The long journey home

Well considering I have about 15 more hours to kill on my layover in Belgium, I thought i'd blog about my vacation with Kate. Hopefully she'll agree to guest blog about her impression of Kenya when I get home.
Anways, she and Kiirsten arrived in Kenya safely late last Tuesday night and Tom and I picked them from the airport n Kisumu on Wed. morning. Kate only got to spend about 24 hours in Malava, but she said it was her favority part of the trip.
Friday morning we headed down to Kisumu where we parted ways with Tom and Kiirsten. Kate and I wandered around Kisumu and took a long walk so she could see the Lake. Saturday we took the bus to Nairobi instead of flying b/c Kate wanted to seethe Rift Valley. By Saturday night we were in Mombasa. We stayed at the Castle Royal again and after a very long day of traveling, we enjoyed live music and cool beers. Sunday I took Kate for a tour around Old Town Mombasa and then headed to our hotel in Diani beach. We strolled on the beach, but not for long. The Beach boys were being very aggressive (people say its gotten worse b/c the tourist season is slow). Our hotel in Diani was lovely. It wasn't beach from, but right across the street. We had a pool and an air conditioned room- which is really all you need. The staff was so attentive and courteous. We spent most of our time either lounging by the pool or swimming in the ocean, although we did manage to get up early for a half day safari in Shimba Hills National Reserve. The pictures will be up soon- but we saw lots of cool animals. We hiked down to a water hall with two older Scottish gentlemen, saw giraffes right next to our car and a whole family of elepants walking back from a bath.
We decided to take the train back from Mombasa and arrived in Nairobi with just enought time to wander around downtown (although I got us lost and we ended up in a bad part of town I'd never been to before), get cleaned up and have one last dinner with the sisters in Nairobi. But when we got to the airport, our flight has been delayed for two hours. We didn't end up leaving until almost 3 in the morning, but Kate managed to make her connecting flight home today. I am still in Brussels, enjoying a very cushy hotel room and avoid the three inches of snow on the ground outside.