Erich's Photo and Travel

Just made our reservations for our Moroccan Safari Odyssey! I am glad that I called this morning as we got the last two available spaces for this trip. The bad part is that we have to wait until August. Oh well, it is something that we look forward to! More to follow…

Before football yesterday, we went to the Denver Museum of Natural History. We bought season passes last year. Since we go there a lot, we went to see the an exhibit entitled, “Traveling the Silk Road” and an IMAX movie called “Tiny Giants” in 3D. Both we awesome! Being a member saved us $15 on Silk Road exhibit and $3 on the movie. Membership does have it privileges.

Looks like China is going to be a bust this year. The trip (with the pre-trip and post-trip extensions will exceed our budget. When we priced it out the way we wanted it, the total came out to approximately $15,000. This does not include the customary tips and optional side trips. OAT really gets you on the side trips. Don’t get upset! We are still going on a trip. Get ready for it…. Here it comes….. We are going to Morocco for twenty one days. This trip won’t put us in the poor house (hopefully). I could go on an on with the details of the trip but you can check it out for yourself here: https://www.oattravel.com/trips/land-adventures/africa/morocco-sahara-odyssey/2015?icid=global:ouradventures:africa:mso2015 We will be doing the pre-trip to the northern part of Morocco (for a measly $995 per person): https://www.oattravel.com/trips/land-adventures/africa/morocco-sahara-odyssey/2015/extensions/tangier-chefchaouen-and-the-berbers-of-the-rif More details to follow!

I previously posted that the World Map was finally adhered to the wall. Michelle and I bought some molding and nails and cut a frame out using our miter saw. I must admit that it looks pretty f’ing good. I don’t think that we will be going to China this year. After pricing it out, I don’t think we will be able to come up with the $14,000 needed for the twenty-six day adventure. I am not ruling it out but we have two backup trips in mind: Morocco or Peru. Either one of these trips will only be half the cost and we should be able to foot the bill with our tax returns (we both claim single zero) and should have bunch of right offs with the new house. We dream big Oh well, we need to wait for our W-2s and house lender statements before we can decide. Either way, we will be going somewhere in June or July (or possibly September). More pix of the map:         Pretty awesome huh?

Today was a busy day for home improvement! The deck is finally installed, the world map has been installed (as wallpaper) and the basement window well cover has been measured. We have been waiting for the deck approval/install since September. The HOA needed to approve the plans, the original contractor screwed up the quote and wouldn’t budge on the price, plan revisions, change of HOA board members etc, etc. Whew….glad that it is over. The map was relatively easy….just had to find a contractor who would install the map at a reasonable price. I did a little searching on the internet and found a local guy who would install it for $95. I need to give the wallpaper guy a plug here (just in case people are searching the internet for a wallpaper guy): Jeff Cline at Creative Wall Designs. Jeff’s website is http://creativewalldesigns.biz Thanks Jeff! The wallpaper guy installed the map in about an hour. The lines are a little off but considering that I would have totally screwed it up,

The deck is almost done. Ryan called in “sick” yesterday due to the weather. We got about 2 inches of snow yesterday so I can understand. They got to the house about 8:30 this morning. Ryan said that there is a slight chance that they would complete the deck today. If not today, tomorrow. We decided to go see the latest Hobbit movie. We saw the movie in 3D in the largest theater available. The 3D wasn’t overwhelming and we pretty much forgot that we had the glasses on. We were hoping to come home to see the deck completed but alas, it is not quite done yet. We got home around 2:30 and Ryan was already gone for the day. The deck looks sturdy as hell. The post holes are three feet deep and most of the joists and supports are bolted together. But what do I know? I am not a contractor but so far we are impressed. It is looking pretty good. Hopefully he will be by tomorrow to finish the job.    

The deck is coming along nicely! Ryan (the deck guy) said that it should only take another day or two to complete the job (weather permitting).    

We finally painted the downstairs bathroom….excuse me, powder room. We bought the paint over a month ago but we both came down at the flu (a week apart) but didn’t have the time or energy to do it. Looks pretty good if you ask me!