Also over Memorial Day weekend, I crossed another thing off my list. I went to my first ever monster truck rally. Betcha didn't know that it was on my list. Well, since moving out here, I've become aware of the "little inner redneck" that is apparently in anybody who is American born. And what do you know, that little redneck wanted to check out monster trucks.

Truthfully, the monster trucks themselves were cool, but not as cool as the rest of it. I really couldn't believe how excited I got about things getting destroyed or potentially getting smashed. For example, here is a clip of "roll overs." The purpose of this event is to see how many times a car can roll over. It doesn't matter if the car doesn't drive after it is done rolling over. Or if the driver is OK for that matter.




Then there are the school bus races. Now, this promised to be very exciting, because this race had "intersections." As in, instead of just going around a track in circles, the buses make a figure 8 within the track. Now, logic would indicate that there should be some serious smashing going on, but disappointingly, not. The buses kept SLOWING down before an intersection.. hello, there is no slowing down in racing! I had never been to a motor race before and even i knew that!! And don't worry, no kids are in the buses.



I think my favorite event was the boat races. Essentially, cars race around a figure 8 with boats dragging behind them. The last car with any part of the boat still attached to it, wins.

Memorial Day weekend was one of the most gorgeous stretch of 3 days in a row I've had in Seattle in a very long time. Not wanting to waste a minute of this precious weather, I headed out to take a look at Mt. Baker, which is about 3 hours NE of the city. Up until now, I'd only been able to see it from the city and was very interested in seeing it up close finally. It didn't disappoint.





And since the weather continued to be so favorable, the decision was made to proceed even further east onto Washington Pass. This was the last of the mountain passes in WA that I had yet to go through and it represented the farthest east I had been in the state so far. It was absolutely spectacular.



The views just got better and better the farther down the pass. Just as we were about to head down the other side, the traffic came to a complete stop. As in parked. Apparently, an avalanche had fallen across the road and was being cleared by a single front end loader. It was about 50 feet wide and high enough to bury a car. The estimated wait time was about an hour. People just got out of their cars and started drinking. Note the GORGEOUS view we had of where we were stopped, as well as the "all natural" beer coolers that were used during the makeshift tailgate:

Our last stop was at Victoria Falls. Since it was the end of the wet season, the falls were very very full and powerful. What this meant was, we could see very little of them because, well, while in any of the viewing areas, you were actually IN the falls. Which was actually kind of cool... and very wet. VERY wet. We had a chance to see them from a helicopter, which did give a better perspective.










Here are videos of what the viewing areas were like. Sorry that one video is "vertical." If i knew how to rotate it, i would.

Baboons are pretty entertaining as well. In Chobe, we had a chance to see a lot of families having quite a bit of fun:





In Chobe we also got to see a lot of buffalo. These are not the most attractive of animals, but I did my best to find their "good" side:





And, in Chobe, the sunsets were, as expected, pretty spectacular from the river:

As many of you may know, I'm completely obsessed with elephants. They are by far my most favorite animal. I literally could not wait to start watching these wonderful creatures up close. In particular, I was very excited about seeing baby elephants. I had never seen one even in a zoo before and based on all that footage from the Plant Earth series, I was pretty convinced I was not going to be disappointed.

I am happy to report that I got my fill of elephants. And no, as much as I really wanted to, I didn't bring a baby one home with me.

Sunsets in Africa are so unbelievable. I am not sure what exactly causes them to be so dramatic, but it is something that i looked forward to every day.

One of the most exciting moments on safari was when we saw a leopard. We had been warned that they are generally illusive and hard to find. I was quite confident, however, that we would eventually run into one. I was not prepared for the leopard to actually visit our camp the night before. Finding her tracks right outside our tent was entirely too cool.

So she gets her own blog entry:

And now, for a brief video interlude. First, here is a giraffe running in front of our vehicle:



Here are two male impalas fighting over a girl, most probably.




And finally, here is a herd of wildebeasts running off some zebras in their watering hole of choice:

Here are some random shots from drives in our third camp.








And yes, that is Mark, my brother, holding an elephant jaw and clearly feeling both macho and primal.

The next two shots are of a lioness with her zebra kill. We were so close to her that we could hear her drinking its blood. And no, I don't have video of this.




The following is a shot of a bug that landed on our dinner table.

You probably are wondering what I've been meaning when I say, "camp." Essentially, a "camp" is a place where a bunch of "safariers" stay in the middle of a reserve or national park. They generally consist of a main building that has a dining room, library, bar and toilet, which is surrounded by a bunch of "tents" for the guests. These tents are generally elevated on wooden platforms. Each has its own bathroom, which is actually pretty swank. The tent itself, is pretty much a tent, with "windows" and a porch:





The most common question I get about the camps is about the presence of animals. The answer to that is, yes, there are animals. The only animals that they work hard at keeping out are the elephants and giraffes because they are so destructive. Elephants in particular like to knock stuff over for fun. But other than those two species, pretty much any animal that wants to wander the camp - at any time - can do so. Baboons are frequent and persistent visitors - the staff warns you to keep your tent locked at all times because the baboons have figured out how to open the doors and are partial to prescription drugs, vitamins and anything in the minibar. I met a genet (Africa's version of a feral cat) in the main building's toilet. Not "in" the toilet, but running around it. At one point, my family's two tents straddled what is called a, "hippo highway" which is the main route hippos use to reach the river to feed at night. Just after dark, they pretty much hussle down that highway. This is a main reason why after sundown and until the following day's breakfast, you are escorted by a guide around the camp and once you are in your tent for the night, you are in. And just in case you doubted the staff's warnings that animals do come around at night, you don't doubt for very long- you can hear them all night long. It is absolutely fantastic. Once you are able to tell the difference between a hippo hollering and your brother snoring. Every morning there are fresh tracks to examine outside your tent, so you can see who paid you a visit - be it an impala, python or hyena. Always an adventure.

You will not go hungry or thirsty at a safari camp. Almost every drive is accompanied with some kind of snack/drink. My personal favorite is the "sundown drink."



To get between camps, you generally fly on a teeny tiny plane that takes off from a landing strip that is often nothing more than just grass that is more mowed than the bush around it. For those who are not comfortable flyers, this may not be a trip for you. Please note the airstrip's only "safety" equipment: