Caroline's Corner

Last weekend we headed over the pass to Leavenworth. Sharon met us there, and we proceeded to have a snowy good time.  Leavenworth is a hilarious little town in the summer, but in the winter it's kind of magical.  It has a bavarian theme, so there are icicle lights everywhere and lots of good tschotchkies to buy. I don't know how that word is spelled.  Anyway, in the summer it all kind of seems out of place and you wonder why people would have up Christmas lights in July.  But in the winter, with snow and the cold, it just all works.  It's a really cute little place, and we had a great time. 

 

We went up to Lake Wenatchee State Park and went cross country skiing.  If you haven't done this, you should try it.  It was good for me, since I can't snowboard; minimal risk of falling (although I managed to do so a couple of times).  You just put your skis in the tracks, use your poles to push you along, and glide like you are on a Nordictrac at the gym.  Except you are outside in beautiful scenery, enjoying the fresh air!  It was really fun!  By the end I was exhausted, it's GREAT exercise.

 

The next day John and Sharon went up to Steven's Pass and I lounged around our hotel room.  There was a nice heated pool at the hotel, and a place to get a massage.  It was great.  They had a good time snowboarding - by the time I checked out of the hotel and went to wander around Leavenworth for a while to see what kind of junk I could buy in the shops it was coming down pretty well, so they had some nice fresh powder.  Good times!

For the past few years, John has been growing out his hair. It was REALLY long.  And kinda awful, to be honest. I mean, there was hair ALL OVER our house, and every morning when he got out of the shower he had to spend like 10 minutes brushing out all the tangles.  He is lucky because he has gorgeous hair, but sometimes too long is too long.  The reason he was growing it out was very admirable - he wanted to send it to locks of love. So last weekend we briaded it up, got out the scissors, and BAM! His ponytail is now in a ziplock baggie waiting to be mailed.  Hopefully some child will get a lovely wig out of it.  See the before and after on our flckr site!

So on the advice of almost EVERYONE, we decided to see some movies now, while we still can. And last night we went to see Avatar...in 3D!  I honestly can't remember the last time I saw a 3D movie, possibly Jaws?  I mean, it's been forever.  The glasses sure have come a long way - they look like sunglasses now, not those floppy cardboard things with one red eyehole and one blue eyehole.  I mean, you still look dorky wearing them, but they are more comfortable than cardboard.  Anyway, it was weird to get used to looking at things through glasses. I guess the only problem with 3D is if you get overwhelmed by it (I did) and want a break (I did) - I took off the glasses and everything was really weird and blurry on the screen. Whatever, it's only 3 hours of your life...and yes, that was a super long movie!  I had heard (on NPR I think) how the plot line has all been done before, and I have admit it was a bit Dances with Wolves meets Waterworld, etc.  But it was just plain cool to look at.  The world they were on was so amazing, and the sights seemed so incredibly real.  It was gorgeous.  John and I were talking after about how that would be SUCH a magical movie to see as a kid - how Star Wars was to us, like it seemed so imaginative and incredible.  Overall, 2 thumbs up.  Now I want to see Nine.

After a super long plane ride (that Paris to LAX leg was a KILLER), we are back in Seattle.  It's so great to be home!  It was even fun to be back at work, and I am almost through all of my e-mail, after a week. 

 

We went over to Kelly and Todd's house last night to meet their newest addition, Magnolia Bee.  She is almost 7 weeks old, and a total cutie!  It was really fun to hold her, but even more fun to watch John hold her.  He's going to be a really good dad. He pretty much cracks me up anyway, and with a baby he is hilarious, all the little things he says. It was a fun way to spend the evening.

 

I woke up super early this morning because I had a terrible dream, and it made me wonder about how the baby is connected to my thoughts. I know that Orson can't really know what I am thinking, but I think he must know how I am feeling because of adrenaline, etc.  It's interesting to think about. I went to prenatal yoga on Thursday night, which might have gotten me started thinking about all of that in the first place. 

 

Anyway, now I am up, have had breakfast, and am catching up on my personal e-mail and blog!  Happy weekend!

