June 19th/20th

Departure day finally came! Seemed like I would never stop working early mornings and waiting for the days to pass!

Packed pretty much all day Thursday with lots of last minute errands. It was a lot packing for my first overseas trip/climb, but I feel confident that I brought everything I will need.

Yep thats everything!

First flight to Washington D.C. left yesterday at midnight. We arrived in D.C. around 5:10am, 3:10am Denver time. I tried to sleep during the flight (put the table down in front of me and tried to use that to rest my head!) but really didn't get any good sleep, if any at all. First challenge of the trip- no sleep the first night! This should be fun.

Sitting here in the D.C. airport with a 6 hr. layover, next up is the 14 hr flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia! I think the best $2.50 I've spent to date is on this Dunkin' Donuts coffee….

Dr. Jon Kedrowski, the guide for this trip, will have service on our climb up Kilimanjaro, and will be posting updates for the whole group on the mountain. Once we descend and get back to the hotel I will be sure and post lots, but as far as updates during the hike, here is the link to Jon's blog:

http://www.jonkeverest.org/blog.html