Fall Adventure Boston, Netherlands and Saudi Arabia

Boston
Katherine cane from Kelowna to pick us up in Vernon to take us to the airport early morning.  She saw that there was an accident on the way and called us to be ready incase the traffic backed up blocking the alternate route to the airport. Luckily we were in time to access it and made it in time. We arrived in Boston at 10:30 pm and caught a taxi . Unfortunately we arrived at the same named street and knew it was wrong and then headed to Alex and Celestines in Jamaica Plain. We snuck in the door and went to bed. We saw the family in the morning, said goodbye to Alex and went to Fionas music class. She had great fun with the balls, bubbles, dancing and singing. Then we walked to the Arboretum and had a picnic. Had dinner with Alex. The next day we all walked to Harvard to see where Alex is working this year. He showed us his locker, his office in the department of biomedical informatics, the great coffee room with super coffee machine, and again had a picnic on the lawn. Then we took the metro to their favourite market and stocked up on food supplies.  The next day Alex and Roger went to the MIT Science museum while Fiona, Celestine and I walked through a nearby forest where there was also a running race going on and then on  to the zoo. We hung out inside the zoo as the rain was teaming down for most of the day. They live in a lovely area of Boston, lots of older character homes, park, water and forests.

Fiona looking inside Daddys locker

All of us standing on the steps of Harvard

Roger and Fiona having a tea party

Saying goodbye to Boston


The Netherlands

We arrived in the evening to be greeted by Pim, my sisters husband. We drove to Apeldorn, spent 2 days with them and my niece Tamara, We had some great walks through many wooded and canal ed walkways and learned more of lifestyle. I am told the Dutch are very frugal with energy, as exampled that most Dutch do not have clothes dryers and the heat gets turned on only in the room you are sitting in while you are in that room. Amazing. It was minus 1. Two children at a time transported by a single bicycle. Their pension is based on the number of years you have worked there between 17 and 65 years of age. My brother in law has a car provided by his company every 4 years and gas supplied free anywhere while in the Netherlands.

La Manzanilla for Tango last 2 weeks of January

Some of the hurricane damage in November

Our tent and kitchen at the beach for our 2 week stay

Roger chilling under the palapa

Sunset at 6:50 pm

Palapa on the beach where we hung our hammock.

Colourful vegetation

We had quite a trip back leaving at 3 am. We were delighted to be upgraded on British Airways to Business class. That meant that we got to lie FLAT with pillow and duvet for the night journey!!!
Then it went downhill, we got the back of the plane squished in seats from London to Dallas. It was 3 hours late leaving because of mechanical problems and hence we missed our connecting flight to Guadalajara. We were put up in a hotel in Dallas but there was some mad scrambling to arrange for our Ajijic guests to get in the house as we would not be there until later the next day. We arrived at the house to pick up our car which was packed for the beach. We arrived at 8:30 at night and had to construct camp with tents (after travelling more than 26 hours!) and then 5 1/2 hours to the beach!

Ali and Roger

Our Tango group , Beatrix and Michael (our teachers, centre back to our right)

Unfortunately the flu was going around and we lay for 5 days in out tent, not eating  and keeping each other awake coughing. We are still recovering with a cough that hangs on now that we are back in Ajijic. We did enjoy our walks along the beach for our morning and evening tango lessons, and catching up at one of the restaurants on the beach that had internet. We enjoyed the lovely tango group, mostly from Vancouver Island,  and Seattle, California, Montreal and Holland. Our Holland friends returned with us for a few days to see the area and our Tango teachers hopefully arrive soon for a visit and some classes here.

Last days and visit (kids on holidays) to Jens school before leaving

I went to school with Jennifer before the students returned from their holidays and got to help with organizing some of their artwork for display. It was fun to see what Jen was working on with the students. This year has been a very difficult year for her, as she has some very challenging classes and not the support that is needed to manage the problems. Five more months! She fortunately had 2 wonderful house mates who could support each other with the difficulties they were each having. Unfortunately one of the teachers had to leave.

Creative British School

 We are very sad to leave Jen, it has been a wonderful holiday with so many new experiences for us. She has been a terrific host, and we will miss her until she returns for her summer employment this July after her teaching contract. (picking cherries in the Okanagan)

Outside Jens classroom 

Organizing the class before the students return

Displaying some of their artwork

Some of the students interlacing artwork

Jennifers Subdivision

On our final walks around Jennifers' house, I took some pictures of the homes where she lives to capture the Emirate style of construction. Will be lovely when landscaping is done.

The The view from Jennifer s' door, just sand yard

Roger walking down from Jennifers house to the gate

Her gateway to the house

The house across the street

Seating for the construction workers. I would like that chair!

Picture of the interlacing tiles

The local desert tent set up outside a house

Interlacing patterns

Still fields of sand, what it was all like a year and a half ago.

Desert Camp Christmas

Our driver came to the house at 1:30 pm to pick us up. He had a hard time finding the house and he didn't want to listen to directions so we walked to a restaurant to meet him. He had already picked up Jens friend Rose who was joining us. Both Rose and Jen got upset with the speed at which he was driving and insisted he slow down to the limit. Emirates tend to drive very quickly, tailgate in the passing lane and have no tolerance for the car in front to get out of their way. There is a 20 km tolerance over the speed limit, so if it says 140km, then 159km is acceptable! ( Good thing the roads are straight)
After a 20 minute ride we reached the sand dunes where we were driven up sand dunes and down steep sand hills. I guess they know their limits, however, sometimes it was amazing we didn't roll over. The SUVs have roll bars which I hung onto for dear life. It was quite surreal. I just kept waiting for it to be over. Poor Rose in the front seat had already taken drugs and her head was between her knees in tears the whole ride. I think her reaction (starting to sob) slowed him down and consequently shortened our torture. I think it must be great fun for the drivers, not so much for the passengers.
 Then we arrived at the camp. There were a lot of tourists arriving, and they entertained themselves boarding down the sand dune and riding camels. We sat in the Majalis drinking tea and water. Roger and I tried on the customary clothing of the Muslims, looked at the falcon, and then we all sat down on cushions to eat the BBQ prepared for us. There was the camel stick dance preformed by the men and then a belly dancer who needed more clothes, or containment.  Finally it got dark and all the visitors left the camp except for the 4 of us. That's when it started to get interesting.
We sat around the glowing coals, smoked shisha. (not inhaling and it has a honey flavour)
The owner sat with us and told us about the history of the Emirates.
Then we headed to our tent where our sleeping bags were laid out for us. The tent smelled a bit like cat pee so Jennifer put some perfume on kleenex on sticks in the tent. We all had a very good sleep, and Jen, Roger and I headed up the dunes to see the sun rise.
Afterwards, we were brought breakfast by our driver. (pancakes and fried eggs)
We enjoyed a last camel ride, and Jen boarded down the dune. (as far as the sand would allow her to)
Then our driver took us home.

Jen on the dune at sunrise

Jen and Ali flying high

Up with the birds to see sunrise on the dunes

Final camel ride before leaving (Jen)

Tent

Roger saying good morning to the baby camel

Camp

Looking towards camp

The early morning light

Sand in my shoes

Sand texture

Our tents

Taking off in the sand dunes

Ali in an abaya

My man wears a dress

Nice camel ride

This girl knows how to get down! Rose in the background.

OOPS, we don't have Jens skill