Nick Rosenfeld's Space

Part 1 of our Honeymoon can be found here.

We woke up early to fly up to the Sabi Sands.  We first flew to Johannesburg and then had a small charter flight to take us to the Simbambili game lodge outside of Kruger National Park.  Our 11 seater single prop plane was full.  The pilots told Jen and I that we were the second stop - Jen didn't believe them at first, but they were dead serious. 

The flight was a bit bumpy and Jen was quite nervous.  After about an hour and a half we landed on a small gravel air strip to drop off the other 10 passengers that were staying at 2 separate lodges in the area.  We then took off from this strip enroute to our destination which was only a 15 minute flight away.  We flew at low altitude and could see wildlife from the plane!  This was really exciting seeing buffalo, giraffe and white rhino from the plane.  Before we knew it we landed on another small gravel air strip.  Lazarus, one of the Simbambili rangers, was waiting for us in his Range Rover.  We had a 25 minute drive through the bush to get to the lodge.

Lazarus was extremely friendly and informed us that we would arrive in time for 'high tea' and the evening game drive with our ranger Dean.  After picking us up, Lazarus was off on vacation for 2 weeks.  The staff at these lodges work for 6 weeks and then have 2 weeks off.  During the short drive to the lodge we saw Kudu, Impala, baboons, and more Impala.  We quickly learned that Impala are everywhere and that they are considered the McDonald's of the bush - not just because of the 'm' marking they all have on their rear ends, but also because of the fact that they can be seen just about everywhere.  By day 2 we stopped taking pictures of these guys.

We arrived at the lodge and were greeted with drinks and warm towels.  Simbambili is made up of 8 houses meaning that it holds a maximum of 16 guests at any time.  We had house #8 which was the farthest from the main lodge.  This apparently is one of the nicest houses, perfect for us, the honeymooners.  The rules and procedures were explained to us.  The most important was that we were never to walk to our room at night unescorted.  The Simbambili game lodge is in the middle of the bush and is not fenced in and there are routinely predators on the path.  Once escorted to our room we found it absolutely beautiful.  Extremely spacious, beautiful bathroom and tub, and a large deck that included a small pool and outdoor bed where we could relax and watch the animals in our back yard!  After dropping our bags off and changing clothes we walked to the main area for lunch.  Sure enough we saw some animals during this short walk.  There was a family of baboons playing near one of the houses and on the roof of another.  We were in the middle of the bush alright!

'High Tea' as it turns out is really a very large lunch and it was superb! (And so was every single meal at Simbambili we would later find out).  As we ate lunch we stared at the large watering hole that was probably no more than 75 yards away, as a large herd of elephants congregated to drink.

Once we finished eating we met some of the folks that would be riding in our jeep.  There was another young honeymooning couple on their last night at Simbambili and then 'Chatty Patty' and her family.  Patty is America and now lives in Zimbabwe.  She was here with her daughter, sister and niece.  We all took our spots in the open top Range Rover and set out to see some game!

Our ranger Dean was South African.  He had only been at Simbambili for a couple of months, but he was an experienced ranger from northern Zulu land.  Our tracker Mamps had grown up in a village near this area and new the area like the back of his hand.  Mamps, like other trackers, sat on a seat on the front left corner of the hood actively looking and listening for sounds of animals.  Apparently when Mamps was a child in his village, he was in charge of taking the family cattle out to graze during the day.  Watching the cattle all day quickly got boring so he would let them roam the lands while he played with friends.  Each evening he had to track the animals one by one in order to get them home.  This is how he got his start tracking at a young age.  Here is a picture of us with Dean and Mamps (taken after our last game drive):

There are many advantages to being on private land as opposed to being in a National Park.  For example:

• The jeeps can go anywhere.  You don't have to stay on the roads.
• No more than 7 people per jeep and all jeeps are open top.
• The rangers talk to each other (with rangers from neighboring lodges) to keep track of where the game is.

