• What to do in Doha when you only have 24 Hours.

    First day of sight seeing. You will be our wing people. Hang on. Here is our hotel and a view from our room of Doha.

    Our resting place for one night.
    The hotel. Unique!
    Our view. We are told they never stop building.

    We took a half day tour of the city. But you need to fuel up first. Our tour guides visiting the buffet.

    Enjoying breakfast.

    First stop along the way was The Pearl and the blue mosque. It is one of the only mosques designed by a women architect.

    The mosque. It is on the right. By the way there was a sign women are always right!
    Inside the mosque
    The times today you will be called for prayers. 3:43 am? Really?

    While in the mosque, we met two “local ladies.”

    Wives 1 and 2.

    Next to the mosque we found these two buildings. No they are not for storing grain. They are for 12,000 pigeons who live in the area.

    Not a bad crib if you’re a bird. Who cleans the pigeon poop?

    Next stop was a unique sculpture. It reminded me of Corbin. A butterfly trying to escape but dragging an iron ball.

    Corbin and the lawsuit!

    Next stop was a museum dedicated to pearl divers. There were no free samples. Darn!

    So you know where you are.
    A traditional boat for pearl divers.
    No, this is not Nate. It is a pearl diver.

    Our next stop was the presidential palace and the camels used for the daily royal procession. They are also available as Ubers in the afternoon.

    The palace. Trump was just there. He will be adding on to Mar a Lago soon.
    The UBER CAMELS. Note these are one humpers. They are lighter, faster and better mileage than double humpers.

    One hobby here is falconry. A good bird is about $300. A great bird can run you $300,000. Here is a guy and his bird at the falcon hospital we visited.

    A good bird. Note the hood over his head. It is for training purposes. The Princess could not find my size.

    This is where sick birds wait for the falcon doctor.

    Falcon waiting room.

    Here is where the owners wait.

    Not a busy day.

    We were nearing the end of our tour. One of the last stops was the Souq. It was a bazaar or market.

    A view of a typical street.
    Need something to spice up your life?
    Cut off a hunk of spice.
    I wanted it for my new coach. Princess said no.
    A local artist at work. They love their birds.

    We learned that if you want to build a building it has to be unique and different. Some random shots from our tour to give you a flavor of their architecture.

    One special place

    Another great building.

    The tour guides taking a quick break.

    Shepherding Nate and Matt is a challenge.
    They take great selfies. Sandy is my back up photographer. Big shout out to her.

    All good times come to an end. Here is the gang with Evelyn our official guide.

    Our gang!

    Before leaving for the airport for the next leg I wanted to think about the great day and sights we saw.

    I was also beat!

    Off to the airport for our flight to Kenya.

    Nate and I are not permitted to get involved in trip negotiations.

    STOP: The first sighting of a silverback!

    He was waiting for me. Note he is reaching for my hand.

    See you in Kenya!

  • The flight

    If you have not flown Qatar, think being at a Four Seasons in the sky. You pre order your food. The adult beverages are great. But the highlight are the pajamas you are issued for sleep. Check us out!

    The gang.

    We were met at the airport and then off to our hotel in Doha.

    I adopted Nate and Sandy!

    What a beautiful place. More marble than I have ever seen. Off to bed after a day and a half of travel.

    Nice!
  • And so it begins!

    We are starting the trip of a lifetime. The sun is not up yet but the full moon is shining enough for us to see our way at oh dark five.

    The carefree moon

    Here is the Princess and me waiting for the Hyde’s. We could not wait in the house any longer. Excitement of finally getting on the road was overwhelming.

    Checking to make sure she had Matt’s passport.
    Ready to go. Note the safari outfit.

    Here is the first, of many to come, of the group photos. Waiting in Phoenix for the first of many flights.

    Nate’s last Peets for a while.

    Our first stop along our first days journey. Hollywood and home to other celebrities. Saw the first sign to our next stop.

    I thought it was spelled Cutter.

    While at LAX we followed the path forged by the Dusel’s looking for the international terminal. Look who, because of his new look, was designated as porter. Note what my wing man is hauling!

    Me working hard.
    Nate watching for signs.

    We were six plus hours early. So off to the Hilton for adult beverages and a snack. Great way to kill three hours.

    Not a bad place.

    Then back to the airport. Wife 2 and the Princess trying to get us into the special lounge. But we tried first class and got bumped to business class lounge. Still not bad place to kill two and a half hours before boarding.

    No. You are not at the right lounge, or something like that.
    Now you’re at the right place.

    Well it is time. We have a pod for four. Also we are with our sweeties. That is Nate and I. We just finished toasting our ladies for setting this up and in anticipation of meeting the silverbacks! That is it for now. We leave in five minutes. Welcome aboard!

    Our pod.
    The Hyde’s!
    The Princess and me!

  • Getting Ready

    Our planners, besides the Princess

    People have asked where in Africa are you traveling. All I talk about is seeing and hopefully being with the silverbacks. But here is our travel schedule and the camps we will be at.

    Our stops on our adventure

    Are we ready? You bet we are. Here are our safari clothes ready to rock and roll. As the Princess says, four more sleeps and we start our adventure.

    My shoes are on the right!
  • What’s next?

    The next trip is back to Africa to see the silverback gorillas. Here is the first cousin of the silverback gorilla delivering to our traveling partners their plane tickets. This has been and remains number one on my bucket list. More details on this trip to come. Stay tuned.

  • Where it starts

    Where it starts

    Every journey has a starting point and a destination. What is interesting is that once you reach the destination, you are at a new starting point. To create my bucket list, I needed to go somewhere where I could think. I have sat for many hours watching the waves. Wondering where they came from and what they encountered on their journey. This inspired me to create my bucket list.

    So many choices. How does one determine what the next trip will be? Easy. Just ask the Princess.

    Travel is so much more fun when your with friends. Here are some of our travel buddies.

We do this a lot