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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Whales in Hermanus

It's supposed to be the best place in the world to see whales from the shore. We found a sweet apartment with this view...

We went for a walk along the cliffs. Almost immediately Ben spotted some whales with dorsal fins, probably orca. Marin staked out a good place to look for more whales...

Brooke noticed a large whale in the water. We kind of followed it around Gearing Point, then Marin and Brooke saw it breech. It did so two more times, rested for a bit, then breeched three more times. Ben cried out and fumbled for the camera. It doesn't quite capture the grandeur of what we saw, but it is proof there was a whale.

 

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Tip of a Continent

We visited Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa, the place where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans come together. We were told in our tour books that it was undramatic. We found it to be spectacular.

 

 

One of 20 "Joy" stones sent with us to Africa by our friend Lynn Young...

 

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Tide Pool

Ben at the Kalk Bay tide pool. During the summer, this is filled with kids. During the winter, only a few brave adults do a daily swim. False Bay is part of the Atlantic Ocean and Hangklip is the point visible in the distance.

 

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"Easy Hike" up Lion's Head

Finally a sunny day and an opportunity to get out and hike. We decided to make our way up Lion's Head. a tour book we have called it an easy hike. The author obviously didn't hike it with a three year old. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful day and we had a great time.

Brooke, Marin, and Sophia at the trailhead. It was warm enough that our layers came off by the time we reached the top.

The "hike" included a good amount of climbing, scrambling, and bouldering. Let it be known that Sophia climbed the ladder by herself. That's Table Mountain in the background. You can see the cable car house on the top.

Brooke and Sophia near the top with downtown Cape Town below.

Lion's Head from Signal Hill.

We treated ourself to lunch (with milkshakes) at Mr. Pickwick's on Long Street after the hike (to replenish all of those calories burned).

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A Horrible Day

Today was the worst day. We were all cranky, tired, and inflexible. It was raining. We couldn't think of what to do with ourselves. We decided to go to amall, a really large mall called Canal Walk or Century City. We didn't intend to spend any money. Going to a large mall not intending to spend money on a day when all interested parties are feeling tired and cranky is a bad idea. When that didn't go well, we decided to drive to Durbanville to a place called Kids Playzone. Better to call it hell. The place was packed. Marin and Sophia were kind of freaked out by the crowd. Ben and Brooke just wanted some time to chill. We ended up leaving after 10 minutes with Sophia sobbing and Marin sulking and Ben and Brooke fuming. We drove an hour back to St. James and yelled at each other until bedtime. Here is a picture of how we felt...

Oh well. There had to be a worst day, didn't there?

 

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Friends for Dinner

Tonight we had our neighbors over for dinner - Leanne, Rene, Matthew and Jasmine. Ben made fajitas and guacamole. Fun was had by all.

Jasmine, Matthew, Marin and Sophia at the bar in our apartment.

Ben getting skunked by Rene in an "epic" game of backgammon.

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A Day at the Theatre

Cape Town is known for it's community theater and today we got a double dose. First, we went to the Masque Theatre in Muizenberg to see a children's production called "The River of Life," an African tale about a village, a river, and the princess that saves them.

After meeting the actress who played the princess, Sophia made a frog costume out of recycled materials.

Brooke and I went to dinner at Burrata, in the Old Biscuit Mill of the Woodstock section of Cape Town. Here we are with one of the owners, Neil, a friend of our friend from way back in California, Brett Tebo.

Brooke and I went to see David Kramer and Teliep Petersen's Kat and the Kings at the Fugard Theatre in Cape Town's District 6. The musical is set in District 6, which was destroyed in 1966 by the apartheid government because it had been designated a white's only area. The Fugard is housed in a former congregational church building.

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Unction at the Junction

So, it's cold here and we have three weeks left and we've done most of the things that people do on holiday in Cape Town. We took a chance today, going to an amusement park called Ratanga Junction, hoping that the weather would cooperate. It did. We joined Capetonians on school holiday. There was no wait on any of the lines and someone even gave us a Groupon at the gate that saved us half of our entrance fee. It was a good day.

It was actually more fun than the kid's faces say in this photo.

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