The Customer is Always Right…Right?

The Customer is Always Right…Right?

It’s been another week here in Addis Ababa and as I’ve been pondering what to write about my thoughts keep going back to food preparation. Sounds boring right?! First lets go over food preparation in the United States,

Step 1: Go to Wal-Mart (or your favored super market).

Step 2: Purchase everything that you need and some things that you don’t, for the foreseeable future all in one place.

Step 3: Take food home, rinse produce under running tap water and use some sort of Veg-all spray if you are really worried about cleaning your produce.

Step 4: Consume food.

In Addis there are A LOT more steps to consider.  In fact buying and preparing food here can be a daunting task. I will take you through the steps that I have discovered in order to consume food and not get incredibly sick.

Step 1: Call your favorite taxi driver. Yes, I now have a favorite taxi driver his name is Solomon and he is a pretty great guy, however I often wonder how much longer his taxi is going to hold it together before it completely falls apart.

Step 2: Inform the day guard that he is going shopping with you. This can also be step one if you decide to go shopping on foot. I mostly go on foot when buying fruits and vegetables. There are little produce shacks everywhere you just have to find one that has decent food. Last time I went produce shopping I took Jacob with me and he refused to ride in the stroller so I carried him on my back, like a local. When we got to the shack I put Jake down and all the Ethiopians loved him. They even gave him some free fruit!  

Step 3: Convince the 2 year old that the blue car (taxi) is not scary and promise to buy him candy if he stops crying. Yes, I believe that bribing my child is absolutely OK in this instance!

Step 4: Drive to the first “super market”. I don’t know why they call them super markets here there really isn’t anything super about them. The stores are tiny and often don’t carry everything that you need.  As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the ride to the store can be an adventure in it’s self, so watching the cows, horses, donkeys, chickens and crazy people goes without saying.

Step 5: Shop for food. Easier said than done. Sometimes they have what you are looking for but sometimes not. Many of the items are not marked with prices. This is where my guard comes in handy; he is the official cart pusher and price asker.

Chicken - Looking for chicken? The chickens here are not fed all the nasty hormones and antibiotics and what ever else they give the chickens in the U.S. This means that the chickens are small and you have to buy a few of them just for one meal. It is nearly impossible to buy just chicken breasts in Addis, most of the time you have to buy the whole chicken. If the chickens are not freezer burned I will usually pick up a few of them.  How do the chickens taste? Well, they are a little tough and chewy. The first time I cooked a chicken it didn’t turn out too good. The key, I’ve found, is to soak the chicken in a salt-water solution for about four hours before cooking. This makes the chicken juicy and tasty.

Milk- milk does not come in gallons or even liters. It comes in little two-cup bags! I think that is a pint.  I usually buy about 10 of these bags at a time and I’m hard pressed to make that last a week. The high altitude and the grass that the cows eat give the dairy products an interesting flavor. The milk has an almost smoky taste to it. My kids like it but I’ve heard that many of the ferengi kids don’t like the milk very much and won’t drink it. How much does a little bag of milk cost? About 9 birr per-bag, which is about 50 cents, not really that cheap. They also sell powdered milk as well. I usually get some of the powdered and mix it with the fresh stuff.

Flour – Easy to find but I use it up quickly. The bread here is not very good.  The years I’ve spent honing my bread making skills has become very useful in Addis. I usually bake about four loaves of bread a week sometimes more.  I got 5kilos of flour for about 60 birr, which is about 4 dollars.

I am also able to buy juice by the liter. Not very cheap but Jake needs his comfort food. There are not many snack foods here. No chips or crackers, cheese is really expensive and not very tasty. I have been able to find some cookies that taste like gram crackers for the kids and macaroni and cheese in a box that is produced by a company called MagicTime. Cereal is expensive but I buy Mr. Flakey’s for the boys because they really crave it.

Step 6: Next stop the fruit stand. This is a little shack on the side of the road where you can buy mangos, bananas, eggs (you can also buy eggs in the super market but they are more expensive) papaya, watermelons and strawberries (tiny strawberries). These places are all over and are very cheap. Last week I bought 2kilos of mangos, 2kilos bananas, lemons and strawberries for about 100birr (6 bucks).

Step 7: Now we drive to the vegetable stand. This is similar to the fruit stand, they sell things like peppers, potatoes, carrots, lettuce, green beans, really whatever you are looking for. I never spend more than 100 birr, usually less and I can get a TON of veggies.

