The Safari

This morning we got up early and drove 2 hours out to a Safari expedition. We arrived at 8:00, and they fed us breakfast. We stood by little heaters for another half hour trying to warm up before heading out. The Aquila Wildlife Reserve is a privately owned Safari. They stock the land with certain animals, just a few at a time due to land size and population of the species.

African Safaris MUST have what you call "The Big Five," Lions, Elephants, Rhinos, Water Buffalo, and the Leopard. You're almost always guaranteed to see these 5 on every excursion, among other animals.

We loaded in to open jeeps with stadium seating, and off we went. Our driver was our guide. He would stop the car and talk about each of the animals as we would see them. He knew a lot about each one, and I fell in love with these animals. It was so cool to see them in their natural habitat and roaming around. Not behind bars. My personal favorite was the hippo. I told Evan before we left that if I could just see a hippo, I'd be happy. That was the first animal we came across! It really made my day.

Here are some pictures of the animals. I would post more, but this little laptop takes forever to download them all, so I'll post more when I get home.

Overall we saw hippos, elephants, rhinos, wildebeasts, zebras, intu, springbuck, giraffe, cheetahs, and lions. We didn't end up seeing the Leopards or Lions in their natural habitat. They have a large "caged" area to keep some of them safe, as they're on the extinction list. Makes sense. I didn't care much about not seeing Lions. We drove around and around, but they must have been hiding. I got to see the hippo, so I was happy!
We were fed lunch before we left. The drive back was beautiful with valley after valley and mountainous drives. There were some sad cities that consisted wholy of these:

Little "shanty towns" we'd call them. The people were out and about, and it made us sad to see people living this way. Even worse than we saw in Chile. We do remember from what we've seen in life that poverty does not necessarily mean unhappiness. We are truly grateful for everything we have and all the blessings we enjoy. How lucky are we to live in such a blessed nation? I love home and all the opportunities it affords us.

Robben Island

This afternoon, while Evan attended the conference, I decided to take the ferry out to Robben Island. It is a little island 12 km off the coast of Cape Town, similar to alcatraz. And just like Alcatraz, it was used as a prison, though much more laid back.

The weather was terrible, and the water was choppy. I felt myself getting sick from the get-go. Why do such neat places put us through so much to get there? As we arrived, busses were waiting to take us on a tour around the island before we toured the prison.

This island was (and still is) inhabited soely by employees of the island, about 200. There are 29 recorded shipwrecks, some with visible debris, lots of jack rabbits, a wilderness, a lighthouse, a small military base, and 1 store.The guide that took us through the prison was an actual prisoner there for 5 1/2 years. He was charged during the apartide with treason, terrorism, illegal importing... he had a lot of good stories about what went on there. Did I mention Nelson Mandela was imprisoned here? Also Robert Sobukwe, and others heavily involved in the apartide/separation movement. (For those readers who don't know, Nelson Mandela went on to become one of S.A.'s presidents in the 90's. I hung out with a couple from Washington state who were so nice to give me a dramamine for the way home. Talking with them was a good distraction!

Here's our guide telling us about getting mail

From there I raced to the University to watch Evan play in his annual soccer game. They split into teams when they get there, and his team played well. They won one game and lost one, putting them in 3rd place overall! They all played exceptionally well due to a general language barrier. They had an awesome Italian goalie that saved the day. Way to go Evan! He had the longest shorts of anyone on the whole team! My sweet athlete.

Cape Point and the Penguins

Tuesday morning we took a drive down south to cape point, which is the southern most part of western Africa. We stopped at a few towns along the way to get pictures of the bays and the ocean.

There is a beach about a half-an-hour from cape point called "The Boulders." It is a breeding ground and home to African Penguins. We parked, payed the small fee,and walked down to the beach. The penguins were so cute! There were lots and lots of penguins. They stand about shin high, about the height of a large sea gull. I always pictured penguins in ice, just like the movies, so it was strange to see them in bushes, under trees, and sitting on their eggs in burrows in the sand; almost too tropical, but cute nonetheless. We saw fat baby penguins, some of them moulting into their juvenile blue feathers. It takes two years for the penguins to mature to adulthood and take on their black color. The African penguins mate for life starting at about 4 years old. Some of the penguins waddled right up to us for a picture. We laughed and laughed at their awkward gate, with their wings out, sort of unsteady-like. We sadly thought of Porter and laughed at how he'll be walking like that very soon.

