Chez Lamine Hadj Mustapha - Marrakech

Our best meal in Morocco took place just off the public square of Marrakech, the Jemaa el Fna, at Chez Lamine Hadj Mustapha. I've already blogged a little bit about it in a post on sheep's head. But sheep's head was only part of our meal. Our guide, Abdul, took us to a pit where lambs are roasted in the ground for about 24 hours. There is a group of stalls, all in a row, selling lamb cooked in that pit. Roasted lamb bodies are on the counters of those stalls just waiting for people to come and buy the lamb by the kilo. 

The sheep are cooked in the whole in the ground in the center of the picture.

A sheep visible in the pit.

Sheep for sale on stall counters. 

Abdul ordered a 1/2 kilo of lamb for us, the 1/2 lamb head I've already blogged about, and a tangia (a clay pot for cooking) of cooked beef. The beef was great, nice and moist and soft, but it is very tough to beat lamb, especially lamb slow roasted for 24 hours. It was superb. We went back the next day for a late lunch and ordered a kilo of lamb and 1/2 a lamb's head. I particularly enjoyed the bits of fatty, crunchy lamb bits infused with the cumin/salt combination. 

Olive appetizer with various types of olives. 

Tangia pots out front, several with bread stacked on top of them. 

Judy and I with food in front of us.

Lamb head liberally sprinkled with salt and cumin.

Tangia pot with the beef from it in a separate dish. 

Roasted lamb bits.

Part of what makes the Jemaa el Fna so fun is the variety of activites going on in the square, including snake charmers, and the labyrinth of stalls with vendors hawking food, clothing, dishes, pots, carpets, etc. What I particularly enjoyed were the colors. So I share some of the pictures of the square and the vendors, with an emphasis on the wonderful color. 

As evening descends, the Jemaa el Fna gets going. The pinks and oranges get emphasized as the sun does down.

Another part of the square. Light from some of the vendors jumps out.

Right after the sun went down, light on the horizon and a mosque minaret in the background.

Purveyors of fruits, nuts, vegetables, etc.

Lighted stall with a mosque minaret in background.

Orange juice vendors and a lighted up mosque.

Spices

Dates and nuts.

Olives galore.

Olive vendors were my favorite.

Lamps

Purses and other leather goods.

Shoes

Plates

More plates and tagines.

And more plates. I loved the colors that covered the specturm.

Carpets.

Finally, a man employed to keep the fire going that heats the water at a bathhouse. He continually feeds the fire with saw dust. Several tangia pots are in coals near the side of his head, cooking. 

White Stork - Morocco

We've seen white storks previously, in France, Spain and Turkey, but never in the numbers we saw in Morocco. In Morocco we saw a nest in the Roman ruins at Volubilis, at Fes, at Marrakech and nests in a number of places on the desert side of the Atlas Mountains. Our best spot was at Riad Badi in Marrakech, where we spent three nights. It has a rooftop terrace where we ate breakfast. On the roof we got a great view of one of the walls of the Badi Palace and along the top of that wall were at least six stork nests. At any one time we could view 6 to 12 storks. I got up early on two mornings and went up to watch and photograph the storks. I got pictures of them flying, mating and building their nests, much better views than I've ever had of storks before. 

I loved to see the storks fly. They have a tremendous wingspan and love to glide. 

Head on the end of outstretched neck, legs straight behind, large black and white wings.

Note the different colored feathers on the chest and the rust colored secondary feathers on the trailing edge of the wing. 

Just taking flight. The early morning sun is catching part of both birds.

The wall provides a better backdrop than the sky for catching the bold orange beak and black feathers.

The storks seemed to spend much of their time mating. It looked rather awkward, the male would land on the back of the female, with much flapping of wings, then ultimately jump off with more flapping of wings. 

Here the male stork has just landed on the back of the female.

And here he awkwardly hops off.

Here is another sequence. The male lands on the back of the female. The early morning light catches the orange bill and legs. 

Here the male hops off...

And just barely stops himself from falling off the edge. 

Another sequence I love because the early morning light is catching them beautifully.

If this was Humphrey Bogart, here is where he would have a cigarette. 

Finally, a little less dramatic, but some photos of single and multiple birds.

This stork was on a nest on a house in a small town outside Volubilis. I believe the town was Nzala Beni Ammar. I asked our driver and guide to stop the car so I could catch some photos.

These storks are on a nest on the desert side of the Atlas Mountains, I believe possibly in the town of Aoufous. Again, I asked our driver to stop so I could get a few pictures. Note the plastic bags that are incorporated into the nest. 

The stork nest in the center is on a pillar in the Roman ruin of Volubilis. 

This stork practices for the Swan Lake opera.

I love these last photos because of the way the light catches the storks. The stork in the nest is not a baby, but another adult. 

One last picture. Beautiful large birds.

High Point - New Jersey

After visiting the Ebright Azimuth, the high point in Delaware, a few days later we visited the high point in New Jersey aptly named High Point, in High Point State Park. Where the Ebright Azimuth illustrates some of the absurdity of high pointing, the High Point in New Jersey illustrates one of the benefits. I've always viewed New Jersey as one big mass of crowded freeways, ugly industrial buildings, belching smoke, manufacturing chemicals and toxic waste sites. Going to High Point took us to the antithesis of all that, a very rural, hilly, tree-covered and deer-infested part of the state I did not know existed. Deer crossing signs along the access roads were a nice complement to the toll signs so prevalent on the New Jersey Turnpike.

High Point, at 1,803 feet, is not in the same category as the western state high points, or even some of the other eastern state high points, but it towers over the high points of Florida and Delaware and, unlike them, feels like a forest, even a high point. In fact, the Appalachian Trail passes about a quarter mile away and there are several places for AT hikers to camp in High Point State Park.  

I believe this view looks toward Port Jervis in the distance. 

I believe the AT follows the ridge just visible beyond this rock formation.

New Jersey is oddly shaped, sort of a twisted hour-glass (thin in the middle) with the flattened top and bottom angled at about 45 degrees. High Point State Park is found at the very top of New Jersey in the angled corner, in the Kittatinny Mountains, 2.7 miles north of Colesville, New Jersey, 6 miles south of Port Jervis, New York and quite a bit northwest of New York City (I think of New Jersey being south and southwest of New York City).

High Point State Park was dedicated in 1923 and the landscaping was designed by the sons of Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed Central Park in New York City (most of the landscaping I saw was pine trees, designed by God, also a pretty good landscaper). At the summit is a 220 foot tall obelisk built of granite and quartz to honor war veterans. It was completed in 1930. The obelisk is open to visitors from Memorial Day to Labor Day, so unfortunately we found it closed and the plaza surrounding it closed as well.

The summit obelisk visible above Lake Marcia in High Point State Park.

A closer view of the summit obelisk.

It was a cold, windy, rainy morning when we visited in April, about 37 degrees and feeling much colder than that. The weather, along with the closure of the plaza, discouraged too much exploration.

This is about as far as I ventured from the car on this side, and on the other side to the barriers across the plaza.

A view up the obelisk.