse of the Silverback gorrilla!  Nothing short of amazing!!  I can't believe how close we were and how much the gorilla didn't seem to mind.  He was busy stuffing his face with leaves and would glance over to us from time to time.  As he moved, we moved with him.  At one point he got up and climbed a short distance up a tree.  He was so close to some of the people in our group I was afraid he might lose his balance and land on them!  After spending several minutes watching him and taking pictures and videos we moved on to find other members of his family.  They were

relatively close by and in total we saw 7 of the 9 members of the family.  One of the female gorillas had been lying still for some time so I turned with my back to her and asked someone to take my picture.  As I was getting set up, she moved and came and passed right behind me.  The looks on people's face that were watching were funny.  I guess I didn't realize how close she was!
 We spent 1 hour with the gorillas and enjoyed their peaceful, docile nature.  I can see why Dianne Fossy (Gorillas in the Mist) fell in love with them.  After our time with the gorillas we sat and ate our boxed lunch then were back on our way down the mountain.  Going down was easier then going up and probably took just little over an hour.  I was surprised that we didn't see any birds or other wildlife throughout the day.  Although exhausted when we were done, after a quick shower several of us went into the town close by to watch the orphanage children give a song and dance show.  So much energy!  The children sell some of their art and I was very happy to buy a drawing and sculpture to help support them.  Dinner was again in the lodge and was very good.  It consisted of avocado with honey mustard dressing appetizer, tomato soup, chicken, rice, and vegetables, and chocolate something or another (very good) for dessert.  The lodge had WIFI and try as I might to get connected to my email to send a message home, but I just couldn't get on. After an hour I gave up and went to the room to type this blog entry and go to bed.  What an amazing day!

We had another early start and were back in the vehicles at 7:00am to start the long ride back to Kampala.  We took a different route back and was able to drive through the Queen Elizabeth National Park.  Our driver pulled over and lifted the roof of our vehicle so we were able to stand on the seats and be on the look out for lions, elephants, water buffalo, impalas, monkeys, and other animals.  We ended up seeing all of these animals with the exception of a lion.  The grass was really tall, so they probably were out there, but just not for us to see.  It was really beautiful and a different landscape then what we had been driving through as this was flat grasslands.  I was excited that we were able to go on a mini-safari and see some of the animals I envisioned in Africa!  After driving through the park we stopped at a hotel to eat a box lunch that we got from our lodge in Bwindi.  The views were stunning!!

 We were looking out over miles and miles of African countryside and the national park that we had just driven through.  After lunch it was back in the car for more driving.  I really enjoyed watching the beautiful Ugandan countryside go by.  We once again stopped at the Equator for a break.  I tried looking for a geocache that was there, but couldn't find it.  I even asked the children who were sitting right where the coordinates led me if they new where the "treasure" was, but when the started digging in the ground with a machete I knew they didn't really know what I was talking about.
 I asked one of the adults at the nearby restaurant if he knew if it was still there.  He said he knew others had come searching, but wasn't sure if it was found.  Oh well, at least I tried!  Once we arrived back in Kampala the traffic became very busy.  I would have been so stressed out with all the motorbikes, people walking between cars, goats and what not creating driving obstacles.  We got back to the hotel around 7:45p.m.  After checking in we got a call that the other vehicle was stuck in traffic and that we should meet them directly at the Italian restaurant we were going to for dinner.  The restaurant was very nice and felt like we were in the U.S.  I had an excellent mushroom risotto.  Those that ordered steak were very disappointed.  Still hard to get a good steak in Africa.  The service was slow and we didn't get back to the hotel until after 11:00pm.  I was so exhausted and our wake-up call for the next day was for 5:45!  This trip has been go, go, go!

So yesterday after another early morning we were on a bus that would take us on a hour and half drive to Jinga, Uganda to go white-water rafting on the Nile River. After the safety brief I was a little nervous as we would be rafting class 4 and 5 rapids (6 being the roughest).  During the safety brief we even practiced tipping the raft and getting back in.  Should have figured that my chances of staying in the raft were going to be slim!  The first rapid was right away and it was pretty intense!  No baby rapids to get the feel as we started with a class 5.  One of our guys fell out of the raft but he was ok!  The next rapid was a class 4 and wasn't so bad and

