Do I Look Like a North African Berber?

Why do I ask this question to begin with?

The reason is because my oldest brother recently had a DNA test done to determine, once and for all, if there was North American Indian blood in our family.  For several generations, there has been an ongoing belief that our family had Cherokee blood. My oldest brother, who has worked hard to research our genealogy, never found any physical evidence of this. He chose to take a DNA test to prove once and for all that we had Indian blood...or not.

The answer was...NOT.

The the DNA test showed something he wasn't prepared for. It showed that our genetic markers most closely resemble NORTH AFRICAN BERBERS?

He thought it was a silly mistake. Not so.

Now, I'm something of a history buff, so found this piece of information interesting. Mostly because I already knew that I had a significant amount of Celtic heritage. I already knew that my genealogy contained at least a significant amount of Scottish/Irish background. I already had researched the general history of my Celtic heritage and found that these people migrated from Spain. I also knew that North Africans had come into Spain and settled there. So, it was no surprise that I had some North African Berber in blood. The part that surprised me immensely was that my genetic markers was closer to this race of people more than anything else!

So close that I could be living in North Africa and it wouldn't be much different than them? Wow!

The picture below the first one shows me with my oldest son. My hair is an obvious colored blonde. It is actually a light brown, green eyes and skin that tans fairly easily but can sunburn if I'm not careful.

If my hair wasn't colored and I was dressed like those folks  in the picture above, would you be able to differentiate me from those people in the pictures above? Probably not!

Tell me what YOU think!

Phoenix in August and Other Unseasonable Trips

Our family took a vacation this past summer. A real, actual vacation; not a day trip or an overnight trip, or a business trip or a trip out of necessity. We chose to take a vacation. Not extravagant; we didn't go over our budget which meant we spent overnight most of the time at friends and family. We had a great time.

Our first stop was sunny southern California with all that it has to offer. Great beaches, amusement parks, great weather. It really is a great vacation spot. I was born and raised in So. Cal and always enjoy going back to visit, even if it is to see how much things have changed since I was growing up there. When I was a kid, Disneyland was just becoming a budding giant surrounded by a few backwater towns, orange groves, dairy farms and low land crops. There are STILL some low land crops grown in the area, but you really have to look hard for them.

 

Next, we chose to drive over to Arizona...yep; in August no less. My friends there said it was "monsoon season" there but I'll be dog-goned if I could find anything that remotely related to a monsoon while there. In fact, they had 113 degree heat and hardly a drop of rain during the week we were there.

I love hot weather, by the way and enjoy the dry heat that Arizona offers, even in the summer. We started off in northern AZ, driving to a friend's house north of Prescott, then continued onward toward the Grand Canyon. Spent the night near Flagstaff, then drove south to Scottsdale, which is next door to Phoenix. On our way down, we stopped at a variety of places, including Montezuma well and Montezuma Castle (which you see in the picture above). This area is located up in the hills just north of Phoenix and was quite hot the day we visited, but I enjoyed it all. In Scottsdale, my hubby found a casino and hang out in while I visited a dear friend of mine. The kids hung out in the pool and the local mall, which is pretty much what kids enjoy doing anywhere. Our time was pretty limited and we didn't really stop at too many touristy spots in Scottsdale/Phoenix area.

On our way back home, we stopped along Tuzigoot Indian ruins, pictured below.

As we made our way back to the Prescott area to drop off our other friend who had spent the last several days with us, we went up the side of a mountain and drove through a cool old mining town, touted to be "haunted", has lots of artsy/craftsy type things there. Gorgeous views, and RAIN!!! Yeah, we ran into some rain on our way up the mountain. It was a nice relief from the heat, even though I like the heat, change is always nice. After dropping him off in Chino Valley, we headed out toward Las Vegas and ended up staying overnight there.

We spent the night on the strip of course and checked out the Luxor the next day. Las Vegas is truly a place for fantasy. Pick your fantasy, you can find it there.

The next day we drove through the desert in California and passed through the Barstow area. Just west of Barstow, we saw a huge cloud of smoke going over the desert. We realized it was the smoke from the fires near Los Angeles. It was pretty impressive.

Over all, we had a nice relaxing vacation and lots of pics to remember our time with family and friends. That's what it is all about, isn't it?