We’ll always have Wilmington

So there I was, at my desk at work, drowning in burnout, when I get an email from my good friend whom I met in grad school. She wanted to know if I wanted to take a trip to Wilmington, Delaware to see a one-man play both written and performed by the TheBlackTraveler’s very own Travel Contributor, Cornelius “Life” Jones. I swear, somewhere in the background I heard hymnal music. It took me a record 3 seconds to plan my route of escape before I clicked “reply” and told her that I definitely would be able to make it. I know a lifeline when I see it.
Now, I don’t see my friend often enough, especially since she moved to the New York City area this past spring, and it would be wonderful to hook up again to catch up. I took 95 up, she took Amtrak south, and we met at Sheraton Suites, our hotel for the night, in downtown Wilmington.

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A grown up Palms

I was definitely biased. Television had poisoned me to believe that this hotel would have nothing but college boys on Spring Break and celebrities acting crazy. But I wanted something different this trip to Vegas and off the strip. I figured I would spend my days at the spa and hide out in my room if needed. But luckily my worries were unnecessary. The Palms Resorts have a new property, Palms Place, which not only leaves all the images of the original two Palms properties behind but it is the perfect example of a boutique hotel.
If you arrive in the main Palms lobby as we did you have to cross the casino and take the skybridge over to Palms Place. These few minutes not only transplant you to your hotel but to another world entirely of muted colors, no noise from casino gamblers, chic restaurants and a quiet ambience. I think I am going to like it here.

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Au revoir Paris

Day three started out really sunny and with lots of promise as we took a metro trip to La Defense which is the downtown Paris working area. Lots of futuristic highrise buildings like any other downtown location and I can see it being really packed and bustling on a work day. A train ride back to the city center and a walk around Les Halles which has a really huge shopping mall but with boring chain stores we can find over in the States.  At night Les Halles has a strip of clubs and bars and a bit of seediness thrown in for those with much energy to spare after walking around the city all day.  A walk through the grounds of the Louvre museum and Jardin des Tuileries which is supposed to be a really great centrally located garden but there was barely any green so calling it a garden was a bit of a stretch. The tour ended at Place de la Concorde and the obelisk which is a huge gold topped obelisk taken from the Egyptians by Napoleon during his reign.

At night we took a dinner boat ride with the Bateaux-Mouches company along the Seine.  This was by no means cheap as it involved a 4 course dinner, a bottle of champagne and wine and I am sure there are cheaper dinner tours available if we had done the research but it was a nice dinner and the views of all the major monuments along the Seine…whew, you just can’t take too many pictures of the Eiffel tower especially when it is all lit up at night. Absolutely beautiful.  The buildings along the Seine are historic but fabulous architecture and it is sometimes hard to believe they have stood for thousands of years.

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Nairobi, Kenya Part 3

After two days of singing, we finally got some time to relax, to shop and to fellowship with one another and with the locals.
 
The day before I was to leave, we were invited to a local “Bomas” for a congratulatory and thank-you dinner for our concert. We were served native Kenya dishes that included goat meat and lots of vegetables.
 
The actual site was on the outskirts of the city, and IT WAS VERY DARK outside. When our buses arrived, the quiet blew through the night and trees. But in a faint distance, we could hear singing and uleling from members of the Masai tribe, who hosted the event. They greeted us with ceremonial wraps (which became souvenirs) and presented a fashion and talent show, highlighting the hope of tourism outlined by the capital’s government.
 
After dinner, native sons and daughters met with the choir members and shared with us how they could identify us with the country’s native tribes by looking at our facial features and structures. By the end of the evening, our hosts gave us handmade animals for us to take home as reminders of their appreciation and our time with them.
 
Kenya is beautiful. Its people are beautiful, and traveling there is a once-in-a-lifetime trek that anyone can take and draw so much from.

Springtime in Paris

Back to my first day-we went to the Eiffel Tower which is just really spectacular.  It was really tall (imagine that) and being March, the lines for the elevators to the top were not horribly long. The view from the top is worth it because you can see in every single direction the entire city. The one negative is because it is so high, a lot of the monuments are really tiny and far away and you almost need binoculars to see details.

 The next day started out with a trip to Musee D’Orsay which used to be an old train station that was turned into a museum. It is just the prettiest place ever with open space down the middle and the artwork in rooms off to the side.  Next a walk along the Seine River to Notre Dame Cathedral. 

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France Trip One

This is titled “Trip 1″ because from the moment I touched down at Charles De Gaulle airport, on a rainy morning in Paris, I knew it would not be my last trip.