Our first stop of the afternoon was to look for the herd of elephants that were near the lodge.  We quickly found them and before we knew it our jeep was surrounded by 30+ elephants ranging from toddlers to fully grown adults.  A few grunted at us but we didn't get charged.  They for the most part kept eating and destroying trees.  It's incredible how destructive elephants really are to the land.  Everywhere you go there are numerous trees that have been pushed over by hungry elephants.  After 30 minutes or so with the elephants we were on the hunt for white rhino.  The other young couple in our jeep had yet to see rhino, the last of the Big 5 for them.  Mamps was able to track some down fairly quickly however they were in some fairly deep bush.  Wanting to get us a better look Mamps set out on foot (without a rifle as those are 'too heavy' as he puts it).  He ended up chasing the two adult rhino's in our direction.  It sure worked, we got a great view of these awesome creatures! We then saw some beautiful birds, giraffe, buffalo, impala, kudu and more impala and then stopped for our sun downer drinks.  It's incredible to have a beer as the sun sets over the bush. 

As it started getting dark we found 7 lionesses that were starting to get active.  We decided to follow them as they got into a hunting formation.  They quickly spread out where 2 of the lionesses were a way ahead, the next 3 were spread out in the middle, and the last two were farther back.  They were hunting something but we had no idea what.  We followed them driving so close to some of the lionesses that we could have reached out and touched them had we wanted to (wanted to lose an arm that is!).  The animals are so used to the jeeps that they don't consider them a threat.  One of the rules of course is to never stand up in the jeep.  That changes the shape that the animals see and can get them to react differently.

We had been following the lionesses for about 45 minutes when they went down a steep ravine into a dry river bed.  Dean just followed them down in our jeeps which started to get our adrenaline going.  We then see the front 2 lionesses go into some thick brush.  At this point there are 3 jeeps in the river bed (the maximum allowed at any sighting).  Next thing we know a fully grown buffalo runs out with a lionesses on it's back and the other trying to attack it's neck!  The buffalo was able to through one lioness into the air and then started running straight for the jeep that was to our right.  The ranger tried to go in reverse quickly but in the panic hit a tree and the tracker went flying over the windshield to avoid getting hit by the buffalo and lionesses.  Shortly after this the lionesses were finally able to bring down the buffalo and immediately started eating it alive.  For the next 15 minutes or so they ate as we heard the buffalo's cries.  We were less than 10 feet away with the engine of our jeep stopped, hearts racing.  We watched them devour the poor animal for over an hour.  It was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  Absolutely incredible.

Once we finally left we ended up back at the lodge quite late.  We were greeted with drinks and a delicious dinner.  And to think, this was just our first game drive.  Six more to go...

At 5 AM we were awoken by the knock of the night watchmen.  This was to become our daily alarm clock.  We had 15 minutes or so to get ready after which he would come back to escort us (as it was still dark) to the main lodge for coffee and a small breakfast before the morning game drive.  It was quite cold.  We had hot water bottles in the jeep, blankets and we were wearing 2 fleeces.  We both ended up buying an extra fleece at the lodge along with a ski cap.  It was much colder than we had anticipated.

Leopard.  That was our mission for the morning since it was the only one of the Big Five that we didn't see on our first game drive.  For those not familiar, the Big 5 are the five animals that have traditionally been the most dangerous to hunt.  The list is comprised of the following:

• Lion
• African Elephant
• Cape Buffalo
• Rhinoceros
• Leopard

We saw a variety of wildlife for the first part of the day including some beautiful birds.  A couple hours into the morning game drive we stopped in the middle of the bush for some coffee, hot chocolate and mid morning snacks.  After this Mamps said he was able to hear a leopard and we quickly went looking for him.  We eventually found him meandering down the road.  He was a gorgeous animal.  Perfect markings and not shy at all.  He came right up to the jeep.  We followed him through some rather thick brush for a good 45 minutes or so.  He eventually came to a small watering hole to drink.  Dean was amazed.  In all his years of being a ranger her had not once seen a leopard drink.  Another rarity that we were able to see.

After the leopard sighting we headed back to the lodge for a large breakfast after which we headed back to our room to relax for a couple hours.  3 PM meant time for more food - 'high tea' as they called it, and then we were back off for a 4+ hour game drive.  This became our routine for our 4 amazing days here at Simbambili. 

