Dahab, Sinai Peninsula

The view from my balcony in Dahab. The Red Sea is amazing!

The beautiful moutains of Saudi Arabia on otherside of the water.

All the restaurants in Dahab are open air right on the water. Its pretty sweet, and there is always a nice little breeze off the water!

Great swimming hole in the Red Sea, and great for kicking back and enjoying the Sinai landscape with some of the locals.

A pic of the rooftop of the restaurants at my hotel.

20 feet of shore is some of the best snorkeling in the world, with amazing reefs and incredible wildlife. It was absolutely breathtaking. And yes I found Nemo!

Here are some pics from Giza in Cairo. I would upload more but the internet here is so slow that it takes FOREVER to upload these pics.

These pics were taken about 40 miles from the Libyan border in the Sahara desert with our Burber guide.

Sahara Trip

Well I can now scratch off Saharan Safari from the to do list. I traveled 8 hours on a bus to a small town in the middle of the Sahara desert the other day. It only exist becuase it has many natural springs. The town is called Siwa for all those who want to look further into the town. The people are actually Burber people and not Arab. We had a magical time which included breathtaking views, a donkey cart taxi race (we won), swimming in a thousand year old spring pool, a trip into the desert in a land cruiser, swimming in an oasis in the middle of endless miles of sand dunes, camping in the desert for the night. The bus got a flat tire in the middle of the desert on the ride back, and it didnt have AC. So I guess you can say I have experienced the desert. Oh and it was terribly hot but dry. Everything closes down during the hottest hours.

I will be in Cairo thursday and friday to tour the sites. I am excited although I hear it is freakishly hot there right now. Well I will keep you all posted, see ya!

In Egypt

Well I promise top post some pictures soon. I finals arrived in Alexandria after a very long journey which included over 30 hours on planes alone! Not to mention the 11 hour layover in JFK. The weather here isnt too hot but quite humd. The class is long and im sure I will leanr a lot, although fluency would take 6 months for sure of intensive studying. This weekend I will be going to a place called Sewa with some kids from the University of Utah, it is out in the middle of the saraha desert. It is a town with oasis and pure rolling sand dunes. The ride should be interesting seeing how it is like 9 hours on bus. I do not understand what people say for the most part but I guess thats just the nature of the beast. Maybe by the time i leave I will understand just a little. Well I will add another post when I get back from my trip this weekend.

Check out my Slide Show!

The Farm

I have the opportunity to work on the old Putnam farm in Leelanau, Michigan for the next couple of weeks. As I visited the farm last evening I was once again struck by the amazing beauty of the farm and the surrounding countryside. It might have been the first time when mowing grass was such a pleasure. Granted I was riding on a Cub Cadet with a 50"" cut, but the beauty of the orchards and the green hay fields, is amazing. For those friends who are not familiar with the farm, it has been in the family for over 100 years! It consist of cherry orchards, pear orchards, hay fields, and mature hardwood forrest. to be continued.......

Hello for now

Well under careful consideration of the consequences of starting a blog, I have decided to make an effort inform family and friends of my happenings in my life. I would like to give a quick shout-out to my sister-in-law Jen for helping me start this blog. She has also been a valuable asset as a professional editor in assisting me with my graduate papers which seem to be littered with all sorts of grammatical errors. For her valiant efforts I have to tell my meager following to check out Jen's cool blog.
I would also like to give a quick shout-out to those who seem to get only cooler with time, including my nephews and nieces (Harrison and Walkerto the left are two of them), Stephen Colbert, Alan Jackson, George Strait, Tayshawn Prince, and of course Dick Cheney for telling a congressman to go F#$% himself on the house floor, are all inspiring figures in my life at this time.