Zanzibar

Not all of our time in Africa was spent in tents or driving down bumpy roads! We took a break for a few days to enjoy the island of Zanzibar. After a busy safari in Tanzania, we did nothing but relax on the beach! Oh yeah, and eat delicious food of course. I could have stayed here much longer. It was beautiful!

Our lovely room...
Path to the beach...You hang this coconut and someone will come take your food or drink order...

Gorilla Trekking in Uganda

After our week long safari in Tanzania, we flew to Kigali, Rwanda. We had a wonderful time in Rwanda and I plan to blog about our time there later. We drove from Rwanda into Uganda. Border crossings in Africa are very different from any I have been through. I won't go into details, but imagine being the only tourist, no one standing in line, and carbon copy paper instead of computers. After making it across the border we drove many hours down bumpy, unpaved roads to Bwindi. This was a very small town where tourist go to TREK GORILLAS!! You have to get a permit to go on these hikes and you must plan well in advance to get them. The park we were in (Bwindi Impenetrable National Park) only allowed in about thirty people a day. Gorillas are becoming increasly rare and we were very fortunate to see them. Here is how the day went...A few "trekkers" set out early in the morning to find a particular family of gorillas. Gorillas are always on the move so it is very difficult to find them. Plus, they live in very thick vegetation. We started hiking around 9am and headed in the direction the trekkers told us to go. The area we were in is ONLY HILLS! So we hiked up and down quite a few times. Most of the hike was not on a path. The guides in the front cut down vegetation as we hiked. I was constantly tripping over vines and roots. Four and a half hours later we found the gorillas!! I was pretty tired at this point and very excited to finally see the gorillas. This is what the first siting looked like...
I was thinking, I hiked 4 hard hours and paid money to barely see a gorilla!! Luckily, it got better and better. Some gorillas were hiden in the thick vegetation, but some were out in the open. It was amazing to be so close to them and to see them in their natural habitat. I particularly liked the small babies. We even saw a three week old baby, but didn't get a good picture. We were only allowed to spend an hour with the gorillas before heading back. Luckily, the hike back was much quicker. I was extremely sore the next few days, but it was well worth the pain!

Typical houseHere you can see that it was NOT a flat hike.
We started our hike by passing through a local village. The kids would run over to the trail to wave and say hello.
This guy came along just for protection.
Dave hiking over a stream.
You can see why it is called the Impenetrable Forest.
Cute little baby!
And his mad momma! She doesn't look happy with us.
His name was Trouble Maker.

Safari in Tanzania

This summer, Dave and I went on an adventurous vacation to Africa! We had a wonderful time exploring Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Bostwana, and Zimbabwe. In this post I would like to share with you our first week in Tanzania. We spent the entire week with a private guide. We spent the week traveling through Tarangire National Park, Serengeti National Park, and Ngorongoro Crater. We saw the Big 5 (lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, rhino)plus many more animals. Each morning we woke up early, around 6 or so, ate breakfast and jumped in the jeep. We drove around seeing animals for six or seven hours, eating a boxed lunch in the jeep. Then we would arrive back at our lodge and relax for a few hours. At night we would have a nice dinner at our lodge. Below I have included just a few of my favorite pictures from the safari. We took a total of 3,700 pictures so it will be very difficult to post just a few!

Two male lions...Male lions are very difficult to find so we were lucky to see them.
Female lion behind me...We watched her for about an hour, because it looked like she was going to attack a zebra. It was a cold morning, that is why I have a blanket wrapped around me.
Love this little baboon!
Cape Buffalo
Dave in the safari jeep
Wildebeest and zebra like to hang out together.
There were four lioness walking amongst the jeeps. They seemed to enjoy all the attention.
We are standing at the Hippo Pool. There were about a hundred stinky hippos!
One lonely hippo
Ngorongoro Crater
There were so many impalas.
Elephants
Safari jeeps
Zebras
Hyena
We watched this leopard eat a thomson gazelle that he carried up the tree, while her cubs played down below.
Cheetah
Rhinos are VERY rare!
Giraffe
I plan to blog again soon about our next adventure in Africa!

Albany Fandangle

Thursday night, we attended the 73rd Annual Albany Fandangle. The Fandangle is an outdoor musical directed and performed by only Albany citizens. My grandfather wrote a few of the songs YEARS ago, and my mom was in the show every year growing up. I love seeing an entire community coming together to continue a strong tradition. The show was fantastic! The show runs 6 nights every June, so plan to go next summer! The show started at 8:45 and by then the weather was perfect...no heat and no mosquitos! That's is rare in West Texas!

Before the show was a great parade which included the new MAYOR MAXEY! Ty and Kyleigh (Bill's grandkids) loved riding with my mom.
My mom had a fan club watching! Seated in the chairs...Natalie (our old neighbor), her daughter, Cathy (her mother), Scott, my aunt, and my uncle. After dinner we ate bbq at a park.Dave and I met in April of 2000 and spent a few days together at A&M while I was visiting and Dave was a senior. The next time I saw him was in June that summer when I went to the Fandangle with my family and we invited Dave to join us. That night, I never thought I would attend the show eleven years later with Dave as my husband!

Free time in the summer!

I love summer because...

#1 I was able to go to Aggieland for four days! Meredith and Jacki are two of my great Aggie friends and we had our Second Annual Trip to The Clary House. Meredith's mom owns the B&B and she was kind enough to let us stay. The house was built in 1902. It is beautiful and so relaxing! As always, Linda prepared delicious breakfast for us. If you are going to the Bryan/College Station area you MUST stay here! I had a great time shopping, laughing, and dancing with the girls!



#2 Patty and I spent a Friday afternoon painting at Mine By Design. Patty had two gift cards, and I'm thrilled that she invited me to paint with her. It took us at least thirty minutes just to pick out our pottery. It was so relaxing to just sit and paint for hours. Thank you Patty!

Mount Rainer

During Memorial weekend, I was stuck in bed with strep throat while Dave was in Washington climbing Mount Rainer. From the pictures below, you will agree my weekend was much easier. Dave has been training for months to prepare for the 14,411 foot mountain. He went with a guided group consisting of 4 guides and 8 hikers. Only two of the eight hikers attempted the summit and Dave was one of them. I'm very proud that Dave did not give up even though it was EXTREMELY TOUGH! At 13,700 feet the guides decided it was too dangerous to go any higher. The hike was three days long and he woke up at 1am the last morning to attempt the summit. The weather was pretty intense the entire three days...lots and lots of snow. While back in Texas it was 107 degrees!!

This picture was taken in the park before the hike...BEAUTIFUL!Dave before the sunburned, snow frozen face!
The first night they slept in a hut, but the next night that stayed in tents. He had to shovel away snow just to get inside. I love the snow frozen to his beard...glad I wasn't on this trip! 13,700 feetHere you can see Dave and another guy roped together in case one of them falls in a crevasse. This is why I was nervous for Dave to take this trip! Dave made it home safely with extremely sore muscles and a bad sunburn! I'm very proud of you Dave!