Going to Morocco...

The rule is not to write too much personal stuff on your blog and to keep it professional. I was taught that you should write about personal stuff only 5% of the time in your blog - thanks to the courses I'm taking over here.  But this is my 15th post, and its been about a 50-50 split so far.

My father is taking the entire family over to Morocco to investigate our families roots in July. We'll be leaving July 23 and will be back July 31st. 

Here's some background:

My father's father was born in Casablanca in 1918.  My other three grandparents were born in the U.S. but their descendants are from Syria, so I identify myself as Syrian Jewish.  However my last name is spelled with an accent on the e, Roffé, so its french.  I often get comments asking if I'm french or something. I explain that my grandfather was from Morocco which used to be a French colony.

My father went there with my grandfather in 1988, and has been wanting to take the family with him ever since. The stars seem to have lined up and he's real anxious to take us.  We just booked our flights and hotels and we're heading out there.

I rarely vacation with my parents these days, as we have very different views of what a vacation should be.  They like the type where you run around and squeeze in as many tourist traps (oops, meant to say sight-seeing) as you can. 

I, on the other hand, much prefer the type where you sit on a beach or sit by the pool with a good book and a extremely strong drink, preferably with an umbrella in it, and do some serious tanning.  Running around is not a vacation to me.

This is a lot harder now that I have three children, aged 5, 4, and 10 months who always want you to do something with them.  I'm reminded of the old joke.  What's the difference between a trip and a vacation?  A trip is with the kids.  A vacation is without the kids.

This "vacation" is going to be without my children, as we felt that it'd be hard to stick with nap times and the like, where as this will be very demanding. We'll be traveling to Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakesh, and Fez.

Personally, I'm looking forward to it.  Will definitely be looking to see Rick's Cafe in Casablanca.  Wonder if I'll bump into Humphrey Bogart???

When my father was there in 1988, they found an old synagogue in Casablanca which had a decorative hanging lamp in memory of my great-grandfather.  They left it and donated money for the upkeep.  We found out recently that this synagogue was shut down and sold. All those lamps were packed up and put into a museum or into storage.  We'd like to find the lamp and bring it back with us if possible. That'd be interesting.  We'll also do some cemetery visiting of relatives of ours that I've never met.


I'd like to see the markets in Marrakesh. I hear the spices are unbelievable.

A negative though, we're going in the middle of Ramadan which means we have to be back in our hotel by 5 pm every night as we're told it gets real crazy on the streets as people leave to go eat.  Not a big deal as we can use this to get some pool time before dinner.