I confess, I am not really a morning person....

...particularly when they are absent the smell of freshly brewed coffee...  But this particular cold April morning...well, this beautiful, golden sunrise was worth the cup of instant java I was sipping on by the banks of Oxbow Bend...



The beach is calling...

...looking forward to being here again, soon!

Summer.

I wish the Winter months would fly by like Summer months always do!  My last blog posting was in June and I was at the Oregon Coast...and here it is August already?!  And, while I am really looking forward to more beach time this Fall (including a trip up to Seattle and into the Olympic National Park and then more Oregon time!)...the Summer has mostly been spent closer to home. 
We left the beach and made a detour to Washougal, WA, to watch Mike and his brother, Shawn, along with thousands of other crazy people, compete in a Spartan Race!  If you've participated in one of these races before, good for you!  If you've thought about it, watched the videos, studied the courses and decided against it, even better for you!!!  It was crazy and intense, and I was just a spectator!
Shawn is an amazing competitor, kind of a BEAST, and he killed the course in under an hour!  I am pretty sure he's hooked now...I hear he's going to do another run this fall!  And Mike did great!  I will be honest, I kept an eye on the ambulances that were standing by, a little bit worried...but he did really well ("for an old guy" he would say)!  He got hung up in a pack for awhile on one obstacle, which the participants aptly nicknamed "Cheese Grater Hill" (imagine crawling uphill for about a hundred yards on a thin layer of mud over a cheese grater [a rocky hillside]...ouch...oh, did I mention you'd be crawling under barbed wire?!).  But, he finished it with a smile on his face...I think that was a smile, it might have been mud...?!  Mike says he is really glad he did it, but don't be looking for him on another course any time soon!

The brothers; before and after...still smiling!



The weekend after we got home we packed up again and headed south to Mack, Colorado for "Country Jam", a weekend outdoor music festival which takes place in a giant dust bowl in the middle of nowhere!  Luke Bryan (who was an amazing performer!), Jo Dee Messina, Trace Adkins and, my favorite, the Zac Brown Band, were among the long list of performers over the weekend.  We did a lot of people watchin' in and around the concert grounds (plenty of crazies!), wandered into the cute little town of Fruita, and spent one morning exploring the Colorado National Monument, trying to stay out of the heat wave!  We got to have a fun, unexpected breakfast with my Aunt Sally and her husband Mike, who were passing through...and then saw them again a few days later when they came up through Wyoming to Pocatello. 

The Colorado National Monument...if it looks really hot and really dry, well, it was!

We spent a pretty quiet 4th of July, watching the local fireworks show from our deck, headed to the mountains for some kayaking, and then spent a couple of weekends in Boise helping Mike's parents move into their new digs. 

In between our travels we, of course, got in lots of Harper-time! She is growing so fast and has the cutest little personality developing!

I could do this all day...!

Tummy time!

Momma at work!

Seriously, how cute is this face?!

So sweet!

Reading stories!

5 months young!

They make cute babies!

And then, finally, Allison & Stephen arrived!  Oh, I sure do miss her when she is away...and she has been away for awhile!  They've been having adventures of their own, in Alaska, California, Alabama and Florida!  We headed to Jackson for some great kayaking (minus the crazy storm that literally chased us off of String Lake!), have had a few dinner/bbqs with both our girls and their hubbies, missed out on our camping/hiking trip because a stomach bug infected our house : ( ...but have enjoyed spending a quiet week just kind of hanging out.

Harper time with Aunt Allison!

Floating the Snake River, near Oxbow Bend.

Leisurely float down the Snake River.

See those thunder clouds coming over the Grand...

...yep, chased off the water by rain...and thunder...and LIGHTNING!

Triangle Rock!  String Lake.

Clouds cleared away...beautiful day on the lake!

Considering...

Making the leap!

Mid-air!

Splash!

They like each other a lot.  :)

Up next, well, Allison is packing up the rest of her things (we've had fun going through all of her childhood stuff...I didn't know I had that many stuffed animals in my house!) for their move up to Seattle!  Stephen starts school again next month and Allison will be settling in, making a new home and looking for work...and we'll get to see them soon with a truckload of their household stuff!

We're all headed to Boise for a Hawks baseball game and a birthday celebration (Happy Birthday to Venita, my sweet mom-in-law, who will turn 74 on Sunday!).  And then, a kayaking trip in the works, a trip to Boise to do some senior pictures with my beautiful niece, and then...finish out the summer with a trip to Washington and then Oregon!  The beach is calling!

