Blizzard in Tunisia

Joshua, in front of the Amen Bank in Sousse, Tunisia

This fog rolled in like a blizzard. We were laying on our backs, watching the Leonids meteor shower. Joshua saw a couple meteors. I saw a few.

Joshua on a quad

Joshua getting ready for our departure. He drove most of the hour.

Kuriat Islands, Tunisia

They are about 18 kilometers off the coast of Monastir, Tunisia.

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This is our pirate ship. I'm holding the camera about one inch above the surface of the water.

I'm in the water, behind our pirate ship.

Joshua is climbing down into the water. He was glad we didn't see any jelly fish in the water. We saw three large red jelly fish on the way there.

Something growing on a steel pole off the coast of Kuriat Island, Tunisia. I assume it is coral.

My favorite fish today. The stuff falling around him is some left over broiled fish from lunch. The workers assured me it was a waste of time to put cooked fish in the water, but it drew over 50 fish to me in minutes.

This is the clearest fish photo I took today.

Camel Ride in Douz Tunisia

Mike on his camel

Mike and Sue after our camel ride

Mike, Sue and Joshua

Joshua feeding turtles

Our neighbor in our building has several of these turtles in the garden by or back door.

I debated with myself, whether I should rotate this photo correctly, with Joshua above. What do you think?

Acqua Palace Sousse

This is a view of the lazy river that circles around the kiddie pool and the wave pool from the kiddie pool.

The kiddie pool with mini water slides

Joshua with the big water slides

This is the Google map of the Acqua Palace. It has reasonable prices for food and drinks. The price for a day pass is about $10 for children and $14 for adults.

Joshua playing accordion

Joshua really thought this accordion was fun to play.

Saw a jellyfish

Aequorea Victoria jellyfish off the coast of California. See full resolution‎ (1,600 × 1,200 pixels, file size: 450 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Joshua and I were snorkeling north of Sousse this evening. We happened across a small jelly fish that resembled an Aequorea Victoria. Joshua did a quick u-turn for the beach. We were about 50 yards from the shore.

I didn't want anything to happen to him, off alone. What if he saw another jelly fish on his way back without me? So I quickly grabbed his arm with one hand. I studied the transparent jellyfish, less than 3 inches in diameter, with black specks around its bell perimeter. Joshua will say it was much larger! I couldn't see any long tentacles.

Josh enjoyed looking at our jellyfish for a very short time. It started to swim toward our faces. :-0 Joshua shouted through his snorkel tube, "I'm getting out of here!" As I held him tight, I raised my right hand and pushed enough water toward the jellyfish to change its direction. Then it propelled itself gently out to sea, a beautiful sight to see! Wish we had a camera with us.

Some extremely important rules of SCUBA diving or snorkeling we learned in Dakar, Senegal:

• Always dive with a buddy! Never, ever, dive alone! Keep an eye on your buddy. Make sure everything is OK. When something happens to you, your buddy could be the difference between your life and death.
• Relax! Being relaxed in water is vital in an emergency. When something happens, follow these steps: stop, breathe, think and act. Never panic and immediately flee or surface. You can make a minor situation fatal.

Joshua and Sandy

Joshua and Sandy at the Kantaoui Golf Course

Kantaoui Golf Course

Mike and Sandy walking the Panoramic Course

We're at the tee for the green on the other end of the lake. The Mediterranean Sea is the darker blue that merges with the blue sky in the back ground, beyond the white buildings.

Joshua at the practice green

Sue Leading Christmas Carols

Josh is next to the TV

Singing Christmas Carols

Joshua Eating Lebanese Ice Cream

It was very sweet and stretchy.

Joshua Taekwondo Red Belt 2nd degree

Taekwondo Joshua and Issa

Joshua's Taekwondo Red Belt

Issa and Joshua

Joshua blue belt test

Mohamed and Joshua

They both passed their tests to move on to the next Taekwondo belts. Josh did a great job.

Abidjan Zoo elephant

John is feeding Cany the elephant

Abidjan Zoo black Emperor scorpion

This black Emperor scorpion was on the ground at the zoo in one of the separation areas that keeps animals separate from the visitors. Joshua spotted it crawling around. It was larger than my size ten feet.

Abidjan Zoo

This turtle is over 60 years old.

Cany the elephant is 16 years old

Mike, Sue, Josh, John and George Assouf

George arrived to tour the zoo with us. This is a large Silk Cotton tree or Kapok (Ceiba pentrandra). Notice how the trunk branches out into supports. In French it is called a Fromager. Fromager is French for cheese tree, because the ripe seedpod smells like cheese.

John and Sue

The others were all on this bench that was on two piles of dirt a foot above the ground. Erosion had worn away the surrounding dirt.

Josh, John , Sue and Mike

As I joined them, the ground crumbled and it tipped forward. John caught the bench as we jumped from it. Then we took this photo.

Water Baseball

Joshua's Baptism

Gavin Johnson, Joshua and Mike

Josh was so excited when he came up out of the water. He clenched his hands in victory. It was so much fun!

Joshua and a forest crocodile

Singing in Bambara

John, Joshua and Sue with the CCC 808 team singing a song in Bambara for the Modeste C&MA Bambara congregation. They also sang a song in English.

Luke Skywalker's house Matmata, Tunisia

Tunisian Camel ride

Camel ride clothes

Mike, Sue, Joshua camel ride clothes in Douz, Tunisia

Taekwondo class

Joshua's Taekwondo green belt test

Joshua taking his test for green belt

Aleria beach crab

Mike, Joshua, Nassif

I was able to capture this crab on the beach. He is actually holding on to my stick, so he thinks he captured me. When we set the stick down on the ground, he ran off into the ocean. We are at the Aleria Beach, a less expensive beach not far from Abidjan.

Flight simulator

We're getting our instructions about how to operate the flight simulator at the SAC Air and Space Museum

John's motorcycle

We're in the parking lot of the SAC Air and Space Museum near Ashland, NE