Still traveling!

We made it to Nairobi! We spent the night in Nairobi and are now on our way back to the airport for our flight to Mombasa.

Flights were generally uneventful and on time. On our first flight we secured a bulkhead exit row giving M an extra 7 feet of leg room and on our second flight we each got our own row. I have to say that it all went extremely smoothly. We grabbed a taxi to our hotel and by that I mean that M sat in the front seat with my 40 lb backpack on his lap, I sat in the back with two gigantic boxes of lab supplies, and the trunk was crammed with our carry-on backpacks and M's large backpack. I have found taxis in other countries to be synonymous with clown cars in that they always seem to be able to fit in all the luggage and people regardless of the size of the car. In the US, taxis balk at ferrying 5 people but elsewhere you simply hear "it's ok" and they just start doing their magic which is a polite way of saying they throw their entire body weight against your bags in order to smash it all inside. I really appreciate the can-do attitude.

Also, for a little comic relief, check out Crocodile Dundee:


Those of you who know M well know that once he gets interested or committed to something, he's very eager to pursue and understand that thing. This has obviously served him very well in the majority of his pursuits in life but occasionally, it's downright hilarious. A few examples of things M has been interested in recently:

• cranberries (we ate homemade cranberry sauce for weeks last fall)
• foraging (I've made a lot of mulberry pies in the last 2 years and he once brought home a boombox older than we are)
• books about food (he read books titled Salt, Cod, and The Big Oyster in a month long span and randomly quoted facts about these things)

Recently, M became obsessed with packing only light-weight technical gear for our trip to Kenya. No expense could be spared in acquiring these items and NOTHING, I repeat nothing, should be cotton or any other natural fiber. So, this is how he came to be seated in the Newark airport looking like Crocodile Dundee but he did inform me that "everything was wicking nicely". I love him, he cracks me up!