really enjoyable.  There were many kilometers of calm water where we enjoyed the nice flow of the river and the beauty around us.  I was surprised at how many pine trees lined the banks of the Nile.  I wasn't sure if I was in Wisconsin or Africa!  At one point I asked the guide what kind of fish were in the river, but before he could finish telling me we got distracted by something.  A short while later we saw a baby crocodile!  I told him he didn't tell me that, but he said he didn't get the chance!  A couple of rapids later we experience our first raft tip.  It wasn't that bad and actually felt refreshing! For a mid-morning snack they served fresh
pineapple and cookies.  After a while we all got out of the raft to swim.  I guess the crocodiles weren't a threat in that part of the river.  Before we knew it we were approaching our last rapid.  The guide said it was pretty intense and if anybody wanted to go in the guide boat and not do the rapid they could.  One of the ladies on our raft took this option, but I was all in. We made it through the first rapid, but tipped on the second!!  It was all good though as this was the last rapid and a few strokes later we were getting out of the river.
They provided us lunch and the best kind of beer. Free!  Actually it was Nile beer and it was quite good.  Around
4:30 it was back on the bus for the long ride back to Kampala.  We had only an hour to shower and pack before we were meeting for dinner and going to the airport. We ended up eating dinner at a hotel restaurant on the patio.  I was excited to see burgers on the menu and ordered one hoping that it would meet my craving.  The galley does not serve a good burger ever.  It was pretty good.  The meat tasted a little different, but good.  Soon we were rushing out of the restaurant to get to the airport.  Once at the airport, we went to check in.  8 of 11 people got boarding passes all the way through to Djibouti.  Unfortunately I was one of the three that did not.  This made me a bit nervous, but the agent told me I would get it in Addis Abba.  For some reason he said all the seats were filled or blocked or something.  I was just hoping that they wouldn't want to charge us again in Addis Abba.  Turns out, it didn't seem to be a big deal because when we finally tracked somebody down he took our itineraries and after a few minutes came back with boarding passes.  Not sure why that couldn't be done in Uganda, but oh well.  As I write this final paragraph I'm waiting to board our flight back to Djibouti.  I hope the next 45 or so days goes by as quickly as the last 4!  This trip was an unbelievable opportunity that I'm glad  I was able to take advantage of.  So good to see another side of Africa!

 

Go Karting, Bingo, and Snorkeling!

A couple of weeks ago I went on a Saturday night adventure to the Djibouti Karting Club to experience Djiboutian Go-Karting.  We had about 15 people with us and after figuring out the best deal, we had our tickets and were ready to ride.  The first five were on the course and racing for about 8 minutes when all the power was lost at the karting club. We thought the night might be over, but we decided to wait it out.  After 40 minutes we started to give up hope that they would get the power restored, so we called to have a bus come and get us, and just like Murphy's Law normally works, the power was restored.  The racing began yet again.  The go-karting was a ton of fun!  One of the girls had us laughing as she crashed through a
section of the course 3 times in a row.  Come to find out later that her brakes weren't working in her car.  All-in-all a good time was had by everyone!

The week of September 11th, we were not allowed to leave the Camp and once again our fun was limited to the pool and movie theater.  On the upside however, was a scheduled MWR Bingo night on one of these days.  The table I was sitting at was hot!  My old CLUmate, Val was the first to win, and all games continue until there is a second winner. Erik won the second prize behind her.  Several games later, Warren got a win (even though he wasn't really paying attention and Val and I yelled Bingo for him) and then I won the 2nd prize behind him.  I won a Casio watch that I'm very happy with.  When Bingo was over the Packer game was just about ready to start on the big outdoor screen.  I was surprised at how comfortable it was to sit outside and watch the game.  I think this was the first time I didn't acquire a gigantic pool of sweat by just sitting. I stayed until the end of the 3rd quarter and with the Pack up by several touchdowns I decided to turn in and go to bed.

Over the past couple of months I have been on a planning team for an Air Force Half

Marathon and 10K race.  We held the race on 21 September, which is the same day the official Air Force Marathon is held at Wright-Patterson AFB.  The race took a lot of planning and effort by all volunteers.  I'm happy to say that race day went very well.  The race began at 0400 when it is slightly cooler.  I ran the 10K and was happy with how I did . . . for being Djibouti and all.  I have run 105 miles with only 95 more miles to go to hit my goal of 200 miles ran in Djibouti.  I can do it, but I'll have to increase my mileage to 4 miles 3 times a week instead of 3 miles 3 times a week.

This past weekend, Warren and I signed up for a MWR snorkeling trip to White Sand Beach.  White Sand Beach is near the city of Tadjoura which is across the Gulf of Tadjoura from Djibouti City. It took about two hours by boat to get to our location. The snorkeling was absolutely wonderful!  The water was super clear and warm.  We snorkeled for about 2 hours and then came back to the boat for lunch.  I was on the same boat as my 4th of July snorkeling adventure and had the same meal, but also had fresh grilled tuna skewers.  The food once again did not disappoint.  After lunch we snorkeled for 2 more hours!  The highlights that we saw were 2 blue spotted stingrays, an eel, a sea turtle, a lion fish, and puffer fish. I took some pictures on a disposable underwater film camera, but I will have to wait until they're developed to find out if any of them turned out.  It was a great day and although I had SPF 30 sunscreen on my back, I failed to put sunscreen on my legs.  The area by my swimsuit bottom got burned the worst.  Not too terrible, but enough that I'm certainly feeling it today!