Step 8: Still looking - This is the part where you go to another little grocery store or two looking for whatever you couldn’t find at the first store. The entire process can take hours and by the time you get home you just want to take a shower to wash the Addis off of you because I haven’t even mentioned all of the traffic and beggars grabbing at you and the exhaust fumes and dirt and dust that gets everywhere.

Step 9: Washing your produce. Sounds simple right? Well, you are mistaken. First you have to wash all of the dirt off of your produce. You can do this in the sink with the tap water. After you have scrubbed all the mud off of your fruits and veggies you have to fill up a big bucket of water from the distiller. What is a distiller? That is a machine that uses hot tap water and runs it through a series of filters and then distills the water making it safe to drink. A side note; because our water is distilled there are NO minerals or anything in the water that we drink. This means that my kids have to take prescribed fluoride tablets and Jake takes drops to ensure that their teeth don’t rot out.

Ok back to cleaning the produce. After you have a big bucket of water filled you add a cap full of a bleach solution to the distilled water and soak the vegetables in the bleach water for about 30 minutes. Think this is gross? I can tell you that your veggies are also washed in bleach water it just happens before you buy them. You also have bleach in the tap water you drink to make sure that you don’t get sick.

After the soak the veggies must be drained and then rinsed off with more distilled water. Now you are ready to prepare and eat your veggies!  The exceptions to these rules are for fruits and veggies that you peel, bananas, mangos, watermelon etc. I still rinse the veggies that have to be peeled with the bleach but I don’t take as much care with them because we don’t eat the outside. As you can imagine this process is draining! I have not found a housekeeper yet so that means that all of the shopping and cleaning is up to me. On top of the produce prep I’m also making my own bread, tortillas, muffins or anything else that we want to eat.

By Friday I was so tired of all of the work that it takes to put food on the table that I gave up! I decided that we needed to go out to eat. I really wanted to have some local food. You have to be careful though; you have to eat at places where you won’t get sick. I settled on a place in the Old Airport area (you can look it up on Google maps I think) called Yid Abyssinia. Locals in Addis eat Injera (a flat bread that uses a yeast and a very tiny grain called tef.) The injera is the plate as well as the fork. Injera has a sour flavor that reminds me of a strong sourdough. It is served communally and on top of the injera “plate” is wat. Wat are sauces. Some wat is made with meat like beef and lamb and others are made from squash and vegetables. Extra injera is used to scoop up the wat and enjoy! The wat can be very spicy! Dad, you would love this stuff! When I get back to the states we are going out for Ethiopian food!

This restaurant was obviously catering toward ferengis and wealthy Ethiopians. There was dancing and singing on a stage the entire time we were there. There are many different tribes and ethnic groups in Ethiopia and I believe that the dances and music reflected the different groups. I wish that I’d had a local with me to explain it all to me. There was one lady who, as part of her dance, swung her head around so fast I was sure that it was going to fly off! We can’t drink the water here so we ordered Mirindas for everyone. A Mirinda is a Fanta like soda. The bill was pretty high especially for Addis! 900Birr! About $60.00! When looking at the bill it became obvious that the majority of the cost was the soda! The food was only about 500Birr. While that was fun and I’m glad that we went, I do not think that we will be going back there any time soon.   

Saturday we decided to take the Hubs to get a hair cut and to visit the “mall”. We had Solomon, our favored taxi driver; pick us up in the morning. The mall was not like the malls in the USA I don’t even know how to describe it. There were shops but they were all very small and above the fourth floor it looked like there were apartments or something. After wondering around “the Friendship Mall” we decided to find another mall that is supposed to be near by. On our way we saw a little bakery/ coffee house. We decided that we should get a snack. The décor was really nice and the menu was in English. I ordered a “special tea”, the kids asked for milk shakes and Jake wanted ice cream. The waiter came back after taking our orders and told James and Brenden that there were no milkshakes. His English was not very good and we were having trouble telling him what we wanted. In the end James ended up with two mango ice cream cones (he ordered one cone with two scoops) and Brenden got a cappuccino (He ordered chocolate ice cream)! What the heck?! Who gives an eleven year old a cappuccino? It didn’t even look like it was a good cappuccino. At least James got two ice cream cones even if they were only half full. James shared his two ice cream cones with Brenden. My “special tea” was a ginger tea that actually tasted pretty good. The Hubs got a cinnamon bun and a drink. Luckily the grand total for all of this was only about 125birr or 6 dollars and some change.