A couple hours into our fourth game drive we decided to go back and see what the buffalo carcass looked like and if the lionesses were still there.  At this point it has been about 36 hours since we witnessed that awesome kill.  We arrived back at the site to find some stuffed lionesses still licking the bone of the buffalo.  Nothing was really left other than bone.  There were vultures in the trees above and a few hyenas in the distance, patiently waiting for the lionesses to move on so that they could finish the carcass.

While we were admiring this scene Mamps said he heard a leopard in the distance.  We drove in that direction for quite a while occasionally stopping for Mamps to quickly glance at some tracks to make sure we are headed in the right direction.  He also said he heard more calls from the leopard.  No one but Mamps heard the calls.  After driving a few more kilometers we found the leopard!  Mamps continued to amaze us with his surreal tracking ability.  It turned out that this leopard was starting a hunt and this time we could see his pray.  About 20 feet away were 2 little steinbucks that were courting, completely oblivious to the leopard that was eyeing them from the distance. 

We stayed extremely quiet watching this event that I only thought I would ever see on National Geographic.  The leopard was patient.  Every so often she would take a few steps closer to her pray, crouching in the tall grass.  After an hours or so of this she got within 15 feet of the steinbucks who still had no idea they were being stalked.  Finally the leopard pounced and in seconds it was over.  The steinbucks ran in different directions somewhat confusing the leopard who was unable to get either one of them, reaffirming Dean's saying that everything has equal chance in the wild.  Anything can happen.

The next few days were quite amazing as well.  No more kills or hunts but we still saw lots and lots of animals including a hyena den with a few pups.  We enjoyed each and every game drive and also the people that we met.  The guests at the lodge were from all over the world and had such interesting backgrounds.  When all was said and done we had gone on 7 game drives and saw an incredible number of animals.  We met many South Africans who have been coming on safaris all their lives (often 3-4 time per year) and who have never seen a kill.  They took every opportunity they could to tell us how incredibly lucky we were to have witnessed what we did.  Overall we saw over 40 different types of mammals and numerous birds.

On our last morning we were woken up early and given a ride to the airstrip.  The small charter flight was waiting for us to take us to Johannesburg, from where we would then fly to Livingstone, Zambia to continue our adventure.  Part 3 will be all about Victoria Falls, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana.  Stay tuned!

Check out our complete Simbambili album at: http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/FR8NEQe1/1037754/1012725

-Nick

Birthdays are not all that important to me generally, however Jen went out of her way to make my 30th birthday an awesome experience.  On the day of (Friday 02/22) she took me out to Rover's for dinner.  Neither of us had been there, but we both really enjoyed it.  We did the seven course tasting menu and shared a great bottle of wine.  It was a terrific birthday dinner.

The next day I was planning on heading down to Muckleshoot to play some craps for the first time.  A bunch of us headed down and I made $240 in an hour of play (thanks to Adam).  It was a great time but we had all decided to head back early.  We get back to the house for what I think is going to be a nice quiet dinner with Jen and as I walk into the house there are about 20 friends there yelling our surprise!  The house was decorated, there was great food and I had no idea.  They certainly got me.  Everyone even parked way down the road so I had absolutely no indication that this was going on :)

Anyway, thanks to everyone that came over for the party, it was a great time!  We'll have a few pictures up on Phanfare in the near future.

-Nick

40 hours.  That's what it took from our house in Seattle to get to our hotel in Cape Town.  Part of the reason it took so long is that we decided to fly through Dubai so that we could stop there on the way back (more on that in Part 4).  Our itinerary looked like this:

Seattle->JFK->Dubai->Johannesburg->Cape Town

The two longest legs of the trip were of course JFK->Dubai and Dubai to Jo'burg.  For these we flew on Emirates airline which was fantastic.  The service was impeccable and the frequent meals were actually quite tasty.  We also had the personal entertainment systems which provided many on demand movies, games and music.  All this in coach!

