Where to this time? A weekend in Athens

I (Marcus) have helped Kerry's Dad coach the varsity boys basketball team this year, and each year the team travels to an end of season tournament hosted by an ISST school somewhere in Europe. This year was in Athens, so we got to spend 5 days with the team there. 3 of those days were filled with 5 games, but we also had a little opportunity to see the city and enjoy some good cuisine!

Here is the Greek Parliament building.

The uniforms of the parliament guards are hilarious! Of course, they're just ceremonial guards. The real ones look a little more threatening.

What was it about fat pigeons that some of our players loved so much?

And of course, what would a trip to Greece be without seeing a group on strike? The electric workers this time. The rolling blackouts sure made the tournament interesting at times.

Outside the theater of Dionysis.

We got up to the ticket gate and found out that the place was closing in 5 minutes, so we didn't get in! We thought this would be our last chance to tour the Acropolis so we were very disappointed. We climbed atop some rocks nearby to get a decent view.

Coach G. and the boys.

Here is Athens.

We ended up having some time the next morning before leaving for the airport, so got to spend an hour at the Acropolis after all! And to top it off, it was Sunday and it is free only on Sundays!

Several shots of the Parthenon and other structures that make-up the Acropolis:

These are more ornate pieces that I think at some point were taken from the Parthenon.

That's about all the sightseeing we were able to do in our busy basketball-filled 5 days there. I don't figure pictures of the boys doing goofy things would be interesting to most of you, so I'll save you from that.

Final travel tales of Tanzania

Here we are at the gate station leaving Ngorongoro Protected Area: Dan, Sam (cook), Keevi Riti (guide / driver), Kathy, Paul, Marcus (in his Masai sandles). Who knows where Mike is, and Kerry got stuck taking the picture.

Rehashing all our wonderful experiences from 12 days of excitement over our final dinner in Moshi.

Preparing to leave early in the morning from Keys Hotel to journey back to Nairobi. It sprinkled a bit. Coming back to Moshi the day before, we didn't even know if we would have shuttle ride back to Nairobi due to the post election violence and protests that had been taken place in some parts of Kenya. We ended up having no trouble at all. Our only disappointment was that we didn't get to go to the Carnivore restaurant in Nairobi, to eat much of what we had seen in the days prior. Meats on sticks, mmm.

A very clear morning.

One of our last clear looks at Kilimanjaro, as we drove away on the shuttle bus. Kerry was mastering the art of taking pictures while on the move.

Mt. Meru across the valley

And at that, a long anticipated trip came to a close. What an amazing vacation!

Day 4 - Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater

Our last day of game driving was probably the best. Hardly any pictures of ourselves were taken on this day, but that is because the wildlife was so amazing and abundant that the cameras were always pointed away from our vehicle!

The animal spotting began only a few hundred meters from the entrance to our camp. First we see this light colored younger full grown male lion laying in the grass. Not comforting (but exilerating!) when we were just sleeping close by.

Then we spot a lioness lying down a bit further from the road more shielded from view, and realize that she has cubs with her, at least 4 of them!

Then from behind some brush, this old grizzly male comes strolling in! 7 lions in one small clearing was not a bad way to start the day.

Then just another couple hundred meters down the road, another one! This one had its eyes locked on some potential prey wondering way in the distance, though it could have just been curiosity.

The drive to/from the Serengeti took us across these massive flat plains between the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. Grazing animals are all over in this stretch. The wildabeast (called "gnu") constantly participate in a circular pattern known as the great migration, which is quite an amazing thing!

Lines of them stretched out as far as the eye could see.

Here we are at the entrance to Ngorongoro Crater. The one-way road down was much friendlier than the narrow, rocky, steep, and windy road up and out at the Crater's other end.

Not long after entering the crater, spotted a group of vehicles, and when we caught them found they were watching two cheetah. The pair then crossed the road in front of us.

I was very impressed by these graceful and spectacular looking animals. They were by far my favorite to see in person on the trip!

We then witnessed a live hunt. The pair spotted a gazelle meandering toward them, and suddenly crouched as they began stalking it.

Eventually, the gazelle noticed them, and turned the other way. The cheetahs took off after it, then very abruptly veered 90-degrees toward an onlooking family of warthogs. One cheetah drew a bunch of attention while scattering them, and the other swooped in and snatched up a baby warthog in its mouth. It was quite a treat (pun intended).

We had lunch while waiting for a black rhino spotted in the distance to mozy towards us, which it did.

Another quite amazing animal. Ngorongoro Crater is the only remaining place Black Rhinos are are still living in the wild.

Bizarre creatures. I wonder what it was like the first time an explorer laid eyes on a zebra in the wild.


Too cute, Kerry says.


Pretty bird.



More pretty birds!

This deep black cloud rolled in and started to drench the other end of the crater. We could see the wall of downpour coming towards us, so decided it was a good time to leave. At that, Day 4, and our safari game drives, were complete.