We asked for directions to the Edna mall and headed on our way. There are some functional sidewalks in this part of town so we could actually use the stroller. The hubs didn’t want to bring the stroller due to the non-existent sidewalks, boulders and craters in the roads but I didn’t want to carry him so we brought it. As we walked there were little kids selling things like gum, tissues and all kinds of crap. These kids took no time in attacking us! The children were maybe 7 years old and they got a hold of the hubs sleeve and wouldn’t let go! He had to pry one kid off and tell him to get lost! After shouting at the kids to go away about five times, they finally did. While all of this was happening another boy that was older was following us and shouting “Go USA, Go USA!” it was crazy.

We finally found the mall! Inside this mall there was a “Play area” it was like an arcade with some small rides and a jungle gym like you would see at a fast food restaurant only bigger, and dirtier. The kids really wanted to play, so I bought James and Brenden tickets to play in the fast food play area but when they tried to go in, it turned out that Brenden was too big. So James went alone and Brenden rode a ride. Jake wanted to ride the “horsey” (the carousel).  After the older boys played I bought Jake a ticket to ride the horsey. This carousel was tiny and super slow, granted it was intended for smaller children but it still seemed like it was on its last leg and would just stop working at any moment. The noise in this place was really getting to me so I was happy when the Hubs said that he was going to head over to a burger joint that we saw across the street. He went ahead and I stayed with James and Jacob. The carousel attendant allowed Jake to ride twice and then James, Jake and I headed outside. The hubs called and said that the burger joint was closed; he suggested that we make our way to the Beer Garden, a German place a few blocks away.  Bummer, I was in the mood for a burger.

The three of us made our way down to the Beer Garden ignoring the pleas for money and the taxi offers. The restaurant seemed nice. We ordered two burgers for one for the hubs and one for myself. James got pizza, Brenden got a bratwurst and I ordered a cheese plate for Jake. When the food came out the waiter gave us one burger (it was really a chicken sandwich?) and two cheese platters. When I told him it was wrong he started arguing with me! Holy crap! He told me that he wrote down two cheese platters. I told him that he wrote it down wrong. He continued to argue, finally the manager came over and he said that they would make me another sandwich. Great! But by time that the food arrived everyone else was finished, AND he took the extra cheese platter! In the USA even if I was wrong and had told him the wrong thing I STILL would have been right! And my meal would have been free. Who ever heard of a waiter arguing with a customer! They still charged me for my “chicken burger sandwich”. I’m pretty sure he spit in my food! YUCK! By this point we were done, we just wanted to go home and be off the street! We called Solomon and had him take us home. 

This experience made me weary of eating out and I was happy to head back to my labor-intensive kitchen. I didn’t actually cook that night. I think that we just had cereal and recovered from being out and about in Addis.

Food Preparation Survival Tips

1)   Find a house keeper that cooks ASAP (it’s on my to do list)

2)   When you have a house keeper have her do the shopping and food preparation

3)   If you don’t have a house keeper take a local with you

4)   Be prepared to spend at least 45 minutes washing your produce

5)   Plan ahead so that you only have to go out shopping once or twice a week!

Out and About Survival Tips

1)   Don’t expect all restaurants to be inexpensive.

2)   Don’t expect all restaurants to be open.

3)   Make sure that the waiter reads what he’s written back to you.

4)   Bring hand sanitizer with you.

5)   Don’t be afraid to yell at street children.

                                                           

Ground beef is ground in front of you and taken home in a shopping bag.

Our fist dinner, spaghetti is always a safe bet. 

I think that those are Fantas but the Mirinda looks the same.

Nothing to do with the post but here is our generator 

We don't have much in the way of staff but here is the staff quarters.

Laundry room (the center door if you look at the staff quarters).

The back of our temporary home.

The side garden of our temp home and our water storage.

These are the tiny milk bags!

Front of our temporary home.

Our living room! The boys were making forts. 

The view from the back porch.

                                                    Until next time friends and family! 

Traveling Side Show Attraction

Traveling Side Show Attraction

      Ethiopians tend to do things differently than much of the world. For instance time is not measured the same way here, 6am to us is 12am for them. This is because the sun comes up everyday all year long at the same time; the day begins at sun up not in the middle of the night. This means that you have to be cautious when setting meeting times with locals. In Ethiopia New Year’s celebrations are held in September, Christmas is January 7^th and this year Easter will be celebrated on the 5^th of May.  

