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Ten Other Animals We Saw at Leopard Hills (Including…Leopards, Natch.)
So many photos. Heads up: I’m no photographer, as you will see from many of these images, but especially, the very last ones. So, with that endorsing caveat, enjoy! I believe this was taken on the evening drive on our first night at Leopard Hills. If so, this is Dayone, a 9-year-old male who…
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Hotel Crashing: Leopard Hills Private Game Reserve, South Africa
In case you are wondering, yes, you will definitely see leopards at Leopard Hills Private Game Reserve in South Africa’s Sabi Sands. And a whole lot of other animals, including (if you’re very lucky like we were) the very rare African wild dog. We actually saw three generations of the adorable calico-spotted dogs a…
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The Basics on Planning an African Safari, aka: Should You Use a Travel Agent?
Let me start by saying: there’s nothing basic about planning a safari trip to Africa. I mean, come on! It’s beyond exciting! It’s the trip of a lifetime! We’re talking bucket list stuff! You gallop headlong into it with visions of the “Lion King” and “Out of Africa” dancing off in the distance. You start…
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The Wildest Ride: A Wildebeest River Crossing in the Serengeti
“This is not at all like the shows on NatGeo,” my restless mind was thinking. “This is actually sort of….boring.” We’re sitting in a beige, pop-top Toyota Land Cruiser in the midday African heat with four other people. All six pairs of eyes are trained on the nervously shuffling, brownish-gray mass of wildebeest on the…
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Flying Fancy: Review of Emirates First Class
And we’re back! Actually, we’ve been back from Africa over a week, but I’ve been in post-vacation mourning. That coupled with the fact that as a self-employed person, I made $0.00 during my little three-week break, and yet, my bills still came in during that very same three-week period and—quite rudely—those not-so-nice credit corporations and…
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A Dayquil-Induced Rant Against Pretentious Food Porn Magazines (Mainly, Saveur)
I was deathly ill last week. I was fairly certain it was the summer plague or typhoid. I’m not sure. My guess was walking pneumonia, but I’ll admit I tend to be a bit dramatic on these issues sometimes. It started with a sore throat, some harmless coughing. Then, over the course of the next…
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What I Learned About Africa the First Time Around (and Why We’re Going Back)
I uttered what I think might go down in history as the most bougie phrase ever known to mankind last week. “Weeeeell, last time we were in Africa, we stayed at…..” I said it not once, but TWICE while catching up with friends, both of whom probably immediately regretted asking me what big exciting trip…
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Risking it All (or Not) for My Youth Back
I was at a sort-of networking/motivational speaker-type event recently, the kind of event where you have to wear nametags, but since this was an event for creative folks, they’re not just straight-forward, run-of-the-mill nametags…they’re free-expression, icebreaker-type nametags. “Hello. I’m ______________. I would RISK it all for _______________.” I stood hunched over the registration table, Sharpie…
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Eight Reasons We Need a Real Housewives of the Olympic Village
The Olympics are on and they are totally messing with my Bravo viewing. I’m not a fan of the Olympics and not just because of the TV viewing disruption. I just think in this day and age, when there are so many other platforms and international competitions and accompanying viewing options for all of your…
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Her Take! Tea at Sketch, London
(If you haven’t read His Take on tea at Sketch, you should definitely do so first. This is my response to that post.) I cannot lie: I like tea. Some of my very fondest memories of my time in England were of having tea. It was everywhere. The minute you walked into a home or…