From there we drove to cape point, the sun decided to grace us with its presence that morning. As we wound our way through the national park toward the coast, the water took on a beautiful blue. Did I mention the baboons? Everywhere we saw signs warning that baboons are wild and dangerous, which they are, I guess, all we saw were troops walking alongside the road, some with cute little babies on their backs. At Cape Point it was strange looking at the horizon, knowing our eyes were pointed toward Antarctica. The beaches are lined with 50-100 ft cliffs, straight up. So we didn't go down to the beach. We opted for a hike to the old lighthouse instead. This turned out to be the wisest decision, for we had a spectacular view. Looking back at the narrow land, we were surrounded by ocean on both sides. Quite amazing, as if you feel you've made it to the end of the Earth. (Except for the mountains we could see in the distance to the south-east of us on the main land).

Evan wanted to get back to the conference by two, so we left just in time, just as a Japanese tour bus pulled up... Of course it is raining in Cape Town. I went to a local market, then took a nap while Evan attended presentations.

We ate dinner at an authentic African restaurant where we tried a lot of local cuisine. They also sang and danced for us. Then back to the hotel we went to see if the fourth night would be the charm to sleep through the night. It worked! We both slept.

Aparently there is a muslim mosque across the street, which through a loud speaker, day and night, plays-did I mention it was a loud speaker?-prayers, or songs, or whatever, in a chanting way. It wakes us up at 6 am every morning. Very annoying, but good for them.

Welcome to South Africa

We made it! After 24 hrs, and 8 time zones, we arrived safe and sound, though not rested. We sat in the back of the plane next to a youth cristian group, and needless to say only when they slept, did we, though not on the schedule we had planned, so yet again we're a little jet lagged. We did have a great time once we got here, though.

It rained non-stop since we landed Saturday night, until Monday morning, when the sun came out for a few hours, then it started raining again. We're hoping it clears up so we can get out and see things better. We rented a GPS unit with our car and it's been nice to get out by ourselves and see what we want. I'm the designated driver since Evan is a pro at giving directions, (and I freak out when he drives, cause he wants to be looking out the window at the sites). We have our system down. While taking a sunday drive, we hit some traffic, and thinking it was an accident, became patient. When we saw the cause of the slow down, we were surprised to see the road floaded over. I guess the roads weren't built with this much rain in mind. Apparently the last 2 weeks were sunny and warm, and we must've brought the rain with us.

Here's the view from our hotel window.

We got out to see some sites this morning.

Here's a picture from signal hill

We really are lucky to be in such a nice area of Cape Town. It's very dangerous here, and we can't leave anything in the car, so Mr. GPS goes with me everywhere in his cool little red shoulder bag, which has now become my purse.

The wierdest thing is having to remind ourslelves to keep to the left, even in foot traffic.

Me from the base of Table Mountain- signal hill is in the back to my left

The University is nice where Evan's conference is being held. Evan presented some research today, and is happy to have that out of the way to relax and better enjoy the rest of the week.

We've been out to eat some, and it's CHEAP! We have full steak dinners at $10-12/person. It's awesome. The shopping is cheap as well, though I'm still looking around for some authentic artesan markets...

We miss P terribly, but are grateful he is in such good care. This is a true Vacation!

Our 4th!

We didn't make plans until the day before, when we knew Evan's sister Jill would be down with the kiddos, so we planned to take P to the parade in the am. He loved it! We parked just as the parade was starting, so as we walked to our pre-determined family area, we walked the whole way alongside the firetrucks, which is what I wanted P to see in the first place, and he LOVED it! He stared and stared at the big trucks and smiled at the loud sirens. I hadn't been to a big parade in a long time, and loved it. I think July 4th is becoming more of a favorite holiday the older I get. I felt so patriotic, and full of pride to be an American. I love America, and all it means for me and my family. I don't know how long I'll be able to stand free, and I take advantage of this every day now. One of the highlights of the day was shaking Congressman Jason Chaeffet's hand! My sis in law shouted to him really loud, and he made his way to us just to shake our hands. I thanked him personally for all he does for us here in our district, and I really am grateful. I love knowing he will represent us and EVERYTHING we believe in. ALWAYS.

Later on we went to my parent's house and worked on a project for our house...more to come on that at a later date...

We got together at the park later on for fireworks with Evan's family. They staked out the best spot to catch the Stadium of Fire fireworks from the park, and we had a great time, especially Porter.

Who knew blinking lights could keep an infant so happy for so long? Thanks Mike for the perfect spot! We decided to keep Porter up to watch him watch the fireworks.

We payed for it the next day, though we weren't alone. I think all the kids at church that day had a breakdown or two. One of the best parts of a long fun weekend is the rest we get afterward. I think I've just now recovered.

Happy INDEPENDENCE day!