The 'Kech

The title is just another lame attempt of mine to be hip and cool, but I think I may start something with this.

I'm talking about Marrakech, probably the most famous and recognized city in Morocco. Home of Djemaa el Fna square, snake charmers, (arguably) the best shopping in Morocco, and any other touristy thing the country has to offer.

We had not yet been, so after we got back from Ireland we piled the kids and Mom and Dad in the car for the road trip south.  

As I've said before, it's not a road trip in Morocco without a dramatic detour.  This time we made it to the city proper before things went bad.  Consequently, my iPhone's GPS has been retired.  One minute we are cruising towards the blue dot and the next thing you know we are at the end of a dead end one- way street (dead end for cars anyway) with a man selling chickens on one side of the car and a furniture/pharmacy/electronics/toys/grocery store on the other.   Thankfully we knew exactly what to do: oh yes, this had happened before (in Fes)- we flagged down a cab and paid the driver to lead us to our hotel-  Les Jardins de la Koutoubia where we were once again spoiled by the diplomatic rate.

The next morning we headed out into the medina with our tour guide.  Pretty much everywhere we go we hire a guide.  They are relatively cheap, very professional, have a lot of knowledge, and the most important part, know how to get us into and back out of the labyrinth of streets that is the medina.  We even have a guide we send folks out with in Rabat (shout-out to Aziz).  Anyhow, we got a great look at  the city waking up.  We walked through the medina, some museums, an old university and back out to the Square where you find food stalls, henna, musicians and the snakes being charmed.



This is where I need to go on a little tangent about my Dad and this trip.  My Dad, bless his heart, is up for just about anything that I ask of him.  So when I suggested he (and Mom) hop a plane to Atlanta, then Newark, then Frankfurt, then Madrid and into Casablanca to keep our kids in Rabat while we went away for a week, he was all for it.

Because of all the connections, they brought carry-ons so that their luggage would definitely make it with them to Casa.  And if any of you have been on a trip with my Dad (and many of you have), you know that the suitcase he packs is always the biggest of the group.  I have NO idea what he has in there (power tools? his beloved leaf blower?) but it is all necessary.  So as it was, the carry-on was a sacrifice for him.

Fast forward to Madrid: Mom and Dad's last leg of endless travel.  They go to board the plane and the flight attendant told Dad he needed to check his bag; it was too big.  That's right, it had been just fine for the 3 other flights, but not on Royal Air Maroc.  The employee tried to make them take it all the way back to the ticket counter, which would have been an hour round-trip and they would surely miss their flight.  They argued against it and finally the guy "checked" it and threw it on a conveyor belt to go to the plane.  Well, I think we can all guess that bag was placed on the conveyor belt to nowhere.

I mean, REALLY, Royal Air Maroc, you lose GATE CHECKED LUGGAGE.  So, our foolproof plan to get the luggage here was not so foolproof.  Anyhow, Dad was a pretty good sport about having one pair of jeans the entire time and now they are locked in a fight to the death with the airline to be compensated for the lost luggage.

So continuing on to Dad's (comedy?) of errors trip, at the end of our guided tour he gets run over by a motorbike in the medina.  Marrakech is notorious for its small streets with bikes zooming past.  It gets old real fast.  Many of our friends don't like to take their kids into the medina for that reason- we made ours stay in the stroller the entire time.  They come out of nowhere and are traveling way too fast.  Well, one caught Dad. He wasn't too hurt, just his pride, but it made us all the more nervous.

Then, that very night Dad LOCKED HIMSELF OUT ON THE BALCONY.  We switched out nights going out to dinner since the restaurants don't open until 7:30 or so.  That night Joe and I were eating at the hotel's French restaurant and Mom was putting the kids to bed next door to their room.  Dad stepped outside onto the balcony, which by the way, was only about 2 feet deep. Don't you know the wind came along and blew the door shut.  And THEN that man shimmied over to our other balcony and just as G had closed his eyes (after about an hour's fight), Mom heard a "tap, tap, tap".  Somehow she just knew it was Dad, locked out of the room.  Cursing the day he was born, she let him and after he fumbled through the room, she started the process over with G.

