April 1, 2010 - Preparing for Botswana

Safari....when you hear that word what do you think of?

Animals, adventures, the bush, heat, bugs, tents....yes, a safari is all that and more! You may not know, but safari actually means journey. Each time you venture into the bush you are journeying to a place where you are confronting yourself, your boundaries, your fears and hopes and in the process you test yourself and learn a tremendous amount about yourself and the world around you. For us, each day in Africa is a gift as is each animal encounter we are treated to. It's best if you have no expectations at all, that way what ever you see will be a treat for you! This time was no different than the 8 previous times in this regard.

One must always remember Africa is Africa. It's a place where anything can happen on any given day....and often does. It's a place like no other.

It is probably obvious by now that we love safari because we love the journey. As we prepared to go back to that primal, soul-nourishing place we packed all the bits and pieces we thought we'd need and headed for Heathrow to begin this new leg of the journey. This time Chris (our 14 year old nephew) and his mother Mary made the trip with us.

Enjoy!

Cheri & John

Gib and Andalusia - March 16, 2010

Finally we were on the last day of our 3 day adventure. This day was really windy - 27 mph. It was just what we had been hoping for. The reason we wanted to go bird watching in this area is because it is the closest place to North Africa and hence the raptors migrate by soaring above the Mediterranean each Spring and Autumn. Even though the wind was strong, the raptors didn't make the journey that day.

Instead, we spent the day exploring again. This time we made it Medina-Sidona where there is a cool castle and wonderful food! This time we ate at a little place in the town square. Cheri had a wild boar stew and John had a meat platter. Yummy!!

We turned back to Algecrias and returned the car. We decided to take the ferry over to Gib, but the wind was making the seas/waves too rough, and so we cabbed back. Once in Gib, we found a nice cab driver who took us one last time to visit the macques! What a way to end the trip!

Enjoy!
John & Cheri

Gib and Andalusia - March 15, 2010

We awoke to another fine day and decided to go exploring again. This time we got up past Cadiz. It was very relaxing to poke through the little towns and see the country side. Again the food was outstanding. We stopped in El Puerto Sainta Maria and ate at Romerijo (www.romerijo.com) right on the sea side. The abundance of seafood left us both full and very content! We ate outside with the sun shinning on us.

We passed back through the mountain region and found some red-legged partridges. They sure did run fast!! Very pretty birds. John kept asking, "Can you eat these?". We were looking for raptors, but only saw a hand full of vultures.

We headed back to Gib again at the end of the day for more fun with the tail-less monkeys! Each day they got to know us a bit more. At one point John was leaning on the stone railing, when the alpha-male decided he needed to pass. So the alpha, pushed John's lens out of the way and ran right on past!

Enjoy!
Cheri & John

Gib and Andalusia - March 14, 2010

The next morning we slept until we woke and then grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel. Great coffee!

We struck off to the Hertz office to pick up our 6 speed BMW and roared off into the country side. We elected to explore the coast before heading in-land. North Africa is clearly visible from the coast, even though there was mist in the air above the sea. We were pretty lucky that we had sun all three days. Up until that weekend it had rained since Christmas!

There is lots of renewable energy in this region and we saw windmills all over and solar panels in a few places. Being power engineers...they were beautiful to us!

Towards the end of the day, we made our way to Gib to commune with the Barbary Macques. They are really something; what personalities!! We arrived around 4 so we could get the good light. Fun!!

Enjoy!
Cheri & John

Mary Fuller visits London! March 5-7, 2010

How lucky was I?? My friend Mary Fuller came to visit whilst John was off in Greenville.

On Friday night when she arrived we had dinner with Ellen at the Fishworks. Yummy dover sole!

On Staurday, we had a blast running all over London...into Leicester Square to buy theatre tickets, Into the Strand to see the office, down the Thames to Greenwich, into the Painted Gallery, up to the GMT prime meridian, tasty Indian for lunch, back into central London, tried to get into St. Paul's but just missed the last entrance time, over to Buckingham Palace, up to Digaon Alley, a tasty bite of Italian, before seeing Hairspray! Whew - what a day!

Sunday morning she was back to the States.

