Happy Birthday Dad

Just wanted to use this post to say a happy birthday to my dad who is spending a week in Nashville for his birthday so i figured id take this opportunity  to share a few moments from my favorite adventure together: Africa

In early May of 2014 my brother, (Ben) my dad, (Earl) and I took a two week trip through Kenya and Tanzania. From meeting incredible people to seeing incredible places and animals I’m still anxiously waiting to go back and those memories still vividly run through my head when I look back on the photos.

The first of the two weeks of the trip was spent with a local pastor who ran an orphanage and school for kids who’s parents couldn’t afford the public schools in town. While there we helped build a new outdoor kitchen, as well as buying livestock such as ducks and goats.

Along with the money to buy livestock, we also took a few basic necessities for the kids such as a toothbrush, tooth paste, some body wash, and most importantly brand new soccer balls. Seeing as they busted their last ball the day before we arrived the kids from the orphanage couldn’t wait to break out the new balls and get out on the dirt field behind the orphanage.

Once we finished helping out with the orphanage we all decided to take a week to head to Tanzania for a bit of a safari. I still credit this trip as the reason i got into photography in the first place. We first went to Ngorongoro Crater which is essentially a giant zoo where all the animals are able to roam wild. While there we were fortunate enough to see the Big Five all in the first day. After leaving the Crater we headed out to the Serengeti for four days, and man were those four days incredible.

We started the trip to the Serengeti off with a bang immediately running into a pride of lions where we hung around taking photos for about an hour before heading farther out fighting our way through the hordes of the tsetse flies to where we’d be staying for the few days we were there. After getting settled in we were told a very comforting story about how the week before a leopard wandered into camp and was stalking one of our guides as he was walking to the outhouse.

After a great four days we begrudgingly had to pack up all of our gear and head back home. Once back in Nairobi we were up  bright and early (4:00am local time) and headed to the airport to find a line out the door of people trying to get checked in. Turns out that the entire bag checking system had shut down on all but one of the check in terminals. So after two and a half hours of standing in line in an airport with no air conditioning we were elated to finally get on the plane and sit down. Eight hours later we arrived  in the Netherlands and had to run to the next plane thanks to the delay at the airport in Nairobi. Another eight hours later we finally arrived on home soil in Atlanta and immediately went to Buffalo Wild Wings to get some wings and watch some soccer. After filling up on hot wings and soda we proceeded to our last gate, where we were forced to sit and listen to someone complain about how they had to wait for 45 minutes in the air conditioned and comfy Atlanta airport.

It was quite the conclusion to an unforgettable journey through a beautiful country with extraordinary and kind people. All this to simply say happy birthday dad and I can’t wait for our next adventure.