The best part of all this is that Joe and I had a view of the window from where we were eating dinner.  We saw Dad standing outside and commented that it was nice that he was out there probably enjoying a glass of wine.  Sadly, we missed the Spiderman part of the show. Also, we later checked the balcony door and it was found to be UNLOCKED.

This brings us to the next morning and the end of Dad's woes.  He wanted to get a picture of the snakes.  Before we walked up I gave him a small amount of money to pay the snake guy.  If you take a picture, they want money, and as I didn't want to get anywhere NEAR the snakes, I was putting Dad in charge of the transaction.

One of the snake guys- 2 cobras and a python curled up on the corner of the rug.  Just looking at this picture gives me the willies.

Dad wanted to have his picture taken with the snake guy.  At this point he has NO IDEA that a snake is being put around his shoulders.

After the initial surprise and schoolgirl scream, he decides to "own" it and is holding the snake by the head.  At this point snake guy is gesturing to Mom and I to come get in the picture.  

Dad is beyond thrilled with himself for being so brave with the snakes and snake guy continues to be persistent about wanting to put a snake on me and Mom.  This is when I throw on my teacher face and very forcefully yell, LA! LA! ("No" in Arabic) And he got the idea.  

It was then time for Dad to pay up.  Mom and I were standing a safe distance of 20 ft away and watching as Dad gives the man the amount of money I originally gave him.  But no, the man asks for more and even though I had warned him against this, Mom and I watch in horror as Dad PULLS OUT HIS WALLET and opens it up and basically empties it for this guy. (Anyone that has visited a third world country is having a heart attack right along with me right now) Thankfully, he only had the equivalent of $25 left (way to go Mom on the tight rein), and snake guy was a little disappointed.  I should note that during this time of negotiation snake guy had his back towards the snakes and they started wandering off a little too far for my taste.  

Back to the rest of the trip. We spent our time shopping and haggling in the medina, taking naps, taking little boys to the pool, and ordering room service french fries and spaghetti for little boys.  G and J did decent on this trip.  Well, J was a champ.  He slept through everything.  Especially the first night when G, Joe and I slept for a total of 2 hours. Guess which of the 3 of us kept everyone else awake?  The second and third night G slept on the king size bed with Mommy and Joe on G's little floor mattress.  What can you do?

And a few more pics-

Every day around noon men go to work setting up 40 or so food stalls on the Djemaa el Fna square. 

Shoes anyone?

Ran into a friend from college in the medina- Jerod and his lovely wife Bethany.  CRAZY!

Koutoubia Mosque 

Mom and Dad- such good sports!

We had such a GREAT time with Mom and Dad throughout the adventure.  And even though Dad half-heartedly suggested on the drive home (during J's one hour scream fest) that we leave the boys with Khadija during our Spain road trip next year, I don't think he would do it any differently.  (And obviously Mom wouldn't let him)

A Few Words Wednesday, Vol. 9

G finished his first year of pre-school this week.  I wanted to do the thing where I post the First Day of School pic alongside this one to compare the two, but that pic is on the hard drive that done gave out.  So until we retrieve all those files this one will have to do.

We went to the beach with our friend Matt this weekend.  I post this picture to show his pathetic state without his wife and 4 kids- this blanket is usually filled to the brim.  Also, this mat that he is laying on is what I consider to be a "Black Magic Product".  It somehow sifts out sand as you get on it, but yet, doesn't let the sand that it sits on back up onto the surface.  Does that make sense?  Anyway, it will be one of my next purchases.

Potty at the beach- doing such a great job!

No one enjoys the beach like this guy.

More than halfway to the weekend (which means more now that I'm a workin' gal)!