Baby Harper's first time on the Oregon Coast!

Okay, so she might actually be the cutest baby on the planet!  Well, yes, I am just a little bit biased but...she is pretty darned sweet!  And at such a fun age, nearly 4 months; discovering her world, learning to laugh and starting to babble!  Oh, I love her!

Ashley and Harper came to the coast for a whole week...and...we played in the pool, walked on the beach, climbed the dunes, sat in the sand, saw some bunnies, found heart shaped rocks and sand dollars...and gave lots of kisses!  It was fun to spend that much time with BOTH of them; just hanging out, no schedules or commitments, just fun.  I love my girls, all 3 of them (Ashley & Harper & Allison!)!

IPhone/Instagram captures! 

Harper's first walk on the beach was a chilly one!

First time her toes were in the Pacific Ocean!!!

Trying to figure out the feeling of sand in her toes!  I hope she loves it as much as I!

Momma and daughter chat!  That indented spot on the back of her neck, that's my favorite spot to kiss!

Figuring it out!

Sitting her rear in the sand.  Gonna make a water baby out of her, teach her to paddleboard with Nana!

Vogue!  LOVE those lips!!!

Home...

Hi!  If you followed my Africa blog posts, I hope you enjoyed the re-cap of our amazing adventure! 

All of the entries were taken right from my beautiful journal (thanks Allison & Stephen!), which were perhaps written a little disjointedly, as I didn't have a lot of time to find my pen while bumping around in our safari rig or flying over the Serengeti in a bush plane!  (Seriously, it was so damn cool!)

Our plan, for those who have inquired, is to put together a "best-of" print showing of some kind...perhaps at the local Art Walk this Fall...and I am working on a photo book...and definitely a calendar, as is tradition for our family and friends!  I will keep you posted!

If an African safari is on your "Bucket List", my advice, of course...DO IT!  It seems impossible, I know; the planning, the saving money and vacation time, and those infinitely long flights...but I promise you won't regret it!  It was certainly on our list and we are so grateful that the chance to go on this incredible trip with Henry Holdsworth and our crew of equally excited adventurers presented itself!  And I am so grateful that my husband, who at times, I am certain, thinks I am far too spontaneous and far too quick to say yes to crazy travel opportunities, well...he said YES to this trip as eagerly as I!  And we had an amazing time!

We've been back for just over 2 months now...sweet little Harper is growing so fast, it's hard to believe...and, of course, our life carried on after Africa; with work, time with family and plenty of home projects.  We are looking forward to the warmer temperatures of Spring and Summer...heading to Yellowstone with our new "African" friends, Lyle and Sue; heading to the coast to breathe in some sea air; seeing family and friends; watching Harper grow;...Mike is competing in a Spartan Race!; and we'll be spending some time on the water in kayaks and in the Sportsmobile exploring...never stop exploring.

The morale of the story...it's an incredible world with so much to see and do...say YES!  You won't regret it!

Our last full day...and then the trip home!

Our last full day on the island of Zanzibar, in the country of Tanzania, on the continent of Africa, we planned to do nothing!  And that's pretty much what we did!  We were pretty content to be lazy most of the day, spent a few of those lazy hours in chaise lounges near the waves.  I booked a mani/pedi in the spa so my nails would look decent holding Harper!  And we took a couple of kayaks out for a bit - and though I loved that, it wasn't Mike's favorite as the swells made him kind of sick.  (I saw several of the biggest, brightest starfish I've ever seen and lots of huge spiny urchins!)
We spent some time on housekeeping stuff; downloading the last memory cards and backing up everything just in case we lost something along the way.  It's been pretty amazing to us that we've had our luggage appear everywhere we've gone, though it never seemed that there was any method or organization to their airports or shuttles!  The last test would be to see if our camera bags would be with our driver in Arusha as promised!
Our lazy day ended with more power outages, kind of a challenge when you are serving yourself from a buffet dinner by limited candlelight and you can't really identify what you are eating!  The staff tried to make translations and reassure us that "you like it, all good"...!  At all of the places we've stayed along our journey the people, the drivers, the staff have been exceptional and kind...and really seem to appreciate our feeble attempts at Swahili!
We went to bed in our huge fort one last time, ready to make the long trek home!

Saw these women every evening on the beach...

About 14 steps to the sand...