The stops in Dubai and Jo'Burg were fairly uneventful so not much to mention there.  When we finally arrived in Cape Town it was about 10 PM local time and we were thrilled that our luggage had made it all this way as well AND that our bags had not been broken into during the Jo'Burg layover (a very frequent occurrence).  We immediately found a taxi and headed to Bantry Bay where we were staying.  Never have I seen the amount on a taxi meter increase so fast!  It was in South African Rands of course, but Jen thought for sure we were getting ripped off!  It took quite a while for the cabbie to find the condos as it was in a more residential neighborhood; this added to the fact that this was his first night driving a taxi - so he said at least.  He was nice enough to not charge us for all of the detours we took trying to find the condo.  We finally found it and loved the accommodations.  We had a great 2 story condo for the first 6 days of our honeymoon.  Check out our view!

The location was great.  It was a cozy neighborhood and the V & A Waterfront was only a short cab ride away.  Each morning we woke up early and walked a couple kilometers down the road to a small bagel shop (aptly named New York Bagels) for breakfast.  This quickly became our morning routine.

Day 1 (07/28/2007)

Our first day was quite windy and cold.  Just like a windy winter day in Seattle really.  We had booked an excursion out to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope.  Our guide, JoAnne was awesome and took good care of us.  As we approached the Cape of Good Hope we saw plenty of baboons on the side of the road.  We even saw one that was "honeymooning" too as JoAnne pointed out.  I'll leave the rest up to your imagination...

The Cape of Good Hope was beautiful, but man was it windy.  We of course took the obligatory picture of us behind the famous sign:

In Cape Point we hiked up to the old lighthouse which provided us with incredible views. Afterwards we ate lunch at Seaforth and headed to Boulder Beach to see the jackass penguins (they also go by the much less entertaining name of African Penguins).  These little guys are awesome.  They let you get right up to them and are quite entertaining to watch.  They also seemed eager to pose for pictures.  We took a ton of pics, but here are a couple of them:

After time spent with these little jackasses (that's their name, I swear!) we headed to Kirchtenbosch National Botanical Garden.  These gardens were nice however it was pouring rain so we didn't get to see all of it.  A worthy afternoon stop nonetheless.  We then headed to the famous V & A Waterfront where there are shops, restaurants and entertainment.  We had a beer at a pub while everyone watched the rugby game on television.  After that we had some sushi and seafood at Panama Jack's.

Day 2 (07/29/2007)

For our second day in Cape Town we again had the pleasure of having JoAnne show us around.  We started by exploring District Six which is an area of the city made famous during the apartheid era.  In 1966 the government declared District Six a whites-only area and in 1968 the black residents started getting removed from the area.  Many of them were forced to leave their lifelong homes to be relocated to neighboring townships.  All of the homes were bulldozed and it's not until a few years ago that the government started building new homes in the area in order for some of the old District Six residents to return.  We then spent time in Bo-Kaap which is a predominantly Muslim area of the city where each home is colorfully painted as shown below:

After Bo-Kaap we headed to the Langa Township which was a truly eye-opening experience.  The Langa Township is one of the oldest townships in Cape Town and it is home to over 250,000 residents.  Homes range from small houses to shacks and we were fortunate enough to be able to spend time walking through the township and visiting families in their homes.  Our first stop was at the Langa community center where we had the opportunity to buy some beautiful pottery that was made by children from the township.  They also mentioned that Melinda Gates recently visited the township and that they had made Microsoft Unlimited Potential mugs.  They eagerly sold me one which I know proudly display on my desk at work.

It was incredible to see how families of 5+ members live in a single room.  The family below only spoke Afrikaans but they eagerly let us into their home:

Children filled the streets and they all were more than happy to pose for pictures.  And so was this guy drinking a beer who insisted I take his picture!

The last stop of our township visit was at the poorest section of Langa.  The shacks.                                                      

We met several of the residents of this section of town and they invited us into their homes.  Everyone we met was really nice and I wish we knew Afrikaans which would have allowed us to better communicate with them.  We left Langa feeling extremely fortunate for what we have an the opportunities that have been given to us. 

Our next stop was at the Groot Constantia for a quick wine tasting and then we headed to the Green Point Market which is a big market that occurs every Sunday.  Jen was in heaven with all of the shopping!  She haggled like the best of them and bought a ton of souvenirs including two rather large pieces of art that we would have to ship back to the states (more on that later...).  We even ran into a friendly Taiwanese family that we met the previous day.  After this market Jen was still not shopped out!  We walked back to another market near the Waterfront where Jen shopped some more.

