May 25, 2025
Since we’ve been in hotels for over a month, we’ve forgotten how nice it is to have toys around outside of iPads, and we were all happy to see a box of Legos in our room in Tarifa at check in. The boys woke this morning immediately asking to play and we of course obliged. Len even proclaimed, “This is the best room ever with legos!!” The room also has a swinging chair and a bathtub on the patio we’re planning to use later with the boys.
After breakfast, we took a walk along the ocean promenade. Its wild how close Morocco is from here and we can clearly see the mountains across the water. The beach is beautiful but it was quite windy today, not sure if the wind is a constant of this area though. The weather did provide entertainment as it made for great kite surfing conditions and the surfers were flying all over the water. Both boys asked to take kite surfing lessons after watching them fly through the air. On our walk, we stopped briefly at an outside fitness park where the boys tested their strength but were most excited to hit each other with fallen palm branches. We also saw some graffiti art with the ‘Lizard lady and VW Bus’ being our collective favorite. Len was pleased to walk for miles along the promenade “balance beam” while Ollie began drilling Kyle and I all about WWII and presidential term limits in the US. “Why did we drop the bomb? Tell me more about Russia? When did 2 term limits become law? Who was the president during the war? What happened to his legs?” And so on for what felt like hours.
Before heading to the hotel pool, we snuck in a homeschool session. We’ve been off our game for a while but not being too hard on ourselves as so much of Moroccan travel and culture was a learning experience. Ollie wrote a letter to his cousin Zach’s girlfriend, Kendall, telling her about his top three favorite things about Morocco:
Ollie’s Top 3 Morocco Experiences
Using the pottery wheel (despite the electrocution)
Sandboarding in the Sahara Desert
Holding animals in Jemma el-Fnaa plaza in Marrakesh
I asked Lenny the same question and he eventually came back with the following:
Lenny’s Top 3 Morocco Experiences
Riding the camels in the desert
Riding in the crazy truck that drove all over the desert like a rollercoaster (not the sand buggie, but the truck that drove us from the Sahara camp back to Merzouga)
Riding in the motorcycle sidecar
Both boys also added meeting Abdul to their list and Ollie emphasized that listening to so much Harry Potter is also on his list. Their lists also got me thinking about what mine would be:
Kayleen’s Top 3 Morocco Experiences
Fez food tour with elHaddid
The clay workshop experience outside of Marrakesh
The smoothies, animals and shopping experience at Jemaa el-Fnaa plaza in Marrakesh. This felt like the quintessential Morocco experience so it had to make the list. Seeing and feeding the wild Berber Apes also felt special.
Other memorable Morocco things:
Lenny asking elHaddid how to say every type of food “in this country” instead of “in Arabic.” “How do you say banana in your country?” “How do you say soup in your country?”
Both boys getting very comfortable talking to adults on their own, especially ask where the restroom was
Lenny getting very comfortable asking questions and would often interrupt our guides with “EXCUSE ME, I have a question” while they were mid-sentence
Abdul yelling, “Yalla!!” (Let’s go in Arabic) to the boys when it was time to go
Everyone in Morocco getting excited when they heard Ollie’s nickname which sounds just like the Arabic name, Ali. “Ooooh, he has an Arabic name?!?!”
We forgot our exercise bands at the Fez riad. Abdul found a driver in his network who was also traveling from Fez to Tangier and asked him to pick up the gear from the Fez riad and bring it to the Tangier bus station
On our last morning in Morocco, Abdul surprised the boys with their own Moroccan futbol (soccer) kit — Brahim for Ollie and Hakimi for Lenny. Morocco with host the World cup in 2030!
After homeschool, the boys played for a few hours in the hotel pool on the roof. There, they met a new friend called Maria from Ukraine. She was 6 years old and super interested in the boys chasing, jumping and racing games. Kyle eventually joined the mix and said she was extremely gentle compared to the boys.
We had wanted to try a seafood spot by our hotel that we walked past last night— we spotted huge bowls of tinys clams in garlic broth which looked and smelled delicious. Sadly, as today was Sunday, most restaurants were closed or only serving drinks. We eventually found a spot nearby just in time as the kitchen closed 10 minutes after placing our order. We played another round of Uno with Lenny coming in last place, “Worst game ever!!” Both boys downed bags of popcorn before dinner so they weren’t terribly hungry but made sure to eat enouch of their burger so they could participate in dessert. We found some new convenience store ice creams— vampire ice cream for Ollie and a push pop with gummy bears in handle for Len. Both were stoked with these new options.
There was an hour time change from Morocco to Spain and the sun now sets after 9:30pm. For our week in Seville, we’re planning for slow mornings, homeschool sessions, siestas (fingers crossed) and gelato when the sun sets.
