Morocco!!!

So after our whirlwind tour of Scotland with Eric and Lesley, we boarded a plane for some much needed sun in Morocco (seriously, does it do anything BUT rain in this country!??!!)  We hopped on a plane for our 3.5 hr. flight. I was a little bit nervous about Cade on the flight but he did great!  Flirted with the flight attendants, watched some Dora, and played with Bryce and I.  Great start to our trip!

We arrived that evening and a taxi picked us up to head to our Riad (a Moroccan style B&B) for our first night.  All 6 of us piled into a Mercedes with our six carry-ons, three suitcases, a portacrib and a stroller....Seriously!  He started driving and then turned off the main road.  We started going down very small streets that looked almost like alley ways.  People were looking in the car, we were staring wide eyed back.  Kinda scary...OK, really scary!  Kids were eyes wide as saucers and silent.  Bryce even admitted that while he was fine at first, when the driver pulled over in the middle of a marketplace with all sorts of people milling about and no sign of any foreigners or a place of business, he started to get a bit nervous.  Bryce asked the driver where the riad was and he pointed through a narrow tunnel.  Hmmm....

We followed the driver through the narrow tunnel pulling all of our luggage with us and he points to a door and says, "Here."  We look and there is no name, nothing to distinguish it from anything else.  The door Bryce describes as a 'Hobbit sized door' probably because he really knocked his head on it when we walked through it.  A woman that spoke very limited English welcomed us, showed us to our three rooms and said she was leaving.  Um, I'm sorry, WHAT?  And she left.  We had no one there at the 'front desk', no telephone, no idea what to do if there were an emergency, NOTHING.  We got settled in and since we had to be in three rooms, two downstairs and one upstairs, the kids were very nervous about who was going to sleep where.  We ended up with Cade and I in one room, Isaac and Tanner in the room next to mine and Bryce and Brynn upstairs.  As we were getting settled, someone started pounding on the door to get in.  They kept pounding and pounding and pounding.  WE ARE GOING TO DIE!  We didn't know what to do and certainly didn't want to answer the door because we had no idea who it was.  We finally found a phone number for the manager and called him.  He appeared an hour later (all the while the people continued pounding) and let the people in.  Apparently it was a father and his daughter who were Americans staying in the riad, as well.  We felt bad that we didn't get the door but relieved it wasn't someone trying to kill us afterall :)

Pictures from the Riad (this was an indoor veranda type place and the rooms surrounded the veranda on the outside.  It was open aired but beautiful.

The next morning, we were up bright and early for our trip to the desert.  It was a LONG trip that would take over 10 hours each way.  Ten hours in a car with four kids, one of whom is less than two and hates the car is not always fun.  Oh, who am I kidding...it was tortuous!  We had a driver named Ali (with the shesh on and everything) come and pick us up from our riad and begin our journey to the desert.  Above, you will see the mountains we had to cross.   

WARNING!!!  Not for the weak stomached:  We learned that Oreo cookies + crazy driving up mountainous high altitude roads + child without Dramamine= NOT GOOD!!!  This is how we started out our journey, however, an hour and a half into our travels.  After giving Dramamine to everyone except Cade because he was too little, he vomited....Oreo cookies...everywhere....YUCK!  Honestly, I wish I would have taken out stock in Dramamine because we went through so much this trip!  We had to pull over.  It was all over him, the car seat, and the seat of the car.  We cleaned him up the best we could with the toilet paper (yep, that's all we had) Ali gave us, took him out of the car seat and I held him the rest of the trip on my lap.  Yep, really loving this trip now!  In fact, I looked at Bryce at that point and said, "I want to go back!"  Of course, I didn't really know where I wanted to go back to at that point...was it the riad where no one was, the airport, England or the US?  Hmmm...hard choices!  A half hour after Cade getting sick, cleaning him up, etc. Isaac pipes up from the back and said, "I am not feeling so good."  SO we pulled over again and waited for some more Dramamine to take effect and then headed on our way.

We made it the rest of the way to the Kasbah where we stopped to tour for a while.  A Kasbah is a medina or city made entirely out of the sand/straw/water bricks.  Many families live in a Kasbah in their own little separate 'apartments'.  The one where we stopped to visit had many movies filmed there....some of the Indiana Jones ones, a scene from Gladiator, and 15-20 other movies.  It was neat to see and interesting to learn about life there.

After that, we got back in the car (groan, moan) and headed to a Riad to spend the night.  The gentleman below was the owner/manager of the Riad we stayed at.  About the Moroccan people.  They are lovely and friendly and warm.  They welcome you in right away.  After they shake your hand, they touch their hearts which means we were told, "You are in my heart" and is a sign of respect.  Loved that!  The one thing I had troubles with is that they love children....a bit too much for my Western liking.  Often, someone would come up and kiss Cade not only on the cheek but on the lips, as well.  It is supposed to be good luck (not sure if for them or the babe).  In this case, because Cade had a runny snotty nose, I am quite sure it was never good luck for the adults that kissed him.  He did OK with the attention and was cautious but OK with those that came and picked him up but boy did he keep an eagle eye on me to make sure I wasn't too far away.

The owner/manager of the Riad where we stayed.  

Cuteness!

And the remainder of our trip to the desert was spent much like this.  Who wants to sit in a baked vomited Oreo smelling carseat when you can be held by Mommy?