       Easter is this weekend for all of us living here in Addis. The city is full of people preparing for the celebrations to come in just a day or so. For the last 7 weeks many of the people of Addis have been fasting. This doesn’t mean that they give up all food but they have been going with out any animal products. They have been vegan for 50 days! No meat, milk, butter, cheese or eggs. Many of the people also choose to give something else up as well. One embassy driver that I had the pleasure of riding with told me that he gave up beer as well as animal products for the fast. It’s Lent on steroids.

       On the Saturday before Easter Sunday people will attend church in the evening. They will worship for many hours and at midnight they will head back to their homes. On Sunday there will be friends and family and feasting. What do Ethiopians who have not had meat in 50 days feast on? If you can afford it you will feast on Sheep. If you can’t afford it you will have chicken. In preparation for this city wide feast sheepherders have brought their sheep into the city. When I say brought what I mean is, walked their sheep into the city. There are live sheep (and chickens) for sale on every corner!! The sheep here are not those white fluffy things that we Americans think of as sheep. These sheep are meant for food. They don’t need pretty wooly coats that we humans can use as clothes. The sheep here look more like goats. The only way that I can tell the sheep and goats apart is to look at the tail. Tail up = goat. Tail down = sheep. I have literally seen a wave of sheep being herded from a side street onto a main road. There were so many of them that they were climbing on top of each other. I wish that I had had my camera when I saw the wave of sheep, sorry Dad; it was the wildest thing to see this huge flock of sheep washing out onto the road.

       Because of the holiday the kids and the Hubs were off of work and school on Friday for Good Friday. Bumming around this house all day together was certainly going to cause some tension in the house. We have no car, no Internet, no bored games, no playing cards, no balls to kick around outside, no Wii, no satellite TV, all that we have for entertainment are the DVD’s that we brought in our luggage for Jacob, of those DVD’s there are only about 8 of them that he actually wants to watch. Four of the DVDs are Shrek movies and four are Winnie the Pooh movies. We have literally watched these movies hundreds of times! Try as we might we cannot entice Jake to watch anything else. Every member of our family can quote every Shrek movie start to finish. We decided that we needed to get out of the house.

        The Hubs had gone out walking earlier in the week with our guard, Yitbarick, so he was a little bit familiar with our neighborhood and thought that he could direct us to a grocery store. We got the kids dressed, packed our rain coats (it looked a little cloudy) into a back pack, strapped Jake into our borrowed stroller and headed out into the streets of Addis Ababa. Immediately this fair skinned, baseball cap wearing, stroller-pushing troupe attracted a good amount of attention. People stared openly at us wondering why the heck we weren’t using one of the many taxis or where our driver was. Why are these Ferengies  (Fur-en-jees) or foreigners walking the streets? We ignored the attention and acted like it was normal to see two live sheep being unloaded from the trunk of a taxi that they had been stuffed into, yummy Easter feast! We ignored the many honks and beeps that were sent in our direction, we waved our hands and said no to the beggar women who asked for a birr or two. I maneuvered the stroller like a pro over and around bumps and holes in the road. I realized that most of the honking was coming from taxis trying to give us a lift, we didn’t need a lift, we had this! We were totally fine! Although, the way that we were being stared at made me feel like our family was a circus sideshow!  Be sure not to miss the American traveling sideshow!

        We kept our eyes peeled for a grocery store to pick up a few essentials but we were not having much luck. We came to a place where the road ended, ok, not like dead ended, like there was a gaping hole in the road! HUGE, massive piece of road missing, the size of a dump truck….gone!!! I carefully pushed the stroller around the hole and onto the other side to one of the main roads in Addis called Bole road, pronounced, BOW-lay. Luckily, due to the holiday the traffic wasn’t too horrible but it had started to rain! We got our rain gear out of the backpack and suited up. As we were walking a truck with about 4 Ethiopian men started singing to us! I haven’t the foggiest idea what they were singing about but they were enjoying themselves and the sideshow that was our family of five!  The rain started to come down harder, no grocery store in sight! I had been complaining to the Hubs for days that I wanted to go out to eat. So I thought that this was a perfect time to find a restaurant. I pointed out a few places as we muscled our way through the rain and around the bumps and craters and debris that resembled the aftermath of a bombing, in the road. Finally we came upon a really nice looking Indian place, I love Indian food! We decided that this was a great place to dry out.