A Few Words Wednesday, Vol. 8

Well, it's all about the Woo this week.  Mainly because the only pictures I have of G from this week are scandalous.  That's right, we're potty training again!  Except this time it's sticking.  He has done a great job and we even had McDonald's for dinner tonight to celebrate a major event that happened today (no need for details, I think.)

Anyway, back to the Woo-

He's getting into everything...and is still refusing to walk.  He can stand for minutes on end, climb all over everything and walk with a little push toy but is adamant that he won't do it by himself.

I had a little photo shoot with him the other morning because he looked so darn cute.

Aunt Wendy, do you see Sam in this boy...and therefore Anna?  I always thought Sam was an Echols, but now I wonder....

His best "it wasn't me" look.

Too cute, this boy, too cute.

Until next time, Happy Wednesday!

A Few Words Wednesday, Vol. 7

Nothing better than a cute little body in only a diaper.

Night-night, Baby Kase.  I love you.

I love this picture because you can see my Dad pointing to the chandelier saying, "Carolyn! Get a picture of that!" as he said ALL over Morocco.

They finally repaired our bathroom leak/draining issue that has been a problem since the previous tenants lived here.  This was the view from inside.  Of course it stayed this way for several days.  Ya'll just come on in!

Definitely the safest way to get the job done.

Our bathtub hanging out in the yard during the repair work.  Not sure how, but they "patched it up" and it's back in the bathroom.  

Happy Wednesday!

Ireland

Alright.  We're back and ready for action.  Well, not so ready for action because we're exhausted.  But we're at least back.  I am not exaggerating when I say that of the last month + there have been only 2, count them 2, days when we weren't traveling or had visitors.  And oh dear me, we had a BLAST, but it's time to breathe again.  

Of course there is some SERIOUS blogging to catch up on and I will start at the beginning.

IRELAND.

If you have spoken to me in the last month (and there's not many of you, because I have been sadly ignoring pretty much everything in my life) you know that Joe and I developed a SERIOUS love affair with Ireland.  I don't know if it's the beauty (yes), the people we traveled with (definitely), the culture (awesome), or just the fact that it wasn't Morocco (probably that, too).

We hadn't been out of the country since our trip to London in December, and while we love Morocco, everyone here at post agrees that it is healthy and necessary to leave the country at least for a few days every few months.  So we were overdue.

Our sweet friends Britt and Lauren gave us the opportunity of a lifetime when they decided to get married in Ireland.  Britt's parents and my parents were buddies before we were even born, and so not only has Britt been one of my dearest friends throughout the years, but our families have become family.  So it was a double blessing to be with everyone in Ireland for such a joyful event!

I can barely keep all my thoughts together concerning this AWESOME trip, so I'm going to go Type-A style and divide the rest of this post into categories.

The People:

The Whole Gang- 23 in total

The SEP crew, with spouses.

This bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey earned itself a spot under "people".  Throughout the week, this bottle just kept giving and giving.  Swig after swig, it never let us down, kind of like the basket of bread and fish in the Bible.  

The Places:

We stayed in Doolin, County Clare, Ireland (West Coast).

This is the view from the house we rented with several other couples.  Absolutely divine. 

Right across the water from the village of Doolin are the Aran Islands.  We all took a ferry ride to the first of the 3 islands, Inis Oirr, and spent the day hiking, biking, exploring, and eating GREAT food.  (Smoked salmon, be still my heart.) The main language spoken on the islands is still Gaelic.

These cows, hanging out in the middle of ancient stone fence divided pastures were the biggest, fattest we had ever seen.  Or maybe we're just used to seeing the tiny skinny ones in Morocco now.

Hello green land and clear blue sky, will you marry me?

In front of a shipwreck from the 1960s.  

Moving along to the Cliffs of Moher.  It is hard have perspective on just how tall the cliffs are, but at the top middle of the picture is a lookout tower.  To the left of the tower are a couple little specks.  Those are people.

Cliffs from the top, on a different day.

