A Daily Dose of Camel's Milk: The One Where We Go to Crescent Island (Andy)

We are under the 90 day mark now until we leave Kenya for good. Over December and January, we had succumb to the bitterness of living in a country that isn't your own and wishing to be done with the tour right then and there, an ailment common to many foreign service families nearing the end of their tour. Where we were very much, "I can't wait till we leave this place," three months ago, we have switched gears, and are now very much in them "we might not ever come back to this place," panic. This means that we are now busily looking through the calendar at our remaining weeks to plan fun activities in between the stressful chores, work, and packing out.

Since having a child has only lessened our ability to be spontaneous, not our desire for adventure, we have a list of activities that we can do that involve little planning or packing and are easily traveled and executed around nap schedules. One such place fitting that criteria is Crescent Island on Lake Naivasha. As you may remember, Kerry and I last year hiked around the Island with my aunt and uncle when they were here to visit along with my mom and dad, and had always wanted to come back with the baby because we'd had such a good time there. So, we decided this would be a fun and easy day trip for us to make. We invited our friend Cassie along, too, who we hadn't hung out with for a while and were eager to catch up.

Saturday was a beautiful day to be outside and Aliza slept well the entire ride to the Naivasha, waking just before we arrived. We walked to the main house, where we were greeted by the owner, who was extremely polite and welcoming, despite chasing around a sick calf. We chatted for a bit--she noted that she's had hippos from the lake grazing on her front porch--before setting off for a walk around the Island.

Aliza was super happy to be out and about and held a conversation with herself for about half the hike. She also enjoyed the many spots we plopped her down along the way to pose with the animals.

We hiked around for about and hour-and-a-half before calling it a day. We hung out at the car for a lite lunch that Kerry had packed for us and I walked Aliza around a little more to see some young giraffes that were near by.