We went to go see the dinosaur exhibition which was set up for a limited time. The animatronics and sound were nice but not quite Disney levels.

My friend was visiting Japan for a while after our trip to Azerbaijan/Georgia and he wanted to go to Japanese baseball game:

On the way back home we all had a layover in Doha, so we all spent the evening enjoying the city night market. We were able to join a walking tour where we saw the bird market, the kings racing camels, prized horses, and the falcon hospital. We all played Dama which is like a Qatar version of checkers, and finished with a dinner of camel meat.

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The second part of the trip was visiting Georgia. We got a new bus, a new guide, and a look at a completely different county. Even though Georgia is neighbors with Azerbaijan the differences in people, culture, and architecture were outstanding. Our first night was in Sighnaghi, a small walled town in the hills where we learned about the local wine farmers, did some zip lining, and drove an ATV all around the town. The next day we visited David Gareja caves, a rock-hewn monastery carved into a desert mountain. After that we headed off to the capital of Tbilisi. This had to have been my favorite city on the trip. It was a nice city with a river running through it with beautiful churches, old architecture, modern buildings, interesting street art, and friendly people. We visited the major sites and also checked out the botanical gardens, went into and bathed in the old sulfur baths, and wandered through a closed amusement park at night to see the views.

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This years summer vacation was with my group of high school friends again. We spent 10 days visiting Azerbaijan and Georgia, with a short layover in Doha Qatar.

The trip was with a tour company so there were a bunch of other travelers we got to make friends with. We started in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and saw all great views and sights the city had to offer. We visited the walled old city of Baku and took some side trips to the mud volcano, fire mountain, and various museums. One of the best things about this trip was we went out of our way to find some of the best foods in the city.

We took a bus to Lahij to visit part of the Caucasus mountain range. We stayed in an old quint mountain town and I spent the next morning taking a hike up into the mountains.

The last city in Azerbaijan we visited was Sheki where we saw the old kings summer palace, as well as visited some local fruit stands, local markets, and a silk factory. We also ate some of the local specialties which included the famous Sheki Balaclava, and Sheki Plav which is a meat-fruit-rice dish baked in a crispy shell.

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