Saturday, May 30, 2009

SUMMER!!!!!!!

I love summer! I forgot how nice it feels to have warm sunshine on your face, and how much better beer tastes when you drink it during the day.  Thursday and Friday were my days off this week and BOY did I have a BLAST!!

Thursday, Josh and I decided to make it a point to do NOTHING. And nothing we did! We went into town to run the few errands that needed running and eat breakfast, then we picked up a half case of beer and went to his house.  He lives on Paintbrush Trail, about a mile UP the mountain.  His back porch has a killer view of the Grand (Teton). We figured sitting around doing nothing would be a lot easier if he had comfy chairs.  It was in the upper 60's, so naturally we wanted to sit outside.  Here's how we managed that: 

so we listened to music and drank a few cold beers in the sunshine! (I worked on my tan as well).

Friday my boss, Jessa, and some friends of hers were rafting the Snake.  I was invited to fill an extra spot.  We took off from town around noon and finally got to rowing around 1pm.  Oh how I love rafting!! There were 17 of us in three boats.  The water was a tad chilly, but we had a blast regardless! 
After a full day of water and sun, I was ready for bed at 9pm last night! Got eight hours of sleep before the 6am shift this morning! 

I love this town! 
I love sunshine!
I love summer!
I heart my friends! 

Friday, May 29, 2009

Non Africa related...

Le sigh... life in Jackson is full of ups and downs and they are mostly related to the weather.  Yesterday was the best day I've had in a long time. And I did NOTHING. I repeat. NOTHING.  Elu and I hung out with Josh on his back porch in the mountains all day yesterday.  We made it into town to run a few errands but that was it, the rest of the afternoon was spent drinking beer, eating hamburgers and sitting on the back porch in the sunshine.  Life in Jackson is pretty sweet. 

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

I am a Woman of Words...

I assure you! There is a whole lot more to the Africa trip than pictures. I am working on finding the perfect words. But just to hold you over I'll tell you about the most amazing part of the trip:

We arrived at the Samburu Game Reserve in central Kenya on May 13 or 14th (looking for my travel journal with the exact dates) The trip was set up so that we had the same guides for the whole trip, Joshua and David. The game parks that we were visiting were pretty far from each other, so on travel days Joshua and David set out ahead of us in the Land Rovers and we flew a Caravan Flight with Martin (the coolest pilot in the world).  So, when we arrived at the Samburu airstrip, we had surrogate guides for the afternoon.  Gladwell was our guide for the afternoon on this particular day.  He picks us up from the airstrip and tells us how sad he is that the river (that runs through camp) is dry, and has been since December.  With a dry river bed, things can be dangerous for the animals.  Elephants are okay, because they can dig holes for their water, but the other members of the African Animal Community are pretty SOL. This was saddening news to hear, because May is supposed to be the rainy season for Kenya.  The Climate Crisis coupled with humans moving into the bush and tapping the water systems upstream for their own use is slowly killing off a lot of indigenous wildlife.  Gladwell assures us that the Game Reserve and the individual camps are doing their best to provide water for the animals.  We get to camp and try to make light of the lunch by the (non)river and our (non)waterfront views from our tents.  We were having an afternoon cocktail at the bar near the (non)river when out of nowhere this Land Rover comes screeching in...

"The river is coming!!"  he says waving about wildly, camera in tow, "we followed it all the way down here, there's a wall of water!"

Puzzled, we all looked at each other for a split second and then raced to the river bed, cameras in tow as well.  We looked towards what would be up river and sure enough, a flash flood! It had been raining up in the mountains for the past couple of days and the water had just made it down to the flats.  

I had seen such a thing on the Discovery Channel, but I always thought it was a time laps camera, I can tell you, if it is time lapsed, it's not by much! It took all of fifteen minutes for this river bed, dry and cracked, to become a river. The Uaso Nyiro River, meaning Red River, or Muddy River, is never blue... but it sure is a beautiful sight to see!

Nature sure is an amazing thing! 
(I did get this on video- when I get the final product made I'll share it with you guys)


That being said, it's soap box time for a second: The Earth has the ability to and will repair herself from all the damage humans and her other inhabitants have done.  Mother Earth is a powerful being and she loves her children, however, if we don't take care of her, she's going to kick us out! So please please please, when traveling especially, respect the Earth, do what you can to make up for carbon emissions and waste you have created. Reduce what you use, Reuse what you can and Recycle everything else! I would love for my grandchildren to be able to see such a sight one day, and I know you wish the same for your offspring and future offspring. 



Sunday, May 24, 2009

Saturday, May 23, 2009






I know that when my friends come back from a trip that was really exciting, I want to hear all about it.  And I know that most of you are expecting that from me... But I tell you, a trip like this is just so boundless I am having trouble finding the right words for you guys.  So in this instance, all I can give you is these: 




Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Out of Africa...


I'm home!!! And I have 1,950 pictures to go through, and about 3 hours of video footage, so please be patient while I get readjusted to Mountain Time and Mountain Life... in the meantime, here are three of my favorites that I was able to do a quick edit on...