Bahamas Bums.

It takes a thousand miles and the relaxed environment of the Bahamas to make me feel like I have time to post! I won't lie, there were many times over the past few months when I have really, really, wanted to post -- things like Thanksgiving (when I ate a TURDUCKEN!), my 30th birthday (eek!), and so on and so forth, but just wasn't able to get it all down.  But now...thanks to the magic of WiFi I can post from our island paradise!

How is everybody??

I'm spending the holiday season with the Long side of the family -- enjoying the total relaxation that comes with being on Man-O-War.

As you can see, Jamie and I went tidepooling this afternoon.  Easily one of my favorite pasttimes when we're on the island.  You can also probably see that I was having way too much fun with my fisheye lens.

The island suffered a little damage from the hurricanes that passed through earlier this year.  When we got here, I was surprised at how green the island still was.  The main casualty (at least that I noticed) was our dock.  But the house still looks great and there is plenty of sand on the beach.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!  I'll check back in soon...

Ech.

It is probably a symptom of not getting nearly enough sleep the past few months, but I literally wept from laughing so hard at this video.  I'm loopy.

Sleep now, catch up posts later!

Final Stretch.

Tomorrow is the last day of school for students.  Friday is the last day of school for teaching staff.  I don't think I have had more to do in my life than I do this week.  For the first time since I entered the professional world I actually fear it. will. not. all. get. done.

I think it might have been written all over my face today because more than one person sent me this link.

Kid Gives Speech After Learning To Ride A Bike - Watch more Funny Videos

Thanks for the perspective kid!  (Oh how I wish your dad could have panned up to the American flag that was just over your shoulder...)

I promise there will be more posts after the teachers are out for the summer!

Happy Mother's Day.

First things first, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all of the mothers out there!  Of course, to my wonderful mother who is in Moscow tonight, my sister-in-law (mother to the two most intelligent and adorable nieces I could ask for), my mother-in-law who raised the single most incredible person in my world, and to all of my friends who became mothers this year.  I hope this day was filled with the love and reverence you deserve!

Although it is unrelated to Mother's Day, I wanted to share this story given to me by Catherine as it might make other smile.   As always, I appreciate any "students say the darndest things" handouts...Here is yet another golden nugget.

I bet my teachers friends can decode that last word at the bottom of the page...I think it's a pretty awesome example of invented spelling.

Ngorogoro Crater

The last big stop on our trip was Ngorogoro and the best word I can think of to describe it is "breathtaking".  Just look at it.

Absolutely breathtaking.  Ngorogoro Crater was actually the whole reason for our trip.  Jamie and I had been going back and forth about taking a trip to Africa for a long time.  It being a long and pricey voyage, I always argued that there were other places I would rather go that weren't nearly as expensive.  And that didn't require vaccinations delivered in syringes.

Then, I read the entry on Ngorogoro Crater in 1,000 Places to See Before You Die and the seed was planted.  When the incredible deal to visit Tanzania popped up on my weekly travel deal email I thought about that article and then checked the dates with Jamie -- which was as good as buying the tickets right there and then.

But before we got to Ngorogoro Crater, we started our trip from Serengiti by stopping by a Maasai village and spending time with some of the locals.

Center of the village.

Inside the village's schoolhouse.

The Maasai men greeting us.

One of the Maasai warriors gave us a tour of the village and showed us his hut.

Maasai toddler

Walking feet

Hut interior

It was quite the experience.  My favorite part was when our Maasai friend -- I am completely blanking on his name -- was talking about marriages within the Maasai culture.  When Jamie asked how many wives most of the men had he replied that some men had many, but that you could have only one "if you really liked her."

From the village, we visited Oldupai Gorge (a.k.a. Olduvai Gorge) where some of the earliest hominid remains were found.

Cradle of Mankind

We walked through the museum and ate a picnic lunch with that view, then made our way to our lodge in Ngorogoro.  This particular lodge ended up being my favorite as it had the best view of all.

View from our bed.

Plus, as it was situated on a cliffside, the lodge had a very treetops feel to it...

The best part of all was that it was nearly invisible from the crater when you looked back up at it and all of the lodges we stayed in boasted eco-friendly measures (i.e. all had gardens where they grew much of the produce for their restaurants).

The next morning, we got up bright and early to be among the first to venture into the crater and were rewarded with a beautiful sunrise.

