Turtle Bay

This past weekend we celebrated American Thanksgiving by...... not eating turkey!  The school had Thursday and Friday off for the holiday so we decided to get away for the weekend.  We went to a resort on Kenya's east coast called "Turtle Bay".  It is an all-inclusive family friendly resort on the Indian ocean.  

Being right on the equator and at sea level, we found it to be warmer and much more humid than Nairobi.  High 30s degrees Celsius during the day and low 30s at night.  Thankfully this time we did have air conditioning for sleeping.  

The boys were also excited to have bunk beds!  Of course the two slept in one bed which kind of defeats the need for bunks.....  

There were several other families from Rosslyn at the resort -- it is a favourite of ex-patriots and Kenyans alike.  The boys had several friends to play with and participated in a Kids Club to earn points.  They played table tennis and water games, watched movies in the evening, built sand castles, and hunted for moray eels.   

 We spent our time reading in the shade of the palm trees, splashing in the pool, sipping drinks and eating.  At any time of the day we could order fruit juice or ice cream.  Simon discovered that a pineapple float is a special treat (fresh pineapple juice with vanilla ice cream).  One night there was a beach BBQ so our tables were on the sand and there were large grills set up for fish, lamb, beef, chicken.

The highlight for Tim, Max, and Simon was a snorkelling trip on the reef.  They saw colourful fish and beautiful coral like we have only seen in books.  Sea cucumbers, sting rays, rock fish, Nemo clown fish, electric blue fish, angel fish, anemones, and many others.  Lisa got very sea sick on the boat ride to the reef so spent the time floating on a life preserver.

Our last trip to the coast was an 11 hour drive.  So this time we decided to fly (one hour flight).    The airport in Malindi is as big as Mom and Dad's living room -- I am not joking.  The plane held 48 people (Lisa took Gravol for the flight).  Can you believe that they lost our luggage?  It arrived 9 hours after we got back home.