October 25-26, 2018

October 25-26, 2018

We are embarking on a set of long overseas flights. This is the fourth big travel trip we are taking this year. That is unusual even for us. Earlier in the year, I passed a major milestone birthday. That event has given me pause making me think that if we are going to successfully see the world, we need to kick it up a notch. It is Autumn so that means we need to focus south. Aimee wants to add her sixth and most likely last continent (Antarctica is too cold for us), so we are headed to Africa.

After flying in the opposite direction for ninety minutes we change planes in LAX and board a non-stop to Paris. We have some clear skies at the beginning and I see the Queen Mary ocean liner at the Long Beach dock, Valley of Fire outside Vegas, and Coral Pink Sand Dunes in Utah. We are welcomed with a nice sunrise entering Paris. Almost like a miracle the clouds part and I spot the Eiffel Tower.

In Paris, we catch a three hour flight to Casablanca, the commercial center of Morocco. There we find our tour group and make our way ninety minutes up the coast to Rabat, the current capital of the independent Kingdom of Morocco. Along the way our tour manager talks of the various ways Morocco is successfully becoming one of the most western and tolerant of Muslim countries. This includes funding the religion with public money and tightly controlling the education and placement of peaceful Imams in Mosques. The government is undergoing massive housing infrastructure projects aimed at improving living conditions to side step discontent with the public. We see row after row of new apartment buildings.