 

Paris is beautiful! Hands down. The city is nicely arrayed into 20 arrondisements which are like neighborhoods in the United States. Except arrondisements don’t really mean much if you’re there because most people get around on the metro (subway). Paris has got to have the best public transportation of any big city I’ve been to. I did not even get to try the buses as I was on the metro train -or walking- the entire time I was there but it was so easy and efficient to use. Everywhere you need to get to is close to a train station. You can buy tickets for one trip, the entire day, or an entire week.  You can probably buy tickets for longer periods of time if you live there but I didn’t delve that deep. 

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Nairobi , Kenya Part 2

Day two in Nairobi was still very surreal. I was in the Motherland, and everyone was really happy about it.  The hotel rooms are European influenced, and the bathrooms come equipped with long, semi-high walled bathtubs and bidets.
 
The hotel’s breakfast was unbelievable!!!!  With the exception of water (which all are advised to stick to drinking only the bottled water at all times), every juice from orange, pineapple, apple, etc., is freshly squeezed every morning. All the breakfast food is presented in a buffet style and it is all good. It was the first time I had spinach added to my omelet, and I repeated that each day after the first time. The food was phenomenal, and I’m not just saying that because we spent long hours in rehearsal. There are all types of restaurants in the hotel. They cater to the different types of people who could stop through. There is a Chinese, Italian and Indian restaurant.  You can also enjoy shopping in your choice of tourist souvenir shops on the first floor, near the main lobby. Also, there is a boutique and other specialty shops on the second floor of the public lobby area. Read more

Nairobi, Kenya Part 1

Right now, the East African nation of Kenya is experiencing much turmoil
in the aftermath of a very controversial election. To help ease any
trepidation one may feel about visiting the Motherland in the wake of so
many desperate-looking situations, I may be able to help. It was my
first international trip, and it couldn’t have come at a better time –
just about one month after Hurricane Katrina ravished the Gulf Coast and
even less time after Hurricane Rita finished off what Katrina didn’t
have an appetite for in its havoc.

This trip was an opportunity for me to assist my pastor in an outreach,
mission opportunity never undertaken by our church, The Potter’s House
of Dallas. The church took its entire mass choir, a group of business
leaders and medical professionals. The choir would record during two
days of a crusade in Uhuru Park before nearly half a million people from
all parts in and outside the capital, Nairobi. The business leaders from
the church would work with political and business leaders in Nairobi to
generate ideas to boost economic activity in the country, and medical
professionals went into the rural areas outside of Nairobi to evaluate
the immediate medical needs of the area’s citizens.

Flying over “The Big Water,” as some of my relatives call it, was a bit
scary before I even got on the plane. But British Airways
www.britishairways.com was WONDERFUL. They accommodate flights from most
major U.S. cities and fly easily to London’s major airline hubs. Mine
were London Gatwick Airport and Heathrow Airport. My entire flying time
totaled 20 hours, and I traveled from Dallas-Fort Worth to Gatwick and
then from Heathrow to Nairobi, Kenya. We even had enough time enroute
from one airport to the other to go through some of the rural parts of
London, getting a glimpse of London’s version of an area amusement park.
And talk about green. It’s an emerald paradise even in the morning.
London was a cool delight (the humidity in the aftermath of the
hurricanes had swelled Dallas temperatures to the mid-90s, which felt
like the low 100s). Getting to London in the early morning around 6, we
were greeted with temperatures ranging from 55 to 65 degrees with no
humidity.

We arrived at our hotel sleepy, but well-fed (in flights like this, the
crew feeds you three, good, full-course meals), excited, still a little
scared, but happy to be in a place where we genuinely felt at home and
were welcomed with even more acceptance than could ever be imagined in
the U.S. And talk about a nice place to stay. Our week in Nairobi was
highlighted by our stay at the Grand Regency Hotel,
www.grandregency.co.ke/. The hotel takes away any preconceived notion of
Third World, which most people tend to think of when there is any
mention of Africa. The staff looks just like you and goes out of its way
to make sure you are accommodated to the utmost of their abilities.
Also, here a U.S. dollar goes a long way. Many of the hotel staffers
work in multiple capacities to make more money, so out of good foreign
traveler etiquette, leave at least $1 as a tip for the hard-working
staff and make sure you take time to make eye contact and speak clearly
to the staff so that all of your needs are met. They will definitely
make sure you are well taken care of since you are, at last, home.

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