Nature Friday - I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

And it looks like I am going to get it! 

Thanks to Rosy and Sunny for hosting this event. 

Hat Tax - Reindeer Games

 

I am looking at the camera, give me the cookie already! 

Wordless Wednesday - Reluctant Participant

 

Travel Tuesday - The Man's 50th Birthday Trip - Santa Cruz de Tenerife

 Our next port of call, was one of my favourites (and one I was most excited about), Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the Canary Islands.  

After a short walk from the ship to the port, we joined another couple from Austria, for a trip around the island, with the highlight of Teide National Park.

A statue in town

Looking at the city from the port

We had the most wonderful guide on this tour. He took a total of 1 personal photo and made sure to take pictures of us. 

Teide is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is home to Teide-Pico Viejo stratovolcano that is the highest peak on Spanish soil.  It is the most visited national park in Spain an the 8th most visited in the world. It did not disappoint and I would love to go back some day. Here are some pictures from the park.

It was windy and the clouds moved quickly! 

It was so windy, Chris had to hold onto his hat!

Man wasn't dressed right because it was 4C/39F 

This is where some people believe the moon landing was filmed. 

After the park we went to visit a few small towns. We were supposed to wander in one of them for an hour but at this point it was raining soooooooo hard, our group decided to drive around a bit and then go back to the ship a little early. 

There was a beautiful garden in one town

The tour was the perfect introduction to a place I really hope to go back to again.

Next week we will have our first visit to Portugal. 

Mischief Monday - Tis the Season - The Hat Tax Returns - by Lee

 Dear pals,

I kind of hoped that now that I am so old that Lady would skip the tax this year. She said because she cleans up poop every day, she is collecting now more than ever.

Stay tuned for embarrassing pictures of us!

Your pal, the resigned to this Hailey Bug

Nature Friday - The Girls

 Thanks to Rosy and Sunny for hosting this event.

While many of these pictures were taken before the snow hit, the girls as Lady calls them have been around a lot.

We have a unique member, we have dubbed Snow White. She is not the right colour, and is not an albino, but as people who know way more about birds than I do, say she is leucistic one. She has some pigment. (This is the power of the internet, you can share and learn!)

The girls int he driveway

Hailey checking out where they have been on the old deck that we are still working on burning

Turkey marks

Roosting Snow White

If they stay around (and they might, they like our feeders, expect more of them!)

The Hard Phase - by the Lady

Living with 2 senior dogs has reminded me that we aren't good at talking about the challenges of the golden years (of people or dogs if we are honest). We talk about some about the grief when a beloved pet goes to the rainbow bridge, we talk about the challenges of having a puppy but we don't talk talk a lot about living with senior dogs.

While I don't want to dwell on the negative (and to be frank we still have a lot of golden in our days), this phase, especially with our girl, is hard. There are parts of it I hate and I do want to reflect on these, because I wonder if the silence and the difficulty of it all is one of the reasons senior dogs are "dumped" so often. 

Here is a sample night from last week. At 11:30 pm, our girl had an upset stomach on the bedroom floor. I took her out, while Man cleaned. Then I washed the floor. The same thing happened around 2 and around 6. Each time, she made it to about the bedroom door, so it would have been impossible for me to get her outside in time. Some nights, she doesn't make it off her bed. Those thankfully are easier to clean up as we have her sleep on a towel. Almost every day or night we have some sort of accident to clean up. 

I still surprise my people by doing things like this

The Man and I spend a lot of time trying to figure out what may have upset her stomach, what the patterns are etc. etc.. She is on a probiotic to help. We are trying to be very mindful of what she eats, however, there is the balance between giving her a great chapter, and the inconvenience of being up in the night, dealing with accidents. We do both work full time and sleep can be important. 

The other loss for me, and the thing that is driving me to want another dog, is the walk. We don't walk far these days. Now that it is cold and the snow is deep, the walks are even shorter.  Some mornings at say 5 am, in the dark, I am less sad about this, but as I write this and look at the beautiful snow and plan to snowshoe later today, I am sad I will do this alone as neither can physically do the deep snow. 

The cost of their medical care is also high. We chose to give them Librela (as it is very helpful for them) and we are extremely fortunate to be in the position to do so. I feel for people who can't support their pets in this way. However, it is a cost. 

While this chapter is hard, I know in my heart I will do it again and have no regrets with the choices I have made that have led me to this moment.  We still have love and adventure and some of the lost habits (counter-surfing, decrease in anxiety) are welcome. Life most of life, it is beautiful and ugly at the same time. 

Thanks for listening friends.

The Lady

Wordless Wednesday - Phod Face

 

Travel Tuesday - The Man's 50th Birthday Trip - Morocco

 Our first port once on the ship was Casablanca. We were very excited about this port as it was our first entry to Africa. Sadly, we were a bit disappointed, mainly because we had a terrible guide. Instead of telling us anything, he was too busy talking to other tour guides and taking selfies. We learned more about Casablanca talking to Chris who did a hald day tour, then our full day tour to Casablanca and Rabat.  While we complain about our tour guide, we met an American man, it was his first time leaving the US, he was traveling alone (I am guessing he was in his late 50s, early 60s) and it was his guide who did the whole, pretend to put the money in your pocket but take it trick. So at least our guide didn't rob us! (Thankfully for him it was only $15). 

Now onto our tour.

A fake Rick's cafe built a few years ago by an American

Our first stop was to the Hassan II Mosque. We have never been to a mosque, and this was the only place our guide did his job! This is the 2nd largest mosque in Africa and 14th largest in the world. 25 000 people (only 5000 women) can pray inside and the square can hold another 80 000. The mosque was built over 7 years, with crews working 24 hours a day. 

The area above for women

Not pictured, the part of the roof that opens to help keep it cool when it is full

All my squats have paid of, I could still use this! 

To wash before prayers

Our next stop was Notre Dame De Lourdes Catholic Church, which is known for the stained glass.

This was my favourite one

We then took a short walk around a neighbourhood through a market that sold skins of endangered animals (not pictured for safety reasons).  We then went to learn about Moroccan rugs, which while a sales pitch, was also informative as we learned a lot about the process. Then we had a very delicious Moroccan buffet, which would have been better if they told us what we were eating. Don't worry, guide of the year was first in line and had at least 4ths.

Moroccan tea - it was soooooooooo good

After lunch I had a nap on the drive to Rabat, the capital of Morocco.

We stopped in the royal palace complex, where because the national band was playing, got even less attention from our guide.

The orchestra

A building in the palace

Then we had a stop at Mausoleum of  Mohammed V and the Hassan Tower.

People enjoying the old pillars of an old mosque

Our last stop before returning to the ship was the Kasbah of Udayas. When asked, our guide could tell us about this Kasbah, as my knowledge was limited to rocking it (if you know you know). This fort was built in the 10th century. Like all forts it has a long history. 

I rocked the Kasbah

It was full of cats so we called it the Cats-bah

Across from the Kasbah was a huge cemetery I would have liked to explore. 

That brings us to the end of our first visit to Africa. The Man and I are usually very generous with tour guides, but we didn't tip this one. Someone from shore excursions with the ship was on our tour, and when Man went to lodge the complaint, he said it had already been done. At any rate, it was an experience, we made the best of it, and thankfully it was all up hill from here! 

Next week we will stop by the Canary Islands, probably my favourite port this trip.