Some catching up and backtracking

We finally have a little time where we are both awake and neither of us is behind a camera lens or pair of binoculars so I’m going to try and recap the little nuances so far. That means this is not a post for Karen. Karen likes our photos but is too busy to read long entries. She has been sharing photos of Adam along our journey and that’s been great to keep seeing him! Lynn is simultaneously traveling in Costa Rica so we also try and text every once in a while to see how that’s going for her. With time differences and internet availability this can be challenging!

So, our flight out of LAX was interesting because we got to use the special entrance that delta has for VIPS behind the frosted glass doors. It provided a quick and easy entry through security and then we went to the lounge and had our snacks with Nathan Lane, who also turned out to be on our flight to JFK seated right behind Mike. He sounds EXACTLY like he does on television. Flight to JFK was uneventful other than that thankfully.

The best thing about staying the one night at the TWA hotel at JFK was the 50s and 60s music they were playing throughout the common areas - really put a spring in my step! The oddest part was the elevator not stopping on our assigned floor and other guests were having the same problem - it felt a little like we were being filmed for Candid Camera. 

Kenya Air started off great with a nice meal and the first course was lentils and they were delicious. 

After that all I remember was the flight was L-O-N-G!

Arriving in Nairobi was incredibly quick and smooth because Mike arranged everything so nicely! We travel with carry on only and we were met by two young people who escorted us through customs and had us out the door in no time where we met our driver John. He took us to Hemmigways Hotel where we stayed for two nights. Staying there was a great idea! We got to bird the property and try and adjust a little to the time. Our room was the Finch Hatton suite and fortunately we had watched Out of Africa right before we left for the trip so we better understood all the references and I felt just like Meryll Streep only with fewer hats. We did have our own private butler there, Franklin, and he offered to clean our shoes the day we came back from our excursion to the Sheldrick Trust and giraffe conservation center- that felt extremely odd to me and I assured him our shoes were fine.

We did enjoy the day excursion to those two places although typically that is not what we do. The sheldrick trust rescues elephants and we adopted one before we left and it seemed important to also support the work they do with the giraffes at the giraffe center. Nairobi has a national park right in the city center which is huge and apparently one can see many animals driving through that but we did not take that opportunity since we knew we would soon be out in the actual bush. So that bri gs me to the end of travel days and Nairobi and next post will be about Tsavo and the Ol Donyo lodging.