It is possible that we jumped a fence so that we could get the real "feel" of the Cliffs.  I'm not going to lie, it was dang scary, but thrilling at the same time.  I wanted to look over the edge but didn't trust my feet/legs/overall clumsiness very much, not to mention the gale force winds. (Not exaggerating on the gale force part)  So this was my compromise.

Phil and Bradie mid-wind gust.

Life in Ireland (and our trip) revolves around the local pub(s).  In Doolin there are O'Connors, McDermott's, and McGann's.  Doolin, being the music capital of Ireland, has nightly Irish music in each pub.  

Next town down the road, Ennistymon.  Everything is so picturesque.  Spent a fun afternoon and had some great food
(me-smoked salmon, again).

The Events:

The main, and best, event: the wedding.  Held in an ancient castle tower with a peat fire burning.  

The Groom and Me.

Alan and Britt pre-wedding

And this is the only picture we have from the reception.  We were having way too much fun eating Irish food and then dancing with the Irish band and later, the DJ (who truly thought he taught us the Macarena that night).  They even had Irish dancers come in and teach us some folk dances.  In the above picture Bradie, Brad and I have been invited to the front to sing with the band.  The only song we and they knew?  "Friends in Low Places".  Of course.  Also, you can tell by our clothes, sweat and hair that we are having a GREAT time.  I swear, Phil and Joe spent the rest of the evening trying to come up with a song the two of them could sing.  SO sad they never arrived at a decision.

The other really important event was the nightly routine of everyone meeting up for a group dinner at the big house followed by a trip to a pub and then back to the big house for stories and laughter.  The problem was that the sun sets late in Ireland because it's so far north and it messes with your mind.  Once the sun set at 10 pm (!), we would realize it was time to get going to the pub.  Joe and Ash have usually been in bed for an hour at 9 pm, but we hung in there with the best of them! (Bradie and I are singing again here.  I have no idea what.  We sang everywhere:  the pub, the house, the bus, the reception, and maybe even on horseback.)

A flight of Irish whiskeys.  Don't worry, these were spread between four people.

Baby Guiness shots.  So yummy (and really cute!)

Even Baby Sadie got in on the pub action!

Storytelling.  And the look on Phil's face tells me it was one of the MANY times in the weekend when the story shifted to and embarrassing moment of his, instead of the bride or groom's.  Bless his heart.  Also this is around 2:30 am.  WHAT(?!)

We went horseback riding one day.  What we weren't expecting (but should have) were ENGLISH SADDLES.  Oh dear me, compared to a western saddle, that thing is like a little leather thong.  Hardly anything to it, and not a big horn to hold on to!  We did OK, and even got into the rhythm of trotting a few times (which gave me a lot of respect for people who can canter on a horse, not to mention gallop!!) 

Bradie looked pretty professional in her get-up.

Phil looking like he's riding "I'll Have Another".
Can you tell that Joe, the photographer, has a bit of a man-crush on Phil?

I have to add these two photos of Phil being helped off his horse.  

He appreciated it, Peter, and it didn't call his manhood into question at all.
(Peter, the owner, who by the way, when he introduced himself I thought he said, "Painter", because even though we're all speaking English, there is indeed a language barrier.)

And now, my thank yous, in no particular order:

1.  Mom and Dad, for keeping the boys, you made all this possible.  (And I don't think they even noticed we were gone!)

2. Lauren, the bride, who worked so hard to plan an amazing trip for all of us- we will never forget it.

3. Casey- for the photos I stole off your Facebook page to put on this post.  You really are pretty talented with that camera.

4. Smoked salmon, for being so delicious.  I think of you almost every day.

5. EVERY single person on this trip with us- for being a ton of fun! (Even with a broken wrist!) And I know it looks like we did a lot of drinking, after all, it is Ireland, but believe it or not, no one ever went too far!  (And that made it  even better.) 

So, cheers to Ireland (and our awesome friends, old and new)!  We hope to see you soon!