       I haven’t mentioned this yet but Brenden was walking around with eyes as large as saucers convinced that he was going to be killed or robbed. He was wary of eating out anywhere because “we were all sure to be poisoned” but we got him inside. The doorman helped us in, the stroller was covered in mud so we left it by the door and took a seat. What a great place! We ordered some lamb tandoori and chicken tikka masala and Fanta’s for the whole table.  Brenden order mutton! It was awesome to eat some good food. I feel as though my food has been sub-par lately and frankly I’m tired of cooking everything! The grand total for this Indian feast was 500 birr or $30.00!!! That is an expensive meal for Ethiopia, but this would be less than a meal at Burger King back in the states!

       The rain didn’t let up so at the end of the meal I had the Doorman get me a taxi (much to Brenden’s delight) and asked him to take us to the super market, it was hilarious to see the 5 of us squished in that little Fiat. We got a few things while the driver waited for us outside. I was able to find many of the items that I wanted to pick up. As we were driving home the taxi driver drove us on the wrong side of the median. It was only slightly terrifying to be driving against the on coming traffic in the middle of a rainstorm with the windows fogged up. The windows were fogged up because we had six people stuffed into a car that was so small I could stretch my arms out and wave at people on both sides of the street at the same time.  Luckily we made it home in one piece! I paid the taxi driver 100 birr (6 bucks) and we headed inside.

       The story is only mostly over, after we got back I had the Hubs walk to the corner market to pick up something that we couldn’t find at the grocery store, he took Brenden (against his better judgment) with him.  On the way home a man asked him for some change. Most of the time when you say no the beggars they go away, not this guy. The beggar held on to his arm begging for some “cents”, and nuzzling his head like a cat on my husband’s sleeve! Finally he left and they made it back to the house. Brenden was thoroughly traumatized and says that he only wants to see Addis from the inside of the car from now on! This is just another of many first for our family here in Ethiopia.

Survival tips for travelling on foot in Addis

           1)   Always carry rain gear (thank you Hubs)

           2)   Know where the super market is

           3)   Be prepared to say no to beggars

           4)   Have a good sense of humor

Survival tips for surviving before your shipment arrives

           1)   Make sure to bring board and card games in your luggage

           2)   Be sure to pack grown up movies as well as kid movies

Note: As I mentioned before I don’t have the Internet in the house yet so I have very few pictures on the blog. I have taken pictures of our house and a few other things that I will eventually be posted on here. If there is anything that you would like to hear about please email me! Many of you have asked about care packages, if you would like to send care packages please email me for the mailing address.

I love to hear your comments! It helps me to feel more connected to the world outside of my little compound here in Addis, so keep the comments coming. I will be better at replying when I get my Internet up and working.

Until next time!  

This is actually a small flock of sheep.

These are donkeys just walking down the road!

We’re Not in Kansas Any More

We’re Not in Kansas Any More

I’ve been in Addis Ababa for one week today. One thought comes to mind when driving around the city here, “We’re not in Kansas any more”, or more appropriately “We’re not in Monterey anymore”. Driving in Addis Ababa is an experience. There is always something weird, crazy or unexpected happening all around you. Most of the population has never driven a car. They have no comprehension about how challenging it is to stop quickly or veer out of the way when they decide to mosey across the street.  When I say street I mean six lanes of traffic where four lanes of traffic are meant to be driving. That’s another thing…in the United States there are lanes and people tend to stay in them, here there are also lanes but the lanes are only used so long as it is convenient for the driver. If the traffic is slow and you need to get somewhere more quickly just make another lane, maybe use the lanes for the on coming traffic? The rules here are “More like guidelines, really”!

In the United States we have things like stoplights, stop signs, yield signs, not so here. I have seen traffic lights but they don’t work so there are these unwritten rules about driving. You just sort of creep forward and then when the time is right, move through the intersection or traffic circle. The Somerville NJ traffic circle is a freaking cakewalk compared to this place. It is terrifying at first but after a week it has already become less so.

