Mystery in the bathroom

Thursday, June 18 - Ghana Adventure Day 13
More of today's photos in slideshow section 2 - click HERE to view.
(back-dated post completed December 30)

Uncle P came this morning to take us to Accra. We had a long breakfast with him, then hit the road. It looked much nicer this time, without the heavy rain. It was a very pretty day. We arrived at our hotel, the Regency, around 2 pm. Oh, my gosh – it’s so much nicer than Crystal Rose! It is a lovely set of brick buildings, with 2 HUGE courtyards – one just plants and patio/courtyard area, one with the beautiful, sparkling pool. It has a restaurant AND a separate bar and grill, a salon, and a beautiful reception desk area. Everyone is so attentive – feels as attentive and more friendly than a Hilton, etc. The staff rushes to open doors for us, and brought us glasses of fresh juice as we checked in. Wow! We’re in Room 1 – the kids like that – I think it’s kind of neat, too! We have a big picture window that looks out right into the beautiful courtyard.  Our room has a huge bathroom, with a large storage chest, a shower with bathtub, attractive tile walls, and a fixture we weren’t sure what the heck it was – a urinal or a bidet, or what? Turns out it’s a bidet. Never seen one of those before – the girls and I watched videos online of how to use one. Funny! And just how did we watch those videos, you ask? Woo-hoo!!! We have fast, consistent, strong-signal internet right in our room!!! I’m am unbelievably excited about it! It’s the first time in Ghana that I can do my online things without dragging the kids somewhere to sit with me.

We went down to the restaurant and had a nice dinner. Akos had fried rice and chicken – the first thing she’d eaten all day. A couple of hours earlier, she started compaining that she was hungry, but of course she was – she had refused to eat at breakfast! I told her all the snacks we had in the room, and she refused all of them. So I told her that she wasn’t really hungry – if she was, she would eat. So, she waited until dinner. She initially refused anything but plain rice, but the waitress talked her into some chicken. It was GREAT chicken – I actually may order some next time. I had grilled prawns in garlic butter (which also had some other spicy stuff in it) – YUM! They had a nice white wine, which I hadn’t had since being here – the hotel in Elmina had wine that was not too good at all. This one was smooth and pleasant. Lydia had an egg and cheese sandwich – they use hard-boiled, sliced eggs here instead of the “pancake eggs” they had in Elmina. We did have to move tables when the waitress brought over a bowl of peanuts – we quickly had her take it away, but the other tables near us had them, too.

At dinner, there was one song playing over and over the entire time. Thankfully, it was a really fun song. It got Lydia in a dancing mood – she started dancing in a really fun and funny way. Akos was just cracking up and grinning from ear to ear (for the first time today), and she finally started dancing, too! They had a great, silly time, and so did I. The silliness continued into the night – well past bedtime. Oh, well. We watched an old video of Lydia as a toddler, and her 4th birthday party. After that, Akos kept saying to Lydia, “Lydia, how old are you?” No matter what Lydia answered, Akos laughed and said, “No! You are four!” It was funny at first, but Lydia got tired of it after a while. I thought it was great that Akos was speaking in an audible voice, and that she was feeling carefree enough to crack jokes! Probably our best night yet…

My Menagerie

Don went out of town for a few days, leaving me with all the critters and the girls. With faces like these on Kente and PJ, how can I make them move?

But with two dogs, a kitten and two children wanting to sleep with me, where am I supposed to sleep?

Sigh...

Back soon...

Jeanie

Pirate's Cove - a slippery slope...

(Another late/catch-up post...)

We left today for South Carolina (see next post to find out why!) We rented a Toyota 4Runner, and stopped at Pirate’s Cove in Hardin, Kentucky, as it was part of our camping network. It was not quite what we expected…our home campground is lovely, well-maintained and very clean. This…not so much. We had a heck of a time even obtaining reservations – the lady wasn’t sure how to do it. Apparently, the office is actually run by volunteers. Sometimes they are there, sometimes, nobody is. When we arrived, she told us our cabin number and apologized for all the dead bugs in it. Great way to start off. She asked if we knew how to get there. Huh??? Well, no…we’d never been there before. I tried to look at their map to find out, but she got flustered and said it was very complicated. She could send us the way that was easiest to find, but the road wasn’t so good. Or, she could try to figure out the longer way with better roads. I figured we’d be OK in our 4-wheel drive vehicle. Boy, was I wrong. We had to go up a huge hill (the photo doesn’t do it justice) with DEEP gullies and wet, slippery red clay/mud all the way up. It was like trying to get up an icy hill in the middle of winter. Even with our tough little vehicle, we kept sliding further backward each time we tried to go forward. We nearly slid off the road several times. There was no way it would be safe to back down. We finally found a couple of spots of gravel for traction and inched our way up the hill.

This is the hill…

…and the girls feigning terror.

The thick layer of mud and clay on our previously pristine rental car tires…I’ll have to some serious cleaning before returning the car.

And, the cabin…finally. Yes, there were LOTS of dead bugs. At least they weren’t live ones. The main overhead light didn’t work, so we couldn’t really see much in the living room. I called the desk, and the sweet little lady said she had no idea how to replace the light bulb. That figures. It was definitely meant for hunting trips – there was a creepy deer head staring at us from the wall. Yuck!

The only place we could find any food to cook for dinner was Fast Eddie’s Bait and Tackle. (I know I have a picture somewhere, but can't locate it...just try to imagine...) We settled on a Chef Boyardee make-your-own pizza kit. We had no cooking spray,, so we cooked it on foil and just peeled it off little by little. An interesting little adventure – we were glad to be on our way in the morning.

More in a bit...

Jeanie