The lines of the horizon blur with the waters...

US!

Ras Nungwi

Our hut.

Up early to shower and eat and pack up the last few things, checked out and met our driver, Omar again, who was waiting for us.  About an hour's drive through all of those villages (would love to go back and be on foot for a bit with the locals) - I was continually surprised, in the most positive way, at how genuinely happy everyone seemed!  Kids playing soccer in the mud surrounded by trash, women carrying babies is the streets' gutters and selling fish laid out on blankets along the road - all smiling and laughing and happy!  I wondered if these people visited the US if they would feel and see the same sort of happiness and generosity.

We made it to the airport and Omar asked us which airline we were taking...and we didn't have much of an itinerary for this part of our trip, just a departure time, so those questions were unanswered...but somehow it all just seemed to work out!  We wandered up to the ZanAir counter and showed them our departure time and he said, so cheerfully, "you must be the Ryan's?"  Yep, we are! 
We got our boarding passes, passed through minimal security and waited for our last bush plane ride!  Another beautiful flight over the aquamarine waters and we arrived in Arusha to meet our new driver.  He took us into town for lunch at a nice hotel while he collected our camera bags and other luggage from the tour operator (YAY!) and then drove us to the Maasai gallery we had visited on our first day of the safari.  We apparently hit rush hour, as the traffic was insane...a bustling, crazy drive!  The traffic reminded me of Chiang Mai, everyone sort of creating their own lanes!
We picked out our zebra mask and then Mike found another mask, an eland-type animal called a kudu that he loved...we got a little something for Allison and Stephen (tried to find a turtle and a giraffe mask, but only found one of the two!) and something for Ashley and Harper!  I told the women in the shop, Maasai women, that we had just become a Babu and Bibi (Grandpa and Grandma) and they were really sweet and excited for us!  I turned my phone on and showed them the pictures I had saved of baby Harper and the video that Ashley had sent me and they all gathered around me, smiling and laughing and hugging me!  Once we were done with our purchases the shopkeeper gave me a gift...a traditional Maasai wrap (kind of like a sari) and she told me that it was a Maasai tradition to wrap the women in the family all up in a cloth and have a ceremony to signify that no matter where we go in our lives ("girls, they move on", she said) we would be strong women and we would always be a family.
We left there and made our way through traffic again and over to the Kilimanjaro airport for the first leg of our long journey home.  Our driver stopped once to point out the area that they mine Tanzanite and also where we would, on a clearer day, be able to see Mt. Kilimanjaro.  A bigger airport, crowded and hot...a two hour wait and then we were off!  A quick stop in Dar Es Salaam and an 8 hour flight to Amsterdam...a 2 hour layover and then another 8 and a half to Minneapolis!  Yikes!  We watched a couple of movies, napped, read, walked...and it actually seemed to go by fairly quickly.  A 3 hour flight to Salt Lake City and we were officially anxious to get home...a shuttle, and then the final 2 hour drive home! 
Exhausted and exhilarated are two conflicting emotions but that is how we felt - being home was wonderful...and finally getting to hold 5 1/2 day old Harper was the best thing ever!  It was like I could finally exhale!  Ashley looked amazing and Harper was the most perfect, tiny little thing!  I could've never let her go that night, and every night since!
Mike's dad made us some delicious pb&j sandwiches, complete with chips and applesauce!  Yay!!!  And Mark, Kelly and Gail came up to visit and through our sheer exhaustion we just enjoyed being home with our new mjukuu Harper!  Kind of the perfect ending to our amazing adventure!

Harper's first Nana photo!

We've been home for 2 days now, I spent Sunday over at Ashley's just hanging out with the girls...and I finally got to hear the full birth story, which went so well it's almost unbelievable!  Mike came over too and we relaxed, taking turns holding sweet little Harper.