Day 3 (07/30/2007)

Originally this was supposed to be the day we went shark cage diving however since this weather was bad we were able to reschedule the dive to a day later.  We spent the morning walking around the actual downtown area of the city in search for a shipping store to send all of the souvenirs we had already purchased.  We had packed very light for this trip as we had tight weight restrictions for the flight to our safari (details will be in the next post.  After what seemed to be an incredibly long search we finally found a PostNet.  We had 2 packages to send.  One box contained all kinds of knick knacks and one art carving that we had purchased at the Green Point Market.  We decided to send this by air mail which cost us our first born.  Not wanting to give up future child #2, we decided to send the second piece of art via boat.  This proved to be a bad decision as it was supposed to arrive 3 months later which would have been sometime in October.  I'm fairly certain we will never get it.  We continued exploring the downtown by doing a walking tour from our Lonely Planet book.  I also got to spend time at the African music store and bought plenty of local music.

The rest of the day included having lunch at Haiku, walking around the Waterfront, visiting the District Six museum and visiting the castle in downtown.  Dinner was delicious at the touristy (but well worth the experience), Africa Cafe.

Day 4 (07/31/2007)

Shark Day!  I have always wanted to go cage diving with Great White sharks and this was the day!  We were incredibly fortunate: the weather was gorgeous, not a cloud in the sky.  We were picked up at 9 AM and headed to Gansbaai which took about 2 hours or so.  We selected to do our dive through Marine Dynamics and I highly recommend them.  Once we arrived we went through some safety briefings, grabbed our wetsuits and headed out to world famous "shark alley" right next to Dyer Island.  This is where the majority of shows of Great White sharks are filmed. 

The folks from Marine Dynamics are very knowledgeable and are extremely careful not to feed the sharks so that they do not start associating humans with food.  The water is chummed and they do use bait, however they pull the bait out when the sharks goes after it.  They also use a wooden seal decoy named Jorgi.

The sharks appeared right away, before anyone entered the cage.  The animals were about 10 ft long and we saw a total of 6 Great Whites in the 3 hours we were out there.  We were given a good 30-45 minutes in the water which included many very close passes by the sharks.  The water was cold and murky, but the sharks would come right next to the cage.  They never attacked the cage and were beautiful and graceful animals.  Jen didn't stay the whole time in the cage.  Her wetsuit was a bit big and she was absolutely freezing. 

Before hopping into the van for the return trip, Jen purchased Biltong flavored chips.  An unusal taste for sure.  We drove back through Hermanus and stopped to watch the sunset over Cape Point. 

Back in Cape Town we walked to a local Italian restaurant and had a nice quiet dinner.  On our walk back we were joined by a drunk rasta that was quite friendly, however we got a bit nervous as the streets were empty.  He spoke very little English as he was from Tanzania and mostly spoke Swahili.  We understood that he was a construction worker headed to Camp's Bay (next town over after Bantry Bay).  We attempted to make as much conversation as possible with our non-existent Swahili and his basic English.  Once we got to our apartment the security guys immediately came out when they saw him talking to us.  While we were a bit nervous during this 20-30 minute walk with our new friend, it never seemed that he had any bad intentions and he continued on his way.

Day 5 (08/01/2007)

This was out last full day in Cape Town and the plan all along was to headed to the wineries.  We ended up hiring Ivan, one of the cab drivers we had met, to take us to the winelands for some wine tasting.  We were able to go to 2-3 wineries in all three of the major wine towns: Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, and Paarl.  The wine was good, but I can't say that any of the wines were the best I've had.  A worthy day trip (or half day in our case) regardless.  Our favorite winery out of the bunch was KWV.  We enjoyed some small food pairings with the wine which could be one of the reasons it was our favorite...or perhaps it was due to the fact that we had been drinking wine for the past 3 hours...I guess we'll never really know for sure.

Ivan dropped us off at the Waterfront so that we could catch our ferry to Robben Island which was made famous for having the maximum security prison that housed political prisoners including Nelson Mandela.  Jen and I both slept for the entire 45 minute ferry ride.  We were exhausted. 

