It's Gonna Take A Lot to Drag Me Away From You

There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do....

Wednesday morning we got up and got ready to get our Africa on. There have been times when I, like Gilligan, have thought that I'd just hop on a boat and get to my destination real quick. Turns out that like Giligan, I was wrong.

Our boat was delayed for more than 4 hours while they were trying to fix the garage door. Oh goody. That means plenty of time for Deb and I to get picked up by these Portuguese Hotties. How it is possible for me to have a conversation with someone about Portuguese literature when they only speak Portuguese and I only speak minor amounts of Spanish is beyond me, but it sure happened. I even got some book recommendations from him. Who knew?? When these guys asked Scott for our email addresses, he got creative and our Pseudonyms were born. Debra = Susana Jones - you can reach her at susanajones@hotmail.com and Steph = Diana Howard. You can reach me now at dianahoward2@gmail.com. For the rest of the trip, we mostly went by these names when meeting anyone. Thank you, creepy Portuguese guys.

First stop in Morocco after driving through some ritzy neighborhood where the king of Saudia Arabia has some real estate, was Cape Spartel. Some say that this is the northern-most point in Africa, but wikipedia begs to differ. Well, whatever the case may be, I went there. And I tried on a fez.

Next stop, camel riding! While I was waiting my turn, Aziz, our tour guide, thought it would be rather funny to get the camel to lick me. Whoa!

Don't be surprised if you see a picture similar to the one below on my Christmas card this year. Seriously - how could I pass up that opportunity??? So yeah, we may have just ridden camels around a parking lot, but it isn't like we were going to ride them through the Sahara or anything...one day tour, people!

Next, we were on to the Herculean Caves. Rumor has it that Hercules once slept here before he performed the 12 Labors, if you're into Greek Mythology maybe you know a little more about it than I do. This is the view from the inside of the cave. Isn't it gorgeous?!

And of course we were taken to Le Mirage, a fancy shmancy celebrity hot spot hotel right on the beach. Isn't it beautiful? I like this shot of me looking all wind blown. Woosh! Thinking back on this, I can't believe that I didn't ask to look at the ballroom!!! Drat!

All that touristy stuff made us hungry for more touristy stuff. So off we went to have lunch at this fun little restaurant that of course had live music.

And since I like you, here is a little treat:


Right after eating a delicious lunch where none of us got sick - even though we were told that we would get sick - which I am eternally grateful that I didn't...we went to the Kasbah! Hooray! Basically, the Kasbah is the old fortified city. And I know what you're all thinking. And yes, we did rock the Kasbah.

{please bless that this blog doesn't get 5000 hits tomorrow}

We were really lucky to have school get out right as we were walking by it. So of course Scott started taking really cute pictures of the kids.

See exhibit A:

Oh wait a minute. It was all fun and games until this little guy started demanding money from Scott. Good thing Scott didn't have any money on him.

And here's a good shot just so you can see more of what Morocco looks like - it was so beautiful!

Our last stop before waiting in line again for 4 hours to get on the ferry was at a rug shop. Somehow the sales guy thought that Scott and I were married. So what did we do? We played along, of course! My favorite thing that this guy said to us was "Oh I love this family!!!" while holding our hands and telling us to have lots of children. Zach - did you tell him about our elopement???

Overall, I loved Morocco and it was neat to have such a "different" experience for a day. Someone once told me that they went to Morocco and hated it - they must not have been with Aziz. Seriously - if you're going to Morocco anytime soon, email me and let me know. I can totally hook you up.