More from our vacation in Alaska

A Lazy/Hazy Day at the Beach

There was a strange shade of beige overlaying our day at the beach due to the Harmattan season, which is late this year. (It's the winds bringing sand from the Sahara -- yes, check out your maps! That's a mighty wind!)

Photos from Alaska visit

I've been trying to get photos loaded all week. We'll have to do it in bits and pieces!

London and the immigration officer's comment

So, we had an unplanned stay in London. The first night was compliments of American Airlines because the NYC flight left so late that we missed our connections in Heathrow for Lagos. That gave us a full day of sightseeing in London -- brrrrrr cold but grand!

The second night was compliments of Virgin Atlantic because the flight was delayed 12+ hours due to plane problems.

When we went through immigration for the first unplanned overnight, we explained to the officer that we'd just be in London one night due to the missed flight to Lagos. This guy who works with hundreds of flights each day, flights that are heading to all points on the globe, said, "Oh, you missed the 10:20 p.m. flight to Lagos on VA?" I said, "Yes; I'm impressed! How could you have all of the flights memorized!?" To which he replied, "Oh, I just know that flight well because we use it regularly to deport Nigerians!"

Can't get photos to load, even just one; have tried for a couple of hours. Will try again, later!

So much to say ...

and so much time!

I'm enjoying my new-found freedom, having returned to Lagos one week ago and having lived one week without The Job!

My goals for last week were few --- get the office at home looking more like home and less like a temporary office; get my new laptop fully functioning; book a flight to Bangkok to see Jeri. I did not realize that those simple goals would take the fulllllllllll week, including most of Sunday! But, now I have an almost-fully functioning laptop, I'm awaiting the email confirmation on the ticket, and the office is getting cozy -- a new little throw rug, some of my travel photos hung on the walls (thanks to the frames that Joey brought to us from Ikea when he visited in July!!)

Vacation was fab!
We were in Anchorage, Denver, NYC, and London with the bulk of our time being in Anchorage. "Bulk" is the appropriate term, indeed, as Jim and I had personal "excess baggage" from all of the eating we did while at my Mom and Dad's. It must have been this subtle fear that we would soon lose the availability of the much-loved and familiar foods that caused us to eat and eat ...

I'll post some photos as the internet speed allows. And I'll begin to catch up on the Nigeria stories. Helmets ... I must tell you about the helmets! And what the immigration guy told us in London ...

It was such a treat to see friends in AK and in Denver (though we ran out of time to catch up with friends in Denver!!!) Great memories!