Brynn with Ali, our driver.  He was a great guy and we really enjoyed him.   We still feel horrible about the car/carseat/carsickness but he handled us all very well!

Just before heading into the desert we stopped to get our own Shesh for our heads.  These proved to be mighty helpful in the desert for keeping us cool and keeping the flies and sand out.  They were also great to wrap souvenirs in to protect them on the way home :)

We were able to stop at another Riad for lunch and swimming before taking the last hour trip to the desert.  Bryce caught this great shot of Tanner flying through the air!

We dried off, loaded back into the car and headed to the desert.  After about an hour of driving, Ali turns on his blinker and shifts the car into 4 wheel drive.  I look...there is no road.  NONE.  We went offroading!  

Here we are offroading.  Some of us enjoying it more than others.  Cade was asleep so I was literally bracing his head in my two hands so that he would not get brain damaged.

We arrived to the Sahara dunes and got out of the car.

Yes, this is what we slept in.
Yes, it is a nomad tent.
Yes, we slept on the ground on a straw type mattress.
Yes, it was pitch black even in the middle of the day inside.
Yes, we had toilets but could not flush the toilet paper so had to throw it away.
Yes, there were animals howling outside the tent and beetle tracks (think the movie The Mummy freaky icky beetles) ALL OVER outside the tent in the morning.
Yes, there was sand in every crook, cranny, etc. the next morning including particles floating in the air.
Yes, roosters started crowing at the break of dawn (but I was already up since 3am because of the howling).

Yes, my husband will owe me for the rest of his life.

On a positive note...we did get to ride camels up into the dunes, go sandboarding, and watch the sunset.  It was beautiful, the kids LOVED it, and I enjoyed watching my family have so much fun.

A note about the camels.  Camels are not graceful creatures.  At all!  To get on a camel, it takes some skill and it is always helpful to know what is going to happen.  I did not.  Although I should have realized that when they said that I needed to give them the baby that something big was about to happen.  The camels lay down resting on their legs.  You get on and sit and are supposed to hold on tight to the bar in front of you.  I did not.  The camel stands up with its back legs first so you are leaning severely forward and will fall off if not careful.  I did not fall off however I did scream.  This in turn scared my little guy who wanted nothing to do with me or the camel once the camel stood the rest of the way up.  They handed Cade to me and he was balling.  He cried for a good 10 minutes until we got everyone up and on their camels and started walking.  Then, he just gripped his hat with a hand on each side of his head and didn't move or say anything for the entire time.  I think we may have tramautized him permanently.

Funny story...Isaac's camel immediately started yelling as soon as we walked up and continued to complain throughout most of the trip.  We found it oddly amusing that he got that camel :)  Not only that but now when you ask Cade what a camel says, he lets out this loud bawl and sounds exactly like Isaac's camel!

That evening, we had dinner and then our guide and the other men from the desert area played music and sang.  They even let the kids have a go at it.  When we went outside that evening...the stars were AMAZING. I have never seen so many stars.  We saw shooting stars, every constellation humanly possible in one place and even saw satellites and planets.  Gorgeous!

Next morning, we got up and started the long drive back to Marrakech.  LONG DRIVE!  We stopped at this area because Tanner started feeling sick.  Thankfully, after getting more Dramamine in him, he was fine.  We made it through the rest of the trip vomitous free!  Hooray!

Ali got us back to Marrakech and to our resort as fast as he could.  That wasn't necessarily a good thing.  I don't think I can ever complain about Bryce driving too fast or swervy again!  But we enjoyed our time in the desert.  Only complaints were not enough time in the desert (really only 6 hours where we were awake) and too much time in the car (over 20 hours in 3 days).  UGH!

Next we headed to our resort for some much needed Vitamin D and relaxation.  Bryce said this is the palest he has ever seen me.  And after him knowing me for more than 20 years...that is saying something!

We swam and played games out by the pool for four days straight.  

One day we headed into downtown Marrakech.  We did some shopping, ate some KFC (oh yummy!  We were getting pretty tired of Moroccan food by that time

), and toured around the city via horse drawn carriage.  While we were walking through the marketplace, a man came up and put a snake around Isaac's shoulders.  He said, "You can touch this one.  It Garter Snake.  But don't touch that one." And he pointed to the snake below.

Holy Freak!  It was a cobra. Not so far away.  And within a few feet of that were two other deadly vipers.  UNBELIEVABLE!  Of course, after taking the pictures, the guy wanted $25.  Bryce refused and only gave him $5.  The guy was angry but took the money.  My husband was on fire with his bartering skills this trip!

Cade in the fort Tanner and Isaac built for him in the villa.  He loved playing in it!

So now for the funny story.  We still aren't sure who is to blame.  I claim Bryce and he claims me but maybe it is a bit of both.  On Friday, we got all packed up and ready to go.  Rode the taxi to the airport and were waiting in line.  All of the sudden we look down and realize that we weren't supposed to leave until Saturday.  Thankfully, the hotel originally had us staying until Saturday anyways and so we got another day in the sun and pool.  Frustrating that we had to pay for the taxi both ways, etc. but at least we got another day!

This was Cade at the airport when we finally did leave on the correct day.  He was a wild man running through the airport and flinging himself on the floor.  It was hilarious and thankfully he wore himself out from all that running and slept well on the plane.

Overall, we had a wonderful trip.  Lots of fun, lots of sun, lots of Dramamine, lots of family time.  I would declare it a success!