Away we go. Goodbye Europe and Hello Africa! The day started with more exploration of the city of Malaga, visiting the Pablo Picasso museum, and navigating our way to the airport. Goal for today: get from Malaga to Italy, Italy to Ethiopia, Ethiopia to Uganda. Airports are an interesting place to hang out and this trip has been great in experiencing the variation in the process. In Malaga, each airline had multiple check in counters, but you were sorted by flight. Meaning you could only check in for a flight when they wanted you to. So despite getting to the airport 2.5 hours early, we had 45 minutes before boarding. Italy’s airport was more like a Mall of America than an airport. Finally, Ethiopia‘s had a triple check-in. One to get into the departure terminal (which ... read more

With Shelby's ankle still a little banged up from canyoning and knowing we had a 22 hour travel day in the near future, we decided to take a day to chill. This gave me an opportunity to SLEEP in and enjoy a cup of coffee from the balcony with breakfast. Mostly, I couldn't believe how far behind I felt in so many things. How can you be behind on a journey is the question I kept asking. The list compiled quickly: completing the workout program I had left for my soccer teams to show them everyone can find time, journaling, reading the 10 books I committed to on this trip, blogging, soccer work, laundry, catching up on sun and sleep. It was a great day of sun, walking the beach and collecting trash, and catching up. ... read more

Today we took our first official tour of the trip to visit the Strait of Gibraltar. The tour included wondering the streets, a trip up to the St. Michael's Caves and to see the monkeys. Gibraltar is the only place in Europe that has free monkeys. The city of Gibraltar is owned by the British and was a heavily fought for area throughout time due to its access to the Mediterranean Sea countries for the outside European countries and vice versa and Northern Africa. The country that owned the Strait had access to a large taxes of ships. Spain eventually surrendered the territory to the British, but have first right of purchase if Britain ever wanted to give it up. The town is rapidly expanding and is planning on building on the other side of the ... read more

Today we decided that we’d rent a car for the week to better explore everything around us, plus transport to the airport is ridulously expensive. However, due to my inability to use a manual and experiencing the pleasures of narrow roads winding through the mountains an automatic was our only viable option. FYI automatics are way more expensive to rent than manauls. Goal 2 for return: become proficient in manaul cars including on hills. We found a rental place that wasn’t going to cost us an arm and a leg and decided we could walk. ADVENTURE!! The beginning of the journey was spot on but after a wrong turn, entering a gated community and freaking a realitor out that we were burglarizing the area, hopes were low we’d actually find this rental place. We got to ... read more

We arrived today in Malaga, Spain and after a short hour taxi ride arrived at the only hotel reservations we had made prior to leaving on this trip. After 18 days of frequently switching residents and travel days, I am SO excited to stay put for a full week in a quiet oasis. I have so much thanks to my Aunt Terri for helping us out with these amazing accommodations. We are spending our week at the Marriot Playa Andaluza in Estepona where are room directly overlooks the Mediterranean. I am most excited for the following things (in order): We are going to have a full kitchen and are going to be able to cook our own meals. Despite my typical dislike for the process of coooking back home, having most of our recent meals be ... read more