Not long ago, I wrote about finding the Dragon Boat Racing group on Meetup.com. Well, a few weeks ago I received a message about a NEW Meetup called, “Climbing Kili.” I immediately knew what that was. I opened the message to learn more about the group. I have always thought of climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, so I found it interesting that this message came to my email. Destiny? Timing? I decided to go and find out.
If you haven’t used Meetup.com, you should try it. If you find a Meetup you like, you RSVP that you are attending. Meetup.com sends you a “reminder” message of the meeting date and people comment like they do on Facebook. For example, 12 people scheduled to attend and about 2 hours before the meeting time, people sent messages on “why” they couldn’t come. That was a bit annoying, but I still decided to go hoping a “few people” would make it.
Turns out it was great. The Meetup organizer was a very nice Australian woman who had climbed Kilimanjaro a few years ago and said it was fantastic. She was also a travel agent and has been to Africa many times. She started to fill us in on the trip. She climbed with two ladies who were in their 60s and one woman in her 30s. They ALL made it to the top. They were all in good shape, but not hard core athletes. As they were in different parts of U.S., they communicated by email regarding training. The organizer did long hilly walks on the weekends and in the gym used the stepper a few times a week. She used a normal type of hiking boot, nothing super expensive. She said they didn’t use or take expensive clothes with them either, they get so dirty. At the end of the trip, they left their hiking clothes and boots with the carriers – they appreciated having these things. They don’t have good shoes.
The best time to climb Kili is Sept/Oct, Jan/Feb or early March. This is a 7 night / 8 day package. She said you hike 6-8 hours a day. While you need to be able to hike, Kili is more about acclimating to the altitude. The men in the photo carry your main baggage, the camping equipment and food. You just carry your very personal belongings as you hike. There are different types of packages, so you have to investigate online the cost of what “you” might want to do, i.e extra days, hiking a more secluded trail with less people, etc. She told us about the Machame Route, nicknamed the Whiskey route.
Great group of women at the meeting. One had just climbed Mt. Everest Basecamp, which was exciting. Two others talked about climbing Mt. Rainier in Washington and Machu Picchu (lots of stairs) in Peru. Turns out Mt. Kilimanjaro is one of the Seven Summits. Fun to meet like minded adventurers.
We are considering September 2017, she said there will be a full moon at that time.
If you’ve done the climb, share your story!
What is it with the names Grandma and Grandpa that make us feel so old? While I am not a grandmother yet, I remember when my daughter was born I told my mother we would call her Nonna or Nonina like her mother. My mother’s response, “Absolutely not!” To my mother being called, “Nonna” was the equivalent of being called, “Grandma” – way, way too old sounding.
This week I was talking to a few people about my trip to Italy. They were asking me what I saw and I jokingly said, “Well, I was on the bridge of gold.” As they have not been to Florence, they did not know about the Ponte Vecchio. This reminded me of my arrival to San Francisco years ago when someone pointed to a reddish/orange bridge and said, “There is the Golden Gate Bridge.” WHAT? It’s orange, I thought. I had envisioned something totally different, so it was a bit of a let down for sure.
Right now, gold is at an all time high at over $1,200 an ounce. It was interesting to compare what they were selling now on the bridge from jewelry styles a few years ago.
If you like pasta, there is nothing better than going through an Italian super market. I was walking through the isles of the grocery store in Florence, Italy with my Italian mother and we came to the pasta section. As I looked at the choices with amazement, I asked her WHY with ALL the pasta choices she ONLY used spaghetti or penne pasta when we were growing up. She didn’t have a clear answer, she just kept dinner simple.
always spaghetti with bolognese sauce. Nothing wrong with that mind you, but when I went to another Italian’s house for lunch or dinner it was totally different from my house. My Italian girlfriend would cook with different pasta shapes and add vegetables to her pastas.
As I continued on with my mother, we stopped by the produce section to find some tomatoes. Well, I had to smile… they had all kinds of tomatoes to choose from in big bins and our shopping adventure would not have been complete if we had not bought our parmesan cheese!
I am in Florence, Italy and the weather has been a bit rainy and cloudy. I happened to take this great picture of the Ponte Vecchio, the bridge where they sell the gold, just before it started to rain. Looks a bit spooky with the dark clouds. There are a lot of tourists here right now.
I was lucky to be here on May 1st when Florence has their May Day Parade every year. It was wonderful to see the procession of peope in beautiful Florentine costumes coming down the street. Of course, tourists are always a bit rude and were constantly standing in the way of the parade walkers, so the police came to keep tourists out of the middle of the street.
A walk around Florence wouldn’t be complete without seeing an artist at work. They really are good.
I love Munich. Many years ago, when my ex-husband was working for Siemens, he was given the opportunity to go on a one month assignment to Munich. We jumped at the chance. At that time our older daughter was 2 years old and I was working as a contractor, so we were mobile. What a great experience.
was done in tents and the weather was cold!
this retail shop’s window, so you could see how the ladies would dress and what the men wear. I highly recommend a trip to Munich. It is so much fun and who knows, like me, ladies you might just go home with a dirndle. I’ve worn my dirndle to holiday cocktail parties many times. The guys would say I looked like a cute “Swedish girl.” So ladies, if you are single, dirndles are a good way to make conversation.
There seems to be an art craze going on right now. I am not an artist by trade, but I have always wanted to learn how to paint using water colors in particular. So, I was pleasantly surprised when a friend recently told me about a company called, “
Like a good Italian, I owned a Bialetti Moka Express that I bought in Italy. I say, “owned,” because like a good mother I gave my little espresso machine to my daughter when she went off to College.
Today I thought of my ex-father/n/law who is in heaven. He was 99 years old just shy of turning 100 when he passed away a few years ago! He was from Germany and loved breakfast. His favorite place to go for pancakes was “The Original Pancake House.” We would often go every weekend after church. A family ritual for Opa. His favorite pancakes were the 49er pancakes. A nice memory.
Unfortunately, due to tough parking, I was 30 minutes late. The line for being seated was so long that I was too shy to go through the line asking, “Are you a member of the Midwestern Meetup Group?” It wasn’t going to happen. Maybe if I had had a megaphone and made a Midwestern joke, but I hadn’t been prepared for such a crowd.
More pancakes. I work with two Ukranian Technicians and their mother’s often make crepe style pancakes, but instead of making them sweet, they add chicken or a vegetable and roll it up. Last week one of them shared with me a chicken crepe. He told me when he was young his mother made a lot of dinner dishes using these thin pancakes.
Brilliant Viewpoint 