Africa, Morocco
Jonathan Jung
THE SAHARA

September 27, 2017

Today was a looooong drive from Fes to the Sahara just outside of the city of Merzouga. A friend of a friend runs the Sahara Garden. Brahim coordinated everything for us and welcomed us upon our arrival with open arms. Truly an amazing human being. We were welcomed with dinner and singing and dancing around a bonfire.

THE SAHARA
Africa, Morocco
Jonathan Jung
CHEFCHAOUEN

September 24, 2017

Our second stop in Morocco was the blue city of Chefchaoen. A small city located up on a hill, wandering thru the medina surrounded by so many shades of blue was quite a different experience from Tangier. We stayed at Casa Perleta, a small bed and breakfast recommended by our friend. It was perfectly located within the upper hill area of the medina. The blue hues of the walls of Chefchaoen are believed to have originated when the Jews came while escaping Hilter in the 1930s. The blue is said to serve as a reminder to lead a spiritual life while symbolizing the sky and heaven.

CHEFCHAOUEN
Europe, Iceland
Jonathan Jung
ICELAND - CHASING THE AURORA BOREALIS

September 11 - 15, 2017

Enroute to our close friends' wedding in Greece we found a cheap flight to Paris via Reykjavik, Iceland and decided to take advantage and do a little stopover in an effort to (fingers crossed) see the northern lights. We decided to restrict our few days to just the southern highlights along the coast. The first thing we noticed was that even though it was supposedly shoulder/low season in Iceland there were significantly more people than when we came the year before in August.

ICELAND - CHASING THE AURORA BOREALIS

New Mexico

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INTERNATIONAL BALLOON FIESTA

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INTERNATIONAL BALLOON FIESTA

Wowza. 

We heard about International Balloon Fiesta through a friend, named James, and we quickly googled it and were immediately sold! We originally were set to go up on Sunday, but the weather wasn’t favorable and no balloons flew. MAJOR BUMMER. Thankfully, we didn’t have anything else planned the next few days so we were rescheduled to fly on Tuesday morning.

We spent 2 days exploring Albuquerque, trying New Mexican cuisine, went to a handful of antique shops, and visited the Georgia O'Keffe Museum in Santa Fe.

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CARLSBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK

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CARLSBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK

Unreal. Awesome. Amazing. Spectacular. Mysterious. Enchanting. These are just a few of the words that come to mind when I think about Carlsbad Caverns.

The caverns were discovered in 1898 by a sixteen year old boy named, Jim White, who noticed a big black whirl in the distance. As he got closer, he realized the black whirl was actually a ton of bats exiting a giant black hole in the mountain. Days later, he returned with supplies to make a ladder that would allow him to descend into the hole. He spent much of his time exploring the cave with homemade torches.  After the Caverns were featured in publications like National Geographic and The New York Times, Congress established this area as a national park in 1930, well over 30 years after Jim had first discovered them. 

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WHITE SANDS NATIONAL MONUMENT

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WHITE SANDS NATIONAL MONUMENT

Quick pit stop to check out this monument. If you’re in the area (not really near anything) it's definitely worth a pass thru. White sand as far as the eye can see, pretty incredible…that’s all.

Off to spend the night at Guadalupe National Park and go see the Bat Flight this evening at Carlsbad Caverns (sorry, no cameras allowed, so you’ll just have to go see it for yourselves!)

- Allie and Jonathan