Our guide through the prison was an ex-political prisoner that served several years at the same time as "comrade Mandela" as he called him.  Having someone that actually lived through these horrible times guide us through the prison greatly added to the experience.

We didn't get to see Nelson Mandela's actual cell as that entire cell block was undergoing renovations.

All in all we had a blast in Cape Town!  This was an awesome start to our honeymoon.  Stay tuned for the next post which will cover the 4 day safari we did at Simbambilli in the Sabi Sands.

You can see all of our Cape Town pictures at the following location:

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/qsTxg4FQ/1037754/1012706

-Nick

So yeah, it's been quite a while since I posted here.  I know, I know, the 3 of you out there that occasionally glance at this blog are thrilled that I'm back <g>  Anyway, I plan on blogging more and trying to focus mostly on travel related topics, however anything is fair game.

With that said stayed tuned for 4 posts about our honeymoon in Africa.  I plan on breaking the posts out into 4 sections (Cape Town, Safari, Victoria Falls, and Dubai). 

-Nick

Last weekend Jen and I headed to Napa where we met up with Don and Jeanette.  It was the first time there for all of us and we were looking forward to a nice weekend away.  It was a blast but let's just say not everything went exactly to plan...

Our flight was scheduled to leave Sea-Tac a little before 6 PM and Don and Jeanette were suppose to pick us up at the airport in San Francisco.  Our flight however kept getting pushed back in 20 minute increments and we didn't take off until after 8 PM.  Not wanting to keep Don and Jeanette waiting we decided to send them on their way to Napa and we rented our own car.  After a pretty uneventful flight (I slept the whole way) we arrived in San Francisco and stood in line for 20 minutes to get the car.  During that time Jeanette sent us a series of text messages detailing our luxurious hotel.  She told us that we could easily identify their room as it was the one with no workboots outside.

We arrived at the Chardonnay Lodge past midnight and boy what a place it was.  The rooms were small and old but we did have the advertised amenities including the deadbolt on the door! 

The next morning the 4 of us ate at a nice bakery close to the hotel after which we headed to some wineries.  Don's friend Jennifer got us in for a tasting at the Van Der Heyden Winery.  This was my favorite winery!  It was small but the people were extremely funny and most importantly the wine was excellent!  So excellent we bought a whole case.  Oh and believe it or not, they actually put Jen to work!

Next we hit several other excellent wineries including Stag's Leap and Goosecross.  But the highlight for Jen was the one and only Frazier Winery!  Sure we poked fun of their sign (below), but this turned out to be an excellent winery.  They showed us the caves and we sampled some great wines!  We bought a few bottles but will undoubtedly continue to order some from them.

The following morning we had breakfast with Don's friend Jennifer and her son Dylan.  After that we headed to Sonoma to tour the Benziger Winery.  After that we headed to downtown Sonoma for lunch and then headed back to catch our 6 PM flight out.  3 hours before our flight, should be plenty of time right?  Wrong!

101 was backed up bumper to bumper basically from Sausalito to the airport.  When we realized there was no way we were making our flight we called Alaska to see if we could get on the next one.  No luck, it was way overbooked and the woman on the phone seemed to think there was no hope.  There was however a flight leaving at 9 PM from Oakland on Northwest.  Here's where it got complicated.  We had purchased our tickets from Northwest but it was a flight operated by Alaska.  This put us in a situation where neither airline could switch us to this NWA flight from Oakland even though there was plenty of room.  We had no choice but to change our tickets to the 9 AM flight the next day on Alaska.  We then booked a room at the Best Western right next to the airport.  After 3+ hours on the road we finally reached the airport where we returned the rental car.  We checked in to the hotel and then took the BART into the city.  May as well enjoy our extra night in San Fran!  We ate some great sushi and then headed to the movies to watch Employee of the Month which was entertaining. 

All in all, fun weekend, but if you learn just one thing from this post, don't stay at the Chardonnay Lodge. 

So I have had my camera for a few weeks now and I am loving it.  I am still using a lens that my buddy let me borrow since the 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Zoom-Nikkor is tough find.  I am next in line though at a local camera shop (thanks baby!) and was told there is a very good chance I will receive it in time for our big trip (11/3).