The fun thing about being somewhere you´ve been before is that you don´t have to rush around and feel like you have to see a ton of stuff. I have been laying pretty low since we got to Portugal. Lisbon was beautiful as usual. We had a nice couple of days just walking around looking at sights, and shopping at H&M. I know they are in the states now, but I swear they have better stuff at the ones in Europe.  Rebecca bought some hilarious and awesome leggings with sequins all over them to wear when we went out on NYE.  They were a hit.  We also ate a really delicious chinese buffet, which I know, sounds weird, but after 10 days of nothing but cous cous and cumin on everything you could find to eat, you would have wanted it too.  We were able to find our friend Keri at the hostel with no problem, it has been really fun to have her on this part of the trip!  For NYE we had a nice dinner at one of the street cafes on Rossio square, and then walked into the crazy street party that is Bairro Alto. There are just bars and nightclubs in almost every single building in this little neighborhood, and people are constantly out walking in the street and just hanging out.  Everyone plays music out their windows, and it´s just one big street party. It was a fun way to ring in the new year, and I was very proud of myself for being able to stay up until midnight!  It was quite an accomplishment!  Yesterday we took the train up to Porto, and last night we had dinner with Tristan, Yuka, Ronin, Brenda and Duke (Tristan´s parents). Ronin is the cutest little baby!  He´s really well behaved, and just was looking all around last night. He is an adorable little mini-me of Yuka, so cute. It was so fun to meet Ronin and to catch up with tristan and Yuka for a while! I can´t wait until they are back in Seattle. 

 

So today everyone wanted to go tour around the Port houses, and I wasn´t too interested in that, so I decided to just explore around on my own.  Everywhere you look here there is a historic church or tiled building, and it´s fun to just walk around and see the sights. I went into the Igreja do Carmo, and I am so sad that you can´t really take pictures inside churches, because it was gorgeous! There was gold leafing everywhere, and the ceiling was painted. So pretty.  Anyway, I am off to find some lunch and to look around a little more. One more night in Porto, one more night in Lisbon, then home! I have had fun, but I am really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and seeing Chloe.  Happy New Year!

I am teaching my fingers to use a new keyboard so dont expect perfect spelling or hardly any punctuation...but heres the next chapter...

 

We were headed out of the desert - we were stinky; we were sand covered; we needed showers very badly. But first we really needed to see Todras Gorge. This is the Grand Canyon of Morrocco and since we were going right by it kind of we needed to check it out. It was worth the extra hour it tacked onto our trip. Although it is not as breathtaking as the GC, it was definitely very beautiful. The colors in the rock faces were very similar to what you see in Southern California...isnt that something, you can go halfway around the world and see similar scenery. The rock faces were almost vertical, they just rose out of the riverbed straight up to the sky, and everyone had to look up. It was beautiful.

 

Other than that, we had a pretty uneventful December 25th. We had a really long day of riding in the van, got to the little town of Ouarzazat, I think this is the correct spelling, had some showers - best ever, dropped off our laundry - you can only find fluff and fold here, no laundramats - got some food, found aninternet cafe to send out some brief merry Christmas emails, and went to sleep.  

 

The next day, which we said was going to be our Rak-a-tak day, dawned clear and gorgeous. Rak-a-tak is a term that the berber guide that was at our tent waiting for our camel tour taught us. He said it means a joke, but no one else can confirm that...Anyway, we decided to head over to the big Kasbah in the center of town to see the sights and to see if we could hire another van to move us on to Marrakesh. The Kasbah is veryold and apparently survived total ruin when it was sited to be in the original Star Wars trilogy. The whole time weve been in Morrocco I have been considering how much inspiration they got for those movies...sorry to spoil your illusions, but it was NOT all someones crazy imagination. Actually, everyone here wears Jalabas, which are basically Jedi robes. Camels are like Tan-tans. The desert landscape looksjust like all the desert locations when they are not in space, and all the architecture, well, its just like the medinas and kasbahs. Anyway, this little city has been able to capitalize on the Hollywood need for cheap desert locations, and there was quite a list of films that have shot on location. We wandered around the Kasbah a little, looked at the outside of the cinema museum, picked up our still wet laundry, and got on the bus to Marrakesh.

 

Rebecca and I were lucky enough to get the front two seats on a big tour bus, so we had the best view, which was really lucky. The whole ride is crossing through the high Atlas mountains, and the views are incredible. I had no idea that Morrocco would be so green, I had pictured the Sahara in my mind, just thought it would be sand dunes everywhere. But there is a large amount of green area, especially in the mountains. It was incredible to look out and see the whole valley with mountains in the distance, as far as you can see.  It was a twisty, curvy ride, and by the end I was feeling a little green, and was happy that we were done, but it was so pretty it was hard to complain.

 

Next up...Marrakesh

We have had a few really weird coincidences occur while we have been here. 

One

Pete ran into a guy on the plane when he was traveling from Qatar to Morrocco named Khalid.  He's an Australian Architect of Libyan descent.  He's a really nice guy, and just hilarious.  And I know this because he was in Fez when we got there, so we got to meet him.  But the coincidence does not stop there!  We also had no idea where he was headed after Fez, except that we knew he was going to the desert (as were we) to do a 2 day camel trek.  So we got to our place to stay in the desert and suddenly, there is Khalid!  Hilarious! Then, yessterday Rebecca and I were walking through the big square here in Marrakesh and we saw him again!  We are totally convinced that he is a spy, and has been following us around.  Because that's too weird.  But he's hilarious, totally excited about everything, and he says it all in an Australian accent, so it sounds even better.  Fun!

