Arrived

After 32 hours of travel, we returned to Colorado Springs, jet-lagged but content to be home. Thanks for following our blog.

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Coming Home

Ben is writing this blog post from Empire Cafe in Muizenberg, one of our preferred hangouts. It is a beautiful day and we walked along the sea wall from St. James, checking out the sea life and surfers doing their thing, knowing that they would be there long after we left. It is a bittersweet day. Kids and parents all feel sad that the adventure is coming to a close, but excited to be returning home.

Yesterday at the District 6 Museum, we learned about a group of homing pigeons. As you may know, District 6 was a section of Cape Town that was destroyed (literally bulldozed) in 1966 as a result of a decision by the apartheid regime that the section of town would be redesignated for whites only. Residents were forcibly removed to other parts of the city. One resident brought his homing pigeons with him. Months later, he thought it was safe to release them. They disappeared. The next day he had a hunch. He went to the plot in District 6 where is home once was and there were the pigeons wondering where the house had gone. Home is a place, but it's not necessarily a building. And home has a powerful draw. So, here we come, tomorrow, departing Cape Town at 13:40 local time, heading home, again, for the first time.

Sophia at the front door of our home for the past three months - 37 Saint James Terrace.

Another version of home, this one portable.

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Kissing the Ground

My friend Rosemary Harris Lytle asked me to kiss the ground of Africa until she could get here. Rosemary, it took until our last full day, but here's the kiss, a goodbye kiss.

 

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The Red Bus

Marin and Sophia have been talking about going on the open-top Red Bus tour ever since we arrived almost 3 months ago. Most people might take the very touristy trip early on in their visit, but we waited until our final weekend. It was a beautiful day in the "Mother City" and we had a blast.

We preferred riding on the top.

At the Castle of Good Hope, actually a fort in the shape of a pentagon.

Sophia and Brooke chillin' on the bus.

 

At the District 6 Museum.

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Groot Constantia

The oldest winery in South Africa, if not the southern hemisphere, and right in our backyard.

Brooke and Ben about to taste the famous Semillon.

Marin and Sophia enjoying the ripe plums and exquisite earthiness of their grape juice.

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West Coast National Park

Peaceful. Serene. Slow-paced. That's how we found the West Coast in general and the WCNP in particular. Perhaps it was also because we had just come from The Baths.

Sophia and Marin chillin' on a boardwalk amidst the wetland birds and plants.

Brooke at the Seeberg lookout. That's a lagoon of the Atlantic Ocean behind her.

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The Citrusdal Baths

We decided to check out a bit of the West Coast and drove to Citrusdal, the third largest orange-producing area in RSA, and went to "The Baths." 43 degree water pours out of the mountain.

Hanging out in one of the rock pools.

Good antidote to the chilly cape - a 43 degree swimming pool. Celsius, folks.

All was well till Sophia got stung by a bee. Good news is that she is not allergic. But she is TOUGH.

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