Play it again, Sam.

Today was a successful day.  Kelly and I debarked the ship in Casablanca, Morocco this afternoon with two goals: see the Hassan II mosque and ride a camel.  Both were a great experience but honestly the camel ride was the highlight of the day.

Our ship rolled into Morocco this morning and I do mean rolled.  We had about thirty seconds of pitching this morning as we made our left turn from the Atlantic Ocean.  Our nightstand drawers flew open and everything the was sitting on top of it flew to the floor.  I had a brief flashback to the day before we arrived in Yokohama.  Hard to believe that was less than three months ago.  With all we have experience since it seems like ages ago.

Once the Explorer settled into our berth and we slowly cleared customs it was around noon.  We tried to keep the day simple and explore the city of Casablanca at a leisurely pace.  We headed into town and walked around the narrow alleyways of the old Medina neighborhood and then made our way over to the Hassan II mosque.  It's a beautiful sprawling site situated right along the Atlantic Ocean and quite a site to behold.  We arrived too late to take a guided tour so we walked around the complex and marveled at the architecture.  On our way there we ran into a few young Moroccans playing soccer in the street in front of the mosque.  They were friendly kids who posed for "Madam"Kelly.  The people here don't speak much English so we are getting by with some light French Kelly can recall and lots of pointing.

We left the mosque and hoped into a Petite taxi down the coast for a few miles to the Corniche section of town where we were told we could find camel rides.  When we arrived our adventure seemed doomed.  There were only young boys offering pony and horse rides and no horse would do.  Instead we walked a little ways down the road and visited a large 3-story mall that also sat along the shore.  It was one of the nicest malls I've ever been in complete with an Adventureland section with an ice skating rink and a large aquarium with small sharks.  It was a place that many Moroccans likely can't afford to shop in but it was filled with people window-shopping and gawking at how the 1%  live.

After walking around the mall for about an hour we headed back to our horse touting friends in hopes of catching a taxi back to the city to have dinner and get back to the ship.  As we walked along the scenic walkway next to the beach I spoke something.  "It's a camel!" I cried out.  Our white whale had been spotted.  We walked over and asked the handler for a ride.  For just twenty Dirham, Morocco's currency which equals about $2.50 US, I got to ride a camel for a few minutes on the beach of Morocco.  It was pretty damn cool. 

Kelly almost decided not to do it when she watched me almost fall off as my furry chariot crouched down to let me off and I nearly ate some sand.   Fortunately she made the wise decision to take a ride and had we both accomplished our mission of the day and have a fun story to tell for the rest of our lives.

With the excitement behind us we took a cab back to the city and had a delicious dinner at a hole-in-the-wall shop and then came back to the ship.  We're both tired from the day and resting up for another adventure tomorrow.  I just hope it can live up to the fun of today.