Two

We took a van from Fez to the desert. Then, we when got out of the desert we hired another van...ended up being the same one.  That van is also a spy, and is following us around.

 

We are silly, and just have been enjoying our time here in Morocco so much. More postings to follow...

As an addendum to my last post, here's a poem, written by Pete about our Christmas Camel Trek.  He's so clever.

 

 

Twas the Night before Rak-a-Tak, and all through the desert only the sand was stirring,plus one cat and maybe a mouse
Rebecca was all nestled in her saddle with care
Until visions of the mad camel disease gave her a big scare

John carefully wrapped his pajama pants tight round his head
To avoid sand and camel farts he choose his own brand instead
When from the back of Caroline’s dromedary there arose such a smell
John profusely apologized but it was the camel this time his wife did tell

In the morning outside our berberlap tent there arose such a clatter
Alex sprung out to the dunes to see what was the matter
It was Fozzy the Frenchmen scrambling up the sand for sunrise
His daughter/wife was still in the tent the scrubbing sand from her eyes
Sunrise was beautiful, the vast sea of dunes all a glow
The camels soon saddled and all nose to rump in a row

It was soon time to journey back and Aziz gave a whistle
John’s camel Prancer tried to buck and bristle
Soon we were moaning with grundle pain
The Kasbah seemed such a far journey across this sandy terrain
At last we dismounted our camels and could go no further
The trip back to Rizzani was finished in a van straight out of Little Miss Berber
We were stuffed in-between turbans and jalabas quite tight
Then we wished a Merry Rac-a-Tack to all and to all as we drove out of sight

We loaded up our backpacks with toothbrushes and anything we might need for overnight in a berber tent, and stood with a father, son, and daughter from France waiting to get on our camels.  Each of the camels was tied to the one in front, and had a little saddle around their hump.  The guide motioned me over, and I got onto the camel.  Almost before I could even get situated, the camel was standing up!  They are really funny, because they have knees that go the opposite way from ours, and when they stand up they put up their back legs, then their front legs, then come all the way to standing. It was like being on a roller coaster.  Once everyone is on their camel our guide begins leading the front camel away, and the rest just fall in line. 

 

Riding a camel is a little like riding on a horse, except that the camels go about 10 times more slowly than a horse.  You can walk just as quickly as they do, they are just more sure-footed in the sand dunes.  Our camel train headed into the dunes, through the wind that was whipping sand all around us. We had tried to negotiate to get turbans to protect our faces, but none of us wanted to pay what they were asking, so we all improvised.  Pete had a bandanna, Rebecca had a scarf, Alex used his beanie cap, and I used my buff.  John’s improvisation was the best of all, though – he walked up to us before we left wearing his pajama pants on his head! He had managed to wrap them around so they looked like a turban, and he was probably the best protected out of all of us, it just was really funny-looking.

 

We rode the camels for about an hour and a half into the dunes until we came to a little berber campsite.  My camel was not happy about the way he had been tied to the camel in front of mine, and about halfway through the trek he came loose!  I had to yell at the guide and tell him my camel was untied, and my camel was really irritated when the guide tied him back up.  It happened again at the end of the trek, but I figured that my camel would just follow along and that he would be happier if I didn’t tell, and it was fine. 

 

The berber tents were just big berber blankets draped over pieces of bamboo lashed together.  They were pretty permanent looking, but I wouldn’t want to stay in them for more than one night.  We had dinner all together, which was a bunch of vegetables and chicken cooked in a big tangine, with, of course, bread!  The staple of every meal.  I am sick of bread.  But the vegetables were delicious, and I love it because they give you fruit here for dessert – they love some sliced oranges sprinkled with cinnamon.  I don’t think I had ever had that before, but it is so good!  If you haven’t ever had it, you should give it a try.

 

After dinner we played cards – we tried to play Uno with a regular card deck.  We also tried to communicate with the family that spoke French and the guide that spoke berber Arabic.  It was hilarious, lots of hand gestures and “fake” hands to show what was allowed. 

 

The berber tents had little blanket pallets in them where we slept, and the tent sides and roofs almost kept out the sand.  But about halfway through the night the wind stopped, and we woke up to a beautiful clear sky with no wind, and a perfect Christmas morning for trekking back to the camel compound.     

 

Rebecca was freaked out by the camel ride, so she opted to walk back, and became our official photographer.  The journey back was a little more painful than the journey out, just think how your bum hurts when you ride your bike a long way and then have to get back on it and ride some more. 

 

For as welcoming as they were when we arrived at the hotel before the camel trek, they were equally as anxious to get us out of there when we got back.  They piled us in a van that should have held 12 people max, but we got to ride with about 16!  It was crowded, and I was happy to get out of it when we got back to Rissani.  We arranged a van to take us to Ouizazate and headed out for our next adventure.