Kilimanjaro2006

Click the video below below to watch a video of our Day 9!

The video may take up to 1 minute to work (on faster connections) so click play, and then be patient. The video will load. (If it's still not loading, see the instructions below.)

On day 9, we awoke in New Jersey, and rode the New Jersey transit from South Amboy to Penn Station in Manhattan. We went to the Empire State Building, Times Square, Long Island, took a boat ride, saw the statue of Liberty, ate Pakistani food, and saw the financial district at night.

You can watch day 9 (in our video summary below, and then you can see all of our pictures from day 9 here!

If you are having trouble with the above video (i.e. people on dial-up), you might try downloading it by using your right mouse button. Right Click here, and then choose "Save Target As". Save it on your computer, and then watch it from there.

Don't forget, you can see all of our pictures from day 9 here!

Posted by Jonathan at 02:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click the video below below to watch a video of our Day 8! Once you click play, it may take up to 1 minute to work.

On day 8, we awoke in New Jersey, and visited Philadelphia again, and then drove to our friends' house, near South Amboy, New Jersey. From South Amboy, we took the New Jersey transit to Penn Station in Manhattan, where we caught one of those crazy NYC taxis to get to the show just in time!

You can watch day 8 (in our video summary below, and then you can see all of our pictures from day 8 here!

If you are having trouble with the above video (i.e. people on dial-up), you might try downloading it by using your right mouse button. Right Click here, and then choose "Save Target As". Save it on your computer, and then watch it from there.

Don't forget, you can see all of our pictures from day 8 here!

Posted by Jonathan at 02:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click the video below below to watch a video of our Day 7! Once you click play, it may take up to 1 minute to work.

On day 7, we found ourselves driving through Delaware, staying in New Jersey, and visiting Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where we saw Constitution Hall! We have some great tips for you for Philadelphia too, which we will have on our pictures page.

You can watch day 7 (in our video summary, and then you can see all of our pictures from day 7 here!

If you are having trouble with the above video (i.e. people on dial-up), you might try downloading it by using your right mouse button. Right Click here, and then choose "Save Target As". Save it on your computer, and then watch it from there.

Don't forget, you can see all of our pictures here!

Posted by Jonathan at 07:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click the video below below to watch a video of our Day 4! Once you click play, it may take up to 1 minute to work.

Today, we went to see Arlington National Cemetery, The Iwo Jima Memorial, the FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, and the Holocaust Museum.

It was a VERY BUSY DAY!

You can watch day 4 (in the video below) and then you can see all of our pictures from June 14th here!

If you are having trouble with the above video (i.e. people on dial-up), you might try downloading it, by using your right mouse button. Right Click here, and then choose "Save Target As". Save it on your computer, and then watch it from there.

Don't forget, you can see all of our pictures from day four by clicking here!

Posted by Jonathan at 11:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click the video below below to watch a video of our Day 3! Once you click play, it may take up to 1 minute to work.

You can watch day 3 (in video snippets, and then you can see all of our pictures here!

If you are having trouble with the above video (i.e. people on dial-up), you might try downloading it, by using your right mouse button. Right Click here, and then choose "Save Target As". Save it on your computer, and then watch it from there.

Posted by Jonathan at 02:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jonathan and I got to have dinner with our friends Shannon and Peter the other night. Shannon and I are in the same master's program. The four of us met half way at Buca di Beppo in LoDo Denver. Here's a picture of us all after we enjoyed a very wonderful dinner.  And here are some pictures of
our food. It was yummy.
Shannon gave me a really great birthday card. Here's what she wrote: "Carrie, although it may be hard to 'indulge' on the side of a mountain or in the middle of the savannah, I hope you do get the chance to indulge yourself, even if it means just indulging in a few extra moments of reflection. I hope you have a very happy birthday & I'm sorry I won't be able to be there to share it with you. Shannon"
It's really nice to get something that you need to hear at the exact right moment. And that what she was able to do for me, both with the birthday card, and the card that she and Peter gave to Jonathan and I both. Here's what this one said: "Congratulations! You've accomplished the hardest task: banishing the what-ifs & might-have-beens, and are now setting out following your dreams! May you climb every mountain with this courage & determination and may all the climbing gods grant you good weather & pleasant travel ompanions.

We're so proud of you (and a little jealous too!). Kudos, luck & bring us back great pics! Shannon & Peter" Wow,
Shannon should really work for Hallmark. I wish I could write things that carried as much meaning and faith and "good vibes" as she does.

Jonathan and I always love spending time with our friends, and this was an especially good time (maybe because of this fountain inside the restaurant). Well, thanks again Shannon and Peter. Shannon asked for the great pics, because she does awesome work taking pictures and turning them into DVDs. She has her own website called
Shanbrite Designs. I've seen a few of her projects and they turned out so great that we have commissioned her to take all of our pictures and turn them into a DVD for us!