Other things that you may encounter while driving are cows, donkeys, chickens, mules, cats, dogs, sheep, goats and a lone white horse that seems to live on the street. I’ve seen him in the middle of a traffic circle grazing, on the side of the road and on the street corner just hanging out. I asked about this horse and discovered that when animals are no longer useful they will sometimes be turned out onto the street. We believe that this is the case with the white horse; he was left behind, and because of this some people here have affectionately begun to refer to him as Lefty. 

There is public transportation in Addis in the form of buses, taxis and these blue and white vans that are all over the city and will go pretty much anywhere. During our security briefing we were instructed to only use taxis and only from a list of reputable sources. The taxis are not like they are in the US, here you call a taxi driver and he will come and get you, you don’t call a taxi company. Some people will find a driver that they like and will only call that driver. As for the other forms of transportation we are not allowed to use them. Honestly I wouldn’t want to use them. The buses don’t look too bad but the vans are CRAZY! They are everywhere and they drive like maniacs. They have a nickname here in Addis, they are called ‘Blue Donkeys’. I assumed that they were called Blue Donkeys because they cram tons of people inside of them but I was told yesterday by some Ethiopians that work at the embassy that the vans are called Blue Donkeys because they just drive, they don’t watch out for pedestrians or other vehicles they just drive however they want, just like a donkey will walk and not take notice of much going on more than a few feet in front of him.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to ride in an Ethiopian Taxi cab. I had some work to get done at the Embassy and my day guard also had to get some work done at the Embassy as well so we decided to link up after we were done and share a taxi home. When I finished at the Embassy I called Yitbarick (I’m not sure that is spelled correctly) and he said he was waiting for me out side the compound. Okay, cool…wait…What? Outside? Let me tell you, I haven’t been outside anywhere on foot yet. I haven’t even been outside the compound that my house is in.  I was just a little nervous to go outside alone.  Addis is a safe city. There is tons of poverty but the people here are generally good people so I should not feel nervous right? Well I did feel nervous. As I walked through the gate of the Embassy, the small piece of America here in this country that is so far from home, I felt stripped of safety it was scary. Where is Yitbarick?!  I grab my new phone (I’ve already dropped and cracked the corner) and begin frantically calling him. I’m a blonde white foreigner who looks completely lost, not good! As the phone begins to ring I see him, across the street waving to me. WHEW, saved! Wait….across the street?! Crap, as I mentioned above the roads are insane here! I put on my, “I know what I’m doing” face and my, “big girl panties” and walk confidently toward the street. I head to the cross walk like a good westerner, cross walks are where it’s safe to cross the street, right? I quickly realize that crosswalks mean nothing here, but it makes me feel better. I patiently wait for the Blue donkeys and the stream of small Toyotas to pass and then run across the road before the next Blue Donkey gets to close.  

Made it! Yitbarick has a taxi waiting for us. I decide to get in the back. In NYC we never ride in the front! Riding in the front would be too emotionally uncomfortable! The taxis are small and low to the ground. Until yesterday the only cars I’ve ridden in are 4wheel drive SUV’s. The taxi driver has his window open, a big no no according to my security brief from the Embassy. With the window open you can REALLY smell the pollution and because we are so much lower to the ground the view of the city is much different. The people are closer, the other cars are closer, and the cows are closer. The taxi has a seatbelt but it’s broken so I don’t have the feeling of being safe by wearing one.  We made it back no problems and I paid the driver. Yitbarick said that the driver wanted to charge me 200birr ($12.00) because I’m not from around here, but he talked the guy down to 120birr ($6.00 and some change). Who knew that a simple taxi ride could be so life changing!

What is the take home survival message?

Wear your big girl panties.

Be sure that you use safe public transit.

Keep a camera in your car to record weird stuff you see while driving around.

Make local friends!  

Until next time friends and family!

Dude, I'm moving to AFRICA!!!!

Hey there friends and family,
As many of you know we are moving to Ethiopia on Thursday. That is crazy right? I think about that and kind of freak out a little. Not in a bad, oh my gosh my life is ending sort of way. More of a, dude I'm freaking moving to AFRICA!!!! sort of way. I'm sure that there will be lots of stories to tell and since I can't call and tell you all my stories I've decided to start this blog as a way to keep you informed of my many adventures, wonderings, musings and ramblings.
I decided start keeping this blog while in the hotel before we leave next week. The hubs is taking  cars to AZ to be stored so it sounded like a great idea. The problem is that I am using a kindle fire to type this up, sooo please ignore the many mistakes in this post and check back often for updates on our trip.