Straight up lied

This video is kinda long, needs to be edited and is hard to see because of blogger's video conversion. On the other hand it shows a few lions hunting and a few other interesting things. Have a look if you're bored.

Last Africa Post, I Swear

Here's the last Africa post. All of this was shot in the Masai Mara in Kenya. It's the same park as the Serengeti but on the Kenyan side. We stayed at a camp called Kicheche and it was totally rad. We went on walking safaris and saw a male lion 300 yards away. We also saw a hyena caring a wildebeest leg in his mouth.

Above is our Masai guide, Amos. He was super professional and a really cool guy to boot.

We went hot air ballooning over the Savannah. It was really fun and we saw some cool animals. They had a killer breakfast waiting for us when we landed. I wish every morning could start that way.


White rhinos, the larger and more gregarious relatives of the black rhino (previously mentioned).

Leftovers from a leopard kill, show that to the kids before bedtime.

An old lion who has seen his share of battles.

Notice how dull his teeth have become

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

Another photo of the great migration. It was awesome seeing these huge herds running in unison. A must see in one's life time.

The vehicles were phenomenal, open-air but could also cover-up when it rained. Another thing I liked about Kenya is that you can off road (get closer to the animals than in Tanzania) and you don't see many other vehicles. As a whole, people seemed to speak better English in Kenya than in Tanzania. In Tanzania there's no doubt that you see a ton of animals but I like the overall safari experience better in Kenya. Safariing is basically my favorite pastime and every location has brought unique strengths and weaknesses to the table. If you've never experienced the wilds of Africa first hand, you seriously need to go. There really is no other place like it in the world.

Labor Day Plans

I think Candice would want me to finally finish our trip blogs by posting about Kenya but I need some Labor day planning assistance. Being a long weekend, our time is limited. So no more than a 3 hour plane ride would be nice. We've been thinking a lot on what to do but nothing seems to jump out at us. Here are a few possible destinations:

Austin, TX- We've never been to Austin but have heard nothing but good things. Live music capital of the US or World-sweet. I've also he

ard you can see swarms of bats, sounds interesting.

Seattle, WA-We've been to the airport a bunch of times but are feeli

ng like it might be time to venture out and experience the fish market, nature and quaint cafes.

Los Angeles, CA-A  fun place filled with museums, culture, friends and traffic.

Mexico-We've explored many of the touristy parts and a few not so touristy spots as well. Amazing food, ruins, jungles and beaches.

Miami, FL-We have yet to splore' Miami but have heard a lot of cool stuff. Shopping, everglades, scuba. Kinda long plane ride could mean a little too much travel for a long weekend.

Orlando, FL-Touristy, plastic, mickey mouse but is it fun? I've heard mixed reviews but in the end it might be fun to wear socks with sandals and just embrace our inner child.

Vail, CO- In our backyard but a beautiful setting mixed with close proximity sounds nice.

Africa the Serengeti

There's no doubt that you've all been hanging onto every word of our vacation waiting for the next post, right? ... and alas, here we are. After a fabulous birthday in the Ngorongoro Crater we were off to the Serengeti. I probably don't even need to write anything - you can just look at the incredible pictures and know that it is other-worldly! Simply amazing. There are TONS of animals in the Serengeti. The way the national parks are set up in Tanzania you can't "off-road" to get physically closer to the animals. Sometimes they're really close, and other times they're far away. Also in the Serengeti there are a decent number of other cars - but fortunately there are enough animals to go around! Check out some of our incredible encounters. Clearly I had a hard time editing which ones to put on the post.

A family of elephants were really close to us at the end of the day. It was cool to observe their interactions, two intertwined trunks, one momma watched closely to protect her baby, another couple were about to make a baby, several growled and trumpeted while splashing in the water.
The baby flapped it's ears at us then went and hid on the other side of it's mom.
Our "tent" in the Serengeti. Running water and 3 course dinners - sounds like my kind of camping!
Don't mind the leopard in the tree. We were lucky enough to see three while there.
Sweet hair and gorgeous sunset.
This giraffe was on the lawn right in front of our tent. Matt wasn't sure if he was real, but as we approached he started to run away. They're super curious animals and if we moved slowly they would just sit there and stare at us staring back at them.
Wildebeest a plenty! This was part of the great migration.
Looking for a Tommy Gazelle.
One of many stunning lions that we saw. There were actually 6 or 7 sitting in this open area on top of mounds like this. We watched two different groups of lions attempt to hunt - both were unsuccessful. The first was a singular lion going after a gazelle, the second was a wart hog. It was super cool to see the lions crouch down and stalk through the grass. When the lioness missed the gazelle the lady in a land cruiser next to us started clapping.

Who knew, but wart hogs are seriously fast. This was the second time we had seen a wart hog escape the finesse of a lion. In the Serengeti experience, the wart hog bobbed along nonchalantly until he was about 5 feet from a lion ready to pounce. She went for him, he dodged her, and several other lionesses who were in the back field went for him, yet he remained unscathed. He was the best running back I've ever seen.
Their cub hidden in the grass near one of the mounds.

"L" is for the way you look at me
Confusing predators like crazy with all those stripes going every which way


This circle of life... (or at least a quarter circle). Lions eating a zebra.
Hyena's ready to eat the lion's remnants of the zebra.
Vultures and weird old man bird waiting to eat the hyena's left overs.
Nothing left.