Morocco!

Here is a slideshow and videos!





Below is a taste of some of our experiences in Morocco. The call to prayer, which occurs 5 times a day wherever you are in the country, had a particularly striking and eerie sound in Marrakesh, where the high density of mosques creates an echoing and reverberating sound as the mosques were not in synch. That video is taken from our riad (guesthouse) rooftop.

We were lucky enough to get to travel from the coast through the mountains to the desert and then back to the ocean again, seeing a wide range of Moroccan landscape and cultural diversity. As non-French or Arabic speakers, the language barrier was difficult and the tourist-local dynamic challenging for us, as we wanted to interact with people but did not necessarily want to spend money! To this end, as nothing had a price, the haggling for *everything* was exciting (except for when it was draining ;)i can attest to the serantonin dump that comes from shopping :) and we were constantly amazed by the craft, skill, and attention to detail of the beautiful textiles we were constantly witnessing.

The highlight for us was sleeping in the Sahran desert dunes, which you can see below, singing and playing drums with light-hearted and gregarious locals, while a lightening storm illuminated the sky over the mountains under a cresent moon. Finding nomad tents deep in the desert, sharing mint tea, and learning about Moroccan medicinals were also highlights. We hope to take a trip to southern Spain and return to the Moroccan desert, as a side trip, in the future.

The Visitor....

The neighborhood cats often come up on the deck to poke around, but I didn't expect this little guy!  He must be thrown off by daylight savings....

Loon Ski Weekend

Ski getaway with Josh, Jess & Aidan!

I suck at cross country skiing!

Josh and Aidan build a fire at the condo.

Mike sporting his ghetto Obama hat

Waiting for the Choo-choo

Winter Solstice

Enquiring minds want to know... I want to know!

I am a grown man

Maybe Michael Phelps was actually just testing out a didgeridoo

Anticipation!

Cora and Sabrina

Laura and Matt

Boston Santacon

Why are these grown adults dressed like elves?

Eve spins at the Beacon Hill Pub

We do NOT need an excuse to wear white fur!

Change

Have I mentioned how much I adore Obama? I've never voted Republican and I certainly wouldn't have in this election either, but something particularly clicked for me about Obama and it was around the time of the Jeremiah Wright press coverage. Up until then, the Obama campaign appeared to be running a non-racial campaign, really trying not to emphasize it, in order to try to transcend it, and I get that. After experiencing the wreckage that is the Bush administration, as well as witnessing candidate after candidate, vying for the primary, each seeming like business-as-usual - false and difficult to relate to, jaded and fear mongering in my eyes - I felt more or less dispassionate about the political world. But then the focus became on Jeremiah Wright's incendiary church sermons and comments, and Obama decided (and from what I understand it actually was his decision, not that of his advisers') to not simply address race, but to highlight it. He didn't back away or make excuses or pass the buck or lie. He spoke to it. He gave a speech that reached me by e-mail. Turns out he even wrote it. It touched on the history of racial conflict in America, its divisiveness, and the effects of this divisiveness on both blacks and whites. And though I can't recall the exact words, it was the feeling behind them: the intelligence, the authenticity, the thoughtfulness, the trueness, that moved me to tears in a way that I had never in a million years thought could by a politician. I mean, politicians are twisted and corrupt and that's how they get to where they are and that fact that they can tolerate the corruption around them, makes them even more twisted and corrupt, right? But on that day, I listened to his words and his message - about race and struggle, power and pain, common-ground, hope and change. About being human. Which, as difficult as it is for people to realize the importance and miracle of that commonality, is the whole point. And, for some reason, I think Barak Obama gets that. So I listened, I cried and I felt grateful that in my lifetime I was witness to a great thinker and speaker. And I passed it on. It just felt that important. And now that man who moved me to tears will be my president. And that moves me to tears too.

Cranberry Canoe Trip

Tony's annual cranberry canoe trip!

Mike learns to steer....

Maneuvering the labyrinth of cranberry bogs...

Rachel, Stephie, Tony & Cory

Mmmm, cranberries!

Wrong turn :(

My precious!

The bog

Rachel seeking the easy pickins'

Sunset over stump pond

Here is the MAP of the trip.