Just a few minutes later...

Ngorogoro Crater ended up being everything that Patricia Schultz promised in 1,000 Places to See Before You Die and more.

Two cheetah on the prowl.

Under the morning cover.

Lunch.

Mkenda, our guide, mentioned that Ngorogoro Crater was a "retirement home" of sorts for elephants because it had more tender grasses and flowers for old elephants to eat.

This ostrich was something of a bully.

Just yawning.

A note about Mkenda our guide: he seriously was the biggest stroke of luck that we had.  He has been leading safaris for many years and was clearly very respected among the communities.  Other guides would pullover for him than discretely follow him knowing that Mkenda would find the action without fail.  Not only could he spot a jackal in the grass while navigating a bumpy road, he knew the animals so well...he would be able to predict their paths and be able to put us right in their path (hence the number of close-up shots.)  He saw cheetah on the horizon -- would peek at them on his binoculars -- announce that they would be coming our way shortly and then reverse the truck 200ft back up the road.  Sure enough, within minutes they started walking right towards us and past our truck.

So close I couldn't even zoom out enough!

Not to mention, he found the cheetah for us when we told him they were the last animal on our checklist that we had yet to find.  We had lost hope after the Serengeti knowing that was our best chance of finding them.  Despite there only being 12 cheetahs in Ngorogoro he found us two of them.  Even better, a few hours after first finding them, he announced that we should go check on them to see if they were hunting and sure enough we found them again getting ready to pounce on a gazelle.

We camped out in the truck nibbling on our lunch while we watched the cheetahs inch closer and closer to theirs.  Sadly -- I was on Team Cheetah -- there was a false start and one of the cheetah pounced a little too early and the gazelle got away.

Ngorogoro was my favorite stop on the trip.

But even driving back to the airport the following day, we encountered some pretty incredible sights.

Incidentally, this was the only thing that had Mkenda pulling out his own camera.  

The mountains in full bloom.  

I have so many more pictures and memories, but as I am exhausted just writing about them, I can only imagine how exhausting it must be to read and scroll through.  If you've actually managed to read through all of these posts, thanks for allowing me to indulge...

Sad about the little logos on this panoramic shot -- we couldn't find the software necessary to stitch together the different pictures...

Breaking News: Rockstars

I'm interrupting my Tanzania recap (just one more post left!) to share the latest DC Prep in the news!  Emily was on TV this morning.  Go Prep!

Fight for Children Helps Improve Education in DC Area: MyFoxDC.com

Serengeti

Jamie had made this video on Sunday, but I neglected to post it until now.  I was thinking I'd hold off and post it at the end, but I realize now that it's better now then later!  (For a better quality video click here).

After our venture into Lake Manyara National Park, we began the journey to the Serengeti.  In the end, it was long one extended game drive.  We spotted giraffes and elephants everywhere as we passed over the caldera -- we would later return and enter Ngorogoro Park -- but for this day we were just passing through.  

The Maasai have a good eye for real estate.

Once we entered into the Serengeti the landscape became drier and we started seeing more gazelles, warthogs, and LIONS.  These were the first lions we spotted on our trip.

But shortly after spotting them, we saw the ultimate: Mufasa on Pride Rock.

Yes, I'm aware this is Simba.

Close enough, anyway.  I was happy.  The last thing we spotted before we got to the lodge was a leopard.  Actually three leopards (including two cubs).  Apparently this is something of a rarity -- leopards are extremely secretive and especially hard to spot -- so we figured we had used up all of our safari karma on the first day.

We finally got to our next lodge at sundown and appreciated the view from our room (again).  The lodge was very nice -- Jamie and I were given the honeymoon hut (which I think was the same as all of the others but just more central) so we decided not to break it to them that we have been married for almost 4 years.  We were warned against walking on the grounds after nightfall without a gun-wielding guard.  Lions and elephants supposedly ran rampant at night.  I think they were just trying to build up the novelty of the lodge...Jamie and I just walked a little faster from place to place after sunset.  Just in case.

The view from our bed.

The view from the balcony.

The next two days we got to traverse the Serengeti.  So many pictures.

One of the highlights was when we found a tree with EIGHT lion cubs lounging in it.  EIGHT.  (Unfortunately, the pictures of the cub tree didn't come out too well -- there were camouflaged after all.

Can you spot them all?

All in all, a pretty memorable trip through the Serengeti.