Alright, alright I know it has been a while but internet prices are high here. To twll you about Morocco I decided to do it in pieces with a few (hopefully short) comments and pictures for each blog. I am also warning you that I don´t intend to even try and edit this so try to enjoy the typos. Casablanca does Bite! It is now safe to admit that while in Casablanca, for the first time since I began my travels in March, I was having doubts about my choice of destinations. In short Casablanca sucks. There isn´t much to see, the medina is so-so, I was havin trouble finding restuarant/cafes where I felt comfortable eating. Thamk goodness for schwarma! It didn´t help that it was the last days of Ramadan and a lot of places ... read more

Three years ago in Tunisia, I read my first word in Arabic. It was written on a wall and I sounded it out. Shukran, which means Thank you. A guide overheard me as I said it out loud and praised me. I was quite happpy. The next time I figured out an Arabic word was Saturday. It was the letter miim' next to some numbers on a road sign. Miim means M and M next to some numbers on a road sign means meters! I was on a role and read my third word just yesterday. It was written Baa'...Alif'...Ray'. Yep, I figured out the word for bar. If I was't in a country where a woman drinking alone in a bar is considered a prostitute, I definetly would've gone in to celebrate with a beer. ... read more

My nephews and I started off with a backpack filled with water, snacks, sunscreen, an ink pad, stamps, and the clues to begin out first letterbox adventure. I really hoped we would be successful considering our hike would be four miles return. Our trail led us through Sycamore Grove Park in Livermore, California. add history My youngest nephew, Joey, was pretty much ready to end the hike after the first half mile. Domenic thought we went the wrong way and although I didn't tell him, I was wondering if he was right. Then we saw the first marked listed in the clue, a grove a trees with two park benches underneath. The next clue was a compass bearing to identify the tree where the letterbox was hidden. Since our compass (a kid's one from a spy ... read more

The real reason I didn't go bungee jumping is because I chickened out, however; I am sticking with my other reason. Bungee jumping was going to be my expensive splurge in New Zealand, until I found out about heli-hikes where they helicopter you up to the middle of a glacier and, with a guide, you walk around for half a day. My heli-hike almost didn't happen. When I got to the town of Fox off of Fox glacier, the weather didn't look good. I lost the day because of wind and rain, which on my tight schedule was almost a disaster. Plus the town of Fox is about two streets, so not much to do. The second day turned out to be beautiful and I was able to go. It was my first helicopter ride and ... read more

.....New Zealand would be their capital. My original plan when I started out in April was to spend four to six weeks in New Zealand. Due to the lure of other places, this got whittled down two weeks. I didn't want to do some sort of death march, so there was no way I was going to see both island. I figured two weeks on the south island was a good chunk of time. Of course it wasn't even close to enough time and I explored maybe half of what I wanted to on the south island. So here is the first of several entries on my very brief time in New Zeland. I spend the first day in Christ Church. Yawn. It's nice and all but I am glad that of the two rainy days ... read more