Africa seems like a dream, as all vacations do once you return to your "real life".  Over the next few days, weeks, months, we will be sorting through the 15,000 images we took, mostly of all the exotic, incredible animals!  Africa will come back to us in memories and images and we'll be excited to share our experiences with anyone interested in hearing about it!  We will be particularly excited to get together with Lyle and Sue, who we shared most of the trip with, along with the shared excitement of having a new grand-daughter!
The highlights for me - the elephant lumbering across the crater floor, the incredible black rhinos, the crazy, bumpy road to the Serengeti!, the lions on the hunt (which probably ranks #1 as far as safari experience), the day at Dunia Camp (letting Africa come into me), the laughs we shared with the whole incredible group, the amazing experience of lying in a luxury tent at night listening to lions talking amongst tremendous thunderstorms, the lodges and all of the sweet people we met along the way (Godfrey & Martin, our amazing guides, Richard & Edward at Dunia and the nice ladies at the Maasai gallery).
Like I've said many times in this journal, the pictures will help tell the story, and it seems like a surreal dream now, flying over the Indian Ocean while our first grandchild was coming into the world - it's a crazy, big, diverse and wonderful world and I cannot wait to share it all with Harper!

I don't know if I truly did "discover the secret of Africa"...but I do feel like I carry a bit of Africa with me today, and into tomorrow... 

Spice Tour and Stone Town.

Alarm @ 7, got dressed and had a quick breakfast in order to meet our guide, "Bacari" and driver "Omar".  We wanted to see the old part of the city, called "Stone Town", famous for it's old wooden doorways and infamous for horrific slave trade.  We also booked a spice plantation tour, which was our first stop.
Not so much a plantation, as we had imagined it, more like a grove of trees and weeds along a tiny dirt road!  We were introduced to another "Omar", a young man who was to be our guide for the tour.  Barefoot with low rise jeans he reminded me of Mogli from the Jungle Book, especially as he ran around in the trees to cut a piece of fruit for us, or to peel bark from a tree or crush leaves for us to smell.  He was very sweet and funny and it was pretty interesting to see where cinnamon grows and how vanilla beans are tied up.
The tour ended with a performance, a young man climbing a coconut tree while singing in the most incredible voice!  Fresh coconut milk, a shop tour and sampling of some yummy fruits...and then on to Stone Town.
The roads became more and more crowded with the "lanes" of traffic flow seemingly decided upon by how big your vehicle was!  Omar took us first to a bank, as we needed to get some cash.  I asked him, in this highly guarded parking lot, about the government of Zanzibar, which is governed separately from Tanzania though a part of that country.  He searched for words for a bit and finally said quietly, "I don't really like my government.  You see, they get richer and the people get poorer."  In Zanzibar the economics polarization was clear, big, new government buildings (including this bank) next to crumbled shacks of homes.
He drove us to one of the main sections of Old Stone Town and Bacari walked with us all around the old churches and courtyards that used to be the hub of slave trade.  We went into the basement of one of the buildings and saw the rooms they housed 100's of slave in, shackled and literally in piles, while awaiting slave auctions.  It was sad, really horrendous to imagine.
We toured narrow alleyways, filled with bikes and school kids and vendors...and then a "farmers market" with rows and rows of vendors selling everything from fresh fruits and veggies to whole alleyways of fish and meats.  How healthy people eat meats that have been sitting out all day on concrete slabs covered in flies is beyond my comprehension and some of those sights and smells were a little much for me!  Mid-afternoon he walked us into a newer, A/C cooled hotel and restaurant - a stark contrast from everything we had just seen.  It was an Indian-owned place - pretty yummy Indian food, not too spicy!
After lunch we walked more with Bacari, toured a museum (remember Lyle's comment earlier about museums, yep, we were in and out of that huge museum in about 10 minutes?!) and then made our way back to the vehicle.  The roads, mostly paved and plenty wide for two lanes of traffic were being widened in places, especially the busier villages and many of the buildings near the road had numbers on them in spray paint.  Bacari explained that they were going to be destroyed in order to widen the road and attract more tourism, and Omar elaborated later that the government had no plan to subsidize relocation for those people whose homes or shops would be destroyed.  I don't really like the Zanzibar government either, Omar!
We made it back to the hotel and freshened up and took a walk on the beach.  I checked in with Facebook and email - Ashley was headed home and doing well...I missed them!  Dinner was a bit rich for me that night...and I started craving a good PB&J!  A storm blew in that evening which blew the power, so sleeping was a little harder without our fan!  This place had a huge bed...two queen sized mattresses pushed together with a big canopy frame and mosquito netting...it was the best fort ever!  And, you couldn't beat the view...a stone's throw to the Indian Ocean!

Lipstick fruit!

Serenading us on his way to the top!

Getting us a really fresh coconut!

A steeple in Stone Town.

Stone Town is famous for it's beautiful and often intricate doors.

An artist representation of the slave trade.

The basement of the church...where slaves were literally stacked, awaiting an auction.