Africa is a really big continent with lots of countries. Most of those, however, are not very likely work or vacation spots. Madeline and I first visited the continent on a wonderful vacation to South Africa, where we saw tons of safari animals over a 10-day adventure with Disney. This is by far the best vacation we have ever taken, partly because it was so thrilling to see these big animals, and partly because of the wonderful job Disney did on the tour. South Africa is beautiful and historic and had fantastic food.

I returned to Africa a couple of years later in a completely different environment. This was to Nigeria, which is not a very nice country to visit. Although I was safe, the food was not what I wanted to eat and my adventure was not so great. I survived, though, and did learn a bit about the country’s culture.

Africa

This trip was almost as crazy as my trip to Argentina. I traveled overnight Friday to London and then onto Laos, Nigeria, landing there that Saturday evening. I was picked up by my business partner and taken to the Sheraton, where I had drinks. The next day was an all-day business meeting in prep for a presentation that we gave on Monday morning. After that presentation and a little more time with the business partner, I returned to the airport to head back home.

Nigeria: 11/16/13—11/18/13

I wanted to go on a safari ever since I was a kid. When Madeline and I went on our 10th anniversary in Hawaii, we started talking about doing special trips every 5 years for our anniversary. One such destination we mentioned was Africa. We weren’t sure how feasible the whole idea was until we joined Disney Vacation Club. The only reason we bought into the timeshare was because we could use our points for things other than just staying at Walt Disney World, including cruises and trips with Adventures by Disney (AbD). When we saw that South Africa was one of their adventures, it was kismet. And although they didn’t offer the trip over our actual anniversary date, I decided to call the entire year our 25th Anniversary Year.

South Africa: 09/15/11—09/28/11

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