As far as posting pictures, I am in the process of rebuilding our website.  New domain name, new look, new feel!  Until that's up and running I will be using yourep to post pictures.  To check out my galleries go to http://www.yourep.com/home/nichrose and let me know what you think!  Not much up there yet, but I plan on updating it regularly and this will be the place to find the best pictures from all my trips. 

I must say that so far I have been very impressed with yourep.  This site is still in beta and is being developed by an Austrian college student. 

That's it for now...

Jen and I have been thinking of investing in a nice Digital SLR camera for a long time and we finally made the plunge.  Our new Nikon D80 body will arrive this Friday.  The 18-200mm lens we ordered however is backordered so it may take a few weeks to arrive.  While a few stores in town have it, we got it for 100 bucks cheaper through Ritz since there's free shipping, no tax and a 5% Microsoft Prime discount.

The past several days I have been trying to learn as much as I can about Digital Photography.  I have 2 months to learn how to use this camera before our next big trip!

I want to thank MichaelP for his GREAT advice.  I bugged him a lot and he gave me some really detailed and helpful information.  Stay tuned for the first pics!

That's right everything is now confirmed!  The reception will be on Saturday July 21st 2007 at the Officer's Club on Eglin Air Force Base in Fort Walton Beach Florida.  We hope to see lots of you there!

We planned this trip to Ft. Walton Beach several months ago.  At the time it was just a relaxing trip to visit Jen's parents.  Now that we are engaged however this also became a big wedding planning trip.

We arrived in Pensacola early Saturday morning after the red-eye flight.  After stopping by Jen's parents house we all went to eat some oysters at AJ's in Destin.  After that Jen and I went to the beach for a couple hours which was great.  Later that night we went to Yamato's for some great sushi.

Sunday morning we went to the Officer's club on Eglin Air Force base for brunch.  We took this opportunity to check out the location in greater detail since there is a good chance that we will be having the wedding there.  Speaking of which we have a date in mind and are just awaiting confirmation from the Officer's club.  As soon as it is set in stone I will post it here.

That afternoon we drove to Tallahassee to Don & Jeanette's place for a BBQ.  They have a beautiful house and we had a great time.  We ended up spending the night and driving back to Ft. Walton early the next morning.  Speaking of Don, watch for him on The Howard Stern Show this week where he will be promoting his new book Turning of the Tide: How One Game Changed the South.

I will upload a few pictures from this weekend so check them out!

We just got engaged and already we seem to be talking about the wedding all the time.  This is not a bad thing, it's just making me realize just how much planning goes into these things.  I never put too much thought into my wedding day in the past and always said I would be perfectly content flying to Vegas and getting married by Elvis.  (Note: I am NOT an Elvis fan).  It doesn't matter really since it's not my decision anyway.  The more we talk about it though, the more I am thinking a real wedding would be fun.  The one thing I hope, is that our wedding stands out in some fashion.  If people fly all the way to Ft. Walton Beach to attend our wedding I want them to have a blast and I want our wedding to stand apart from the others in their mind, at least in some way.  It may not be something huge that's sets us apart - we're not getting married on the beach in Mustique or Palm island for example (although that would be nice), but hopefully we'll think of something...

For one, we will have plenty of Champagne.  Good Champagne.  Having attended numerous weddings in Martinique I have become accustomed to the fact that weddings should include all you can drink Champagne.  We will also make sure that the DJ plays some biguine songs so that all my friends/cousins/family from Martinique can dance.  They can just take a breather when 99 problems is playing.  We'll do our best to please everyone.

So while the location isn't set in stone there is a very high probability that it will be at the Officer's club in Ft. Walton Beach, FL.  Both Jen and I would like to do the ceremony on the beach however that's pretty ballsy in Summer/Fall in Florida.  Unless we can have a rock solid contingency plan we will probably have both ceremony and reception in doors. 

So right now we are trying to put together a guest list which is already growing pretty large.  My family alone is about 50 people considering my mom is one of 9 kids and I have plenty of cousins.  Of course they all live in Martinique and I don't know how many will be able to fly over.  After that we will have to pick a date, making sure we don't conflict with the numerous friend's we have that are also getting hitched next year.

Anyway, stay tuned for many more wedding-related ramblings I'm sure...