On the last day we slept in a bit but C left first. It was so good to see her again! 25 years of friendship and I feel like we haven't changed a bit! St Duncan in the East So, one of my own goals for this trip was to visit a few random places around London that are a bit off the beaten path. First on my list is St Duncan in the East, which has a long history. A church of some type has been at this site for around 1,500 years, a proper church placed in about 950 AD. However, it was destroyed by the Great Fire of London (more details below) and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren (more details below), and then destroyed again in the Blitz during World War II. At ... read more

I arrived in St Pancras Station on the day of the strike. So, aside from the already chaotic travel season, London workers decided to plan a transportation strike that weekend. I have little luck with the London Underground the last couple of trips... However, I knew this was coming so mentally prepared myself to have a hard commute to our hotel. C was texting me on her progress from Heathrow, where she had taken a car the hotel had sent for her, and they also encountered quite a bit of traffic. I saw huge line at the station for the underground, and decided to try my hand at a taxi. The line was slow but it was moving. While in line, I checked out the uber possibilities and after getting abandoned by 2 cars the third ... read more

After breakfast at Sentrim Lodge, we left for our next adventure. I really would have loved to relax at the resort for a few hours, but that is not how Trekkup rolls. You definitely get your money's worth on these trips! Hippo Hunting So our first stop was to Lake Naivasha to go hunt for some hippos. We arrived at the beautiful Lake Naivasha Lodge, just gorgeous, where we would have our tour. We were each given a life jacket on our way to the dock and were split into three groups. You could already see many hippos hanging out in the water nearby! We precariously entered our small boats, with me wondering what would happen if an angry hippo nudged us. Then we were off traveling through the murky waters. They were mostly just standing ... read more

Our flight landed early in the morning and within two hours we were seeing the amazing African wildlife! So, there were about 14 of us on this 3-day weekend to Kenya. I knew a few from other trips, but the rest I had never met before. We landed and got through customs .... well, not so quickly. But we got outside to meet our guides. Instead of the planned breakfast we had expected, they said we would be going directly to our first game drive, so everyone got a coffee (I got juice) for the road. We loaded up into three vans and were on our way. Driving out of the airport was interesting as there were pretty cool sculptures of various African animals along on the side of the road. Nairobi National Park After about ... read more

It was beautiful they said.... I decided since I was already in the western hemisphere to go ahead and again visit my friend who was traveling central America. He didn't need to try too hard to convince me, especially when my Jetblue flight was canceled. I initially planned to fly to Jetblue to Liberia, Costa Rica, but while my sister and I were hiking with friends, she received a message from Jetblue. I had given them her number as I do not have a US number. Apparently, only Americans with American numbers are allowed to book American flights or some BS - it is really annoying. Anyway, we waited to listen and found out that that flight was also canceled. Wth? I thought Jetblue was one of the most reliable. I wound up rebooking with American ... read more