Enjoy!
Cheri

Gibraltar & Andalusia March 13, 2010

We headed to Heathrow for a quick 3 hour flight to Gibraltar in the afternoon. We had both been working like crazy with John in Greenville and Cheri delivering a conference for the top 60 leadership team. A little R&R was just what we needed.

Gib is a small place with the main road running right through the airport. Traffic literally stops while planes land! When we landed we literally walked across the border with our bags and hopped into a cab.

We elected to stay in Andalusia in a town named Algecrias. It was a very good choice! The AC Algecrias is a very comfortable hotel and they recommended this wonderful tapas restaurant. It was so yummy we ate there all three nights. You can check it out at www.laposadademillan.com.

Enjoy!Cheri & John

John goes to Greenville - March 1-11, 2010

John headed off to Greenville for 10 days of work. On the weekend he was lucky enough to have a visit with his cousins - Joe, Sandy, Ann, Tommy and Stephen. It was Joe's birthday and John got to spend it with him. Joe is an accomplished pilot and has a really cool little ultralight airplane. After much deliberation, the two engineers decided that the plane could withstand the weight of the two of them and up they went! What a rush!

They had a yummy breakfast of grits and sausage.

Joe is also into trains and has built quite a track. He is also into cars and has won trophy's for his mustang! A good time was had by all.

Valentine's Day 2010

Hi Everyone-

So - as I mentioned...we went to Dublin for the Valentine's day weekend. As usual, our trips always have a bit of wildlife in them. We got a ticket to ride on a train that hugged the coast south of Dublin. We found a place called Booterstown where there was a wildlife refuge - so we got off the train. There were large flocks of birds by the sea and we enjoyed shooting them. The next day we walked along the river that runs through Dublin and were treated to the birds with the red feet.

The best thing about Dublin is the music scene. We found ourselves at the Auld Dublin two nights in a row to see Brian Brody. He reminded us of great times we've had a Copper Mountain after a hard day of skiing. And, of course, you get the best Guinness in the world!

Enjoy!

Cheri & John

February 20, 2010 - Catching Up

Hey Everyone-

Sorry for the wicked long delay between posts. Seems like time has just flown by.... You probably know that we went off the Egypt for Thanksgiving (http://www.cherylawarren.com/Egypt09/index.html). That was an extra ordinary trip where we met extraordinary people and loved every minute of it! Cruising the Nile is really all it is cracked up to be. You literally see life as it was for 100s of years.

From there we headed off to Antarctica on a trip of a lifetime! Our friend John McDaniel went on the adventure with us. (http://www.cherylawarren.com/Antarctica09/index.html and http://www.cherylawarren.com/Antarctia%20v02.wmv. Cheri put together a book of some of the best Penguin shots that she and John took. It can be found at http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1146833.

The only bad news is that Cheri got Pneumonia from one of her fellow passengers and it has taken weeks to be resolved. Thankfully - she is much, much better now! So for a while we were sticking pretty close to home.

For Valentine's Day we did head to Dublin and really enjoyed the music and the Guinness!

Some great news in our family - Cheri's sister Jodi is getting married to Rob Chang!!!! We are all so excited for them!

Hope you are all finding happiness in 2010!

Cheri & John

Life - November 21, 2009

Hi Everyone-

Sorry we've been silent most of these last two weeks. We've both been working like crazy. As you saw, John was in Italy last week testing power plants and then in Northern England at Immingham testing a plant this week.

Cheri was preparing for our half-year results announcement. If you want to see her boss delivering the speech she worked on it will be on the web likely next week. For now, here is an excerpt from the interviews he did near the day - http://www.nationalgrid.com/corporate/Investor+Relations/Financial+performance/interim2009/InterimResults2009OverviewVideo.htm.

We are off to Egypt tomorrow to celebrate Thanksgiving and get a real taste of the ancient world. we spend two nights in Cairo seeing the Sphinx, Pyramids, and the Egyptian Museum. Then on to Abu Simbal for a 1/2 day, then onto a cruise along the Nile for the next 4 days. We finish back in Cairo...so you've got some pictures to look forward to!

Thought you might like to see a view from Cheri's office....

We'll be thinking of you on Turkey day!

Enjoy-
John & Cheri