An afternoon at the beach

Last Sunday Othman and I ventured off with Gioia and Driss to a beach outside of Casablanca that we hadn't been to in years. First we filled up on lots of fresh fish at a busy little restaurant by the port, then we drove off and found the entrance to the beach we wanted. We parked behind a row of houses and walked up the path, the sound of the waves getting louder each moment. We paused for a moment for a photo.

This next picture is ridiculously over exposed but I find it too cute not to include! These two are such good friends and Gioia and I just love that.

The majority of the time we just relaxed, enjoying the sun and the view while lying around.  

But we also wandered about and found some cool stuff:

Othman and Driss made a game of throwing pebbles, trying to hit off the smallest top rock of the construction below. There ended up being many incarnations and rounds of the game! I'm not sure I ever won though, oops.

One rock even turned into a big project: Othman found this one and got an idea... 

So he and Driss planned...

Went to work...

And voila the final product!! It's sitting in our living room now and never fails to make me smile! Othman has been a lover of everything-dinosaur since he was a kid, and it shows!

A little while later, Driss took some nice pictures of us girls; thanks Driss!

Eventually the wind picked up and the sun's heat weakened, and it was time to go. But not before getting some group pictures!

The day was the exact mix of fun and relaxation that we all needed!

On the water

Valentine's weekend part 4.

Part 1 here.

Part 2 here.

Part 3 here.

After asking the owners of the hotel about how to best spend the last 5 hours of our stay, we realized how tiny Oualidia really was, and that this was about all there was to do (other than flying off of ATVs and such):

But as sandy grilled fish didn't sound particularly appealing at 10am, we wanted to find another way to spend a few hours before heading back the the metropolis. We could have headed back to the rocks we hung out on the day earlier, but once in two days seemed enough to me.

We remembered that while dumping sand out of our shoes the day before—post-ATV session, naturally—a guy had asked us is we wanted a boat ride. No boats being evident and Othman's hands needing some minor first aid, we didn't think much of it. But driving down the road to the beach Sunday morning I photographed this view and realized these boats in the lagoon were too pretty to be fishing boats.

We drove down close to the lagoon and while I took some unsuccessful pictures of seagulls in flight, a local struck up a conversation with O, and long story short, we were gonna get our boat ride. We parked the Sandero where it could enjoy the scenery, 

and walked down to the water to find our boat, the Flamingo,

and got in.

On the trip up and back down the lagoon the guy, Ahmed, and Othman talked in Darija while I took pictures and tried to avoid raindrops and the biting wind. O translated for me that the area was a big player in bird habitat conservation in Morocco due to the amount of species that thrive there. I remembered the bird from the day before, and more were certainly in evidence:

As my attention wandered from the birds and the chatter behind, I noticed cool layers inside and outside of the boat,

and a LOT of other cute tourist boats hanging around. We saw quite a few filled with people, including one that quite randomly seemed to be filled with English schoolboys, but unwilling to risk provoking anyone I just photographed the empty ones.

The ride was fun and we really enjoyed it, despite the gloomy weather. Plus O made a friend who can hook us up with places to eat and things to do if we return in the future.

Though it was rife with bad luck and mishaps, as our mini-vacation came to a close we were relaxed, smiling and very happy to have gone on it. We were determined to enjoy our time away, and the fact that we did indeed have a wonderful time just goes to show that life really is what you make of it!

Adventures and mishaps in Oualidia

Valentine's Weekend part 2.

Part 1 here.

Part 3 here.

Part 4 here.

Finally we arrived in Oualidia! The first thing we did was lock the keys in the car, which boded well of course. Luckily our hotel was next to some mechanic shops, and so while I got settled and read in the beautiful garden of the hotel, Othman paid a guy the equivalent of $2 to break into our car. 

So then we decided it was time for lunch.

We ate at a seaside restaurant under the other hotel we might've stayed at. And O was silly.

Across the street was a shop renting ATVs, and Othman just couldn't pass up that opportunity. So we got one ($10 for half an hour) and headed over to the beach. He had fun.

And although I was slightly terrified when Othman was driving, I actually had fun driving it!

We crossed over the big dune to arrive at the ocean...

And he played around (and got the ATV stuck more than once) while I took pictures of the breaking waves.

See the little geyser on the left? It was cool to watch the water spurting up in such a vertical line.

We returned the ATV, both it and us a little worse for the wear (at one point O had to leap off because he was heading straight into a ditch, and he cut up his hands and bruised up his legs a bit. And this was in the first 30 seconds of him driving alone. Sigh). Then we walked over to the other side of the beach and went up into the rocks to watch the tide rush in.

Oualidia is apparently an important bird conservationist area, and during our stay we saw dozens of species of birds. We had fun watching this little guy hop around for quite a while.

Before we headed back to the hotel to rest, I decided we needed some pictures of us from this vacation.

Later that night, after a nice nap, we went out to the beach again to walk along the boardwalk and do some nighttime photography. But as I set up the camera I realized my lens, which I had changed from the telephoto to the 50mm, wasn't moving. My backpack had fallen off the hotel bed with the camera in it, and one side of the lens was jammed in. I was pretty upset for a while but was able to walk off the frustration a bit. (The best part of the story comes a few days later back to Casa: Othman was looking at the lens and clumsily dropped it onto his computer... and it was miraculously fixed! Talk about lucky.) So much for nighttime photos, but after walking a while and grabbing some simple dinner food at a grocery store we went back to the hotel to eat, where I took some still lifes. in the yellow lighting.

And a picture of Othman's banged up hand! It's hard to tell here but it was quite swollen. 

We cleaned up dinner and it was bedtime. We had to sleep to prepare for another day of adventures!

2015 in review

A lot of people had a crappy 2015, at least that's what my Facebook newsfeed and the news in general seem to show. I, however, was not one of those people.

photo

I started 2015 with a much-needed and much-appreciated job change. I developed career opportunities and got some interesting new experiences as the spring went on. Othman and I also got to travel around Morocco a bit to some pretty inspiring places.

In the summer, I spent a wonderful two months with my family in their new home. It was truly a wonderful summer, full of close and extended family, sunshine, walks, beauty, celebrations, and joy.

Upon my return to Casablanca I got the job opportunity of a lifetime and started working at an international school, where I have been so fulfilled and happy. The difference in my personal life is huge, and my home sees a happier me much more often nowadays.

2015 was a year of portrait photography for me. I was able to experiment and explore with lots of different subjects and settings, and loved every minute.

Painting was another theme throughout the year, as I focused on trying out new techniques and subjects while developing my skills.

Othman and I gained new friends who we now can't imagine life in Casablanca without.

Though we're back in Casa as of yesterday, we ended the year in France, and had a holiday filled with family, children, and smiles.

Throughout the year I was able to rely on my caring, patient, and attentive husband for all the support I needed. 

It was a year full of changes, full of love, and full of life. Here's hoping that 2016 brings ever more of each of those.