South Africa Vacation

Here's a few snapshots of our vacation in Cape Town, South Africa earlier this month. It was a beautiful place with great weather and so much to see and do. It was great for us to feel that we were no different from anyone else, and Cape Town is so "western" that we had almost no culture stress. In many ways, it felt like being back in the States. We could even drink water from the taps - a real luxury! We loved the aquarium, play grounds, restaurants, shopping, Dutch colonial architecture, and the concert in the botanical gardens. It was truly a great vacation even if it took us 2 days to get there.

Here we are on the top of Table Mountain, where we all got sunburned but still had fun taking the cable car up the mountain and hiking around.

Look closely: did you know there are penguins in Africa? I sure didn't. There is even a beach where you can swim with them, and although we didn't get to go down we could watch folks tanning and playing on the beach alongside the penguins. I never thought I would see people in swimming suits hanging out cordially with penguins. On the ferry to Robben Island, I also saw some floating on top of the water, kind of like ducks.

Here we are at Robben Island Prison, in the cell across the hall where Nelson Mandela was held as a political prisoner for 18 years. Jack looks pretty happy here, but he tossed his cookies on the ferry on the way home. He's genetically inclined toward motion sickness thanks to my mom. Otherwise it was a good and eye-opening morning, and gave us an appreciation for our freedom regardless of our beliefs.

Home Security and Tummy Cheers

From these photos you can see the security gate and screen on our front door. It protects us from possible intruders, but also from mosquitoes, our bigger concern. No expat lives here without a massive keychain for the various locks around a home - for instance, we have 3 locks just for this door. All our windows have bars and screens on them. We don't even notice them anymore. The other security device we have is our tiny Rottweiler, Ellie, full grown at 50 pounds. Black dogs here are more feared than others, and we've heard it is because of the belief of black being evil. She's hardly evil, but does put up a good bark which is enough to scare the mightiest foes, even though they may only be wandering cats or goats.

I think all 3 in this photo are watching Dusty work on his piki-piki (motorbike). Jack, on this particular evening was so filthy after dinner that I removed his shirt, whereupon Tessa insisted on removing hers as well and then running over to Jack for "tummy cheers." Picture fraternity boys doing the belly bump, but on a toddler scale. Jack was clueless, but still thought it was funny, and I couldn't resist snapping a photo of them afterwards watching their Daddy at the door.

The next day they got to help him work on the piki-piki and play with the tools. Yes, Jack is indeed teething on a bisi-bisi (screwdriver). What a stud! Who needs baby toys when you can chew on tools?

Backyard Produce

Our yard has been very productive with passion fruit, bananas, avocados, and guavas while the neighbors can add lemons, tangerines, and oranges. Never having lived in CA or FL, this seems like a minor miracle - having fruit in our yard just dropping out of trees. The passion fruit are so high up in our trees that they sound like bombs dropping on our tin roof. One hit the other day during nap time, and from Tessa's room, I heard a startled "Oh! ha ha ha." We give away what we can't eat, which is also a nice benefit. By the way, avocados here are considered fruit, so we're no longer surprised to see them served in a fruit salad or sliced along with papaya and pineapple served at breakfast.