That way all of our friends can easily check out our pictures, and any time we want to reminisce, we can just pop in a DVD. You'll see more of her work soon. Thanks Shannon and Peter; we love you guys!

Posted by Carrie at 03:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Carrie and Jonathan (We like talking about ourselves in the third person... makes us feel special!) were interviewed by Steve Kelley on FOX31's Good Day Colorado on May 30th. Why were we there? We were being interviewed about our Kilimanjaro climb, of course.

Here's the video of our interview! We're working on getting it totally accessible for everyone, but if you're on a dial-up, it may take a long time for you to get this video.

Click play, and then be patient! It will take a minute or two. (If you're having any problems viewing the video, please click the "Comments" below, and let us know.)

If you want to download this video, right click on THIS LINK, and then select "Save Target As" and save it on your computer somewhere.

A HUGE thank-you to FOX31 and Steve Kelley for their sponsorship!

Also, we are excited to announce, we have another two awesome sponsors...

InspirionInc

and

TheLanguageofPeace.com

We leave in just seven days!!! WOW!

Getting into final preparations! Thank-you to everyone for all your words of encouragement! Keep it coming!

Posted by Jonathan at 02:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Carrie and I are going climbing/hiking today in the Colorado mountains, but before we go climbing, I thought I would share a video with you.

It's a video of porters on Kilimanjaro. Someone else took this video, but it gives me a chance to explain a little about our travel up Kilimanjaro.

There are 17 people climbing with our group. Our foucs, and our job, while we are there, is to reach the summit. Part of the expense of our trip is having porters while we are on the mountain.

As a result of having porters, we won't need to worry about boiling our own water, carrying our tents/sleeping bags, cooking for ourselves, etc. because all of this will be taken care of by a group of porters and support staff, which, we've been told, numbers about 35, to support our group of 17.

I had intended to attempt some Swahili... but with 20 days left, I'm not sure that that will happen. I think I will still try though, because I would like to be able to converse with some our porters - in a minimal way, I realize - but people appreciate when you at least attempt to speak their language.

So, to give you an idea, here's a group of porters, at the end of a Kilimanjaro climb.

Posted by Jonathan at 07:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So here's the gist of today's posting.

Monkeys:  Pictures of monkeys, talk about monkeys, and monkey business.  (Well, maybe not monkey business exactly...)

When we get back, we will have some great pictures we took, and hopefully, (as one of our sponsors has requested), we'll be able to get some "pictures of cute monkeys"). 

As we don't have any of our own monkey pictures YET, we're sharing THESE pictures of monkeys with you instead.

When it comes to the monkeys we're going to see in Africa, it's most likely that we'll see baboons and spider monkeys.  Apparently, baboons don't really mind at all having humans around, but spider monkeys are generally skittish.  We hope we'll see a full range, but we'll be happy to see any monkeys that see fit to grace us with their presence!

And for the people who don't think that baboons are monkeys...well, we can have the debate later.  (Actually, feel free to leave us your comments below.) But for now, here are some pictures of monkeys from all over.

PICTURES OF MONKEYS Baboons
Apparently this is a pretty rare picture of an olive baboon.	Quit acting like Baboons!  Never mind.  You are baboons.
This guy says "What are you doing here?"	Hey, why the long face? This is a beautiful picture of an amazing animal.
PICTURES OF MONKEYS spider monkeys
PICTURES OF MONKEYS vervet monkeys It's possible that we'll see some vervets, which would be great!
PICTURES OF MONKEYS (The following is a random assortment of monkey pictures.)
This picture of a Capuchin monkey shows many Americans the monkey we generally think about having for a pet - popularized by shows like Friends.	This is a picture of a Tamarin monkey.  Tamarins are rather cute monkeys, don't you think?  (Oh, and stay tuned for cute monkey pictures.)
Don't mind me.  I'm just hanging around!	More pictures of baby monkeys.
"Look out below!  I'm a monkey, so I make up my own mind. I could decide to stop posing for this picture and let go at any time!"	Another picture of a Capuchin monkey. Very cool angle and close-up!
This monkey looks a little frustrated, don't you think?	Apparently, this is a picture of monkeys in India.
Three monkeys are on a branch, and one decides to leap. How many monkeys are left? Three.  Why?  One just decided.  He didn't actually do it yet.	"Your picture can't bother me. I'm deep in thought."
PICTURES OF MONKEYS Here are just some cute monkey pictures for the "awww" factor.
(Special thanks to:  http://www.underwater.org/mermaid/tanzania/monkeys.html)