Bright Morning Light: It's the Small Things

It truly is the small things that make you miss home. Right now, it’s the rain pouring down outside and the cup of hot chocolate I just made myself. I miss many things. However, my time here is being well spent and I do enjoy myself. Currently I’m waffling between looking forward to going back to work on Monday and enjoying being on holiday, even though that means I’m studying all day (or at least trying to). It’s been a good break though. Not totally lacking of challenges but good nonetheless.

The Tulbagh
Waterfall

Swimming in Tulbagh

It started on a Thursday. The 20^th of December 2012. We were supposed to get off work at 5pm but, since there wasn’t much happening, the presidents’ office let us go at 1pm - affording me a wonderful afternoon of relaxation and packing for my vacation. On Sunday the 23^rd my grandfather and I left to go to the airport to pick up one Jason A. Judson J. We arrived at the airport only to discover that the plane had been delayed for just over an hour. Unfortunately online tracking doesn’t work as well in South Africa as it does in the US, so what we checked online left out the part about the plane being delayed. Oh well. I cruised the airport for a while, strolling along, while Grandpa took a much more vigorous stroll outside. Jason finally appeared amid a streaming mass of human beings. We finally got back to the house where Jason promptly sprawled out on the floor after travelling for more than 24 hours.

Swimming With Papa

That afternoon we left for Tulbagh where we would be spending the next few days. Our time at the Farm in Tulbagh was spent in lots of relaxation. We swam in the pool, played some croquet, walked up the road to the top of the mountain, did the whole unwrapping presents thing with Grandpa as Santa Claus and ate, a lot. Unfortunately, our time in Tulbagh had to come to an end on Wednesday, after we spent a few hours in the morning at the Tulbagh waterfall.

Sunny Cape Point

Thursday dawned bright and beautiful. Well, Gordon’s bay wasn’t all that beautiful. However Cape Point was wonderfully beautiful. We spent the day traversing the coast line, from Gordon’s Bay all the way around to Sea Point, Green Point, through Cape Town and back to home. Yes, it was that exciting. Cape point was excellent, even though it was filled with people. We stopped frequently along the coast and needless to say wound up with lots, and lots of photos. We stopped in Hout Bay, just in time to hop onto a boat to see Seal Island. Very excitingly, we had some “high” seas. Ok, they weren’t really what would normally be defined as high seas, but they were quite choppy. It made the voyage quite exciting indeed. We had bought our tickets with a boat that advertised as a “glass bottom” boat. Well, it wasn’t actually glass “bottomed” but, there were glass panels in the back of the boat where you could see down into the water but you couldn’t really see all that much. Especially since they were right behind the propellers where seals probably wouldn’t come anyway. I did see a fish…. anyway, I digress. The day ended happily and we prepared for the next.

The Green Point Stadium

On Friday the plan was to pick up Inese and Ariana at Helderberg College and head into Cape town to Abseil on Table Mountain before hanging out at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront and cruising the ocean on the Jolly Roger Pirate Ship’s Sunset Cruise. Unfortunately the winds that day were strong atop the mountain, so Abseil Africa was closed, and we instead planned to go on Sunday. Once the traffic cleared enough for our car to get out, we headed towards the waterfront with a quick stop by Signal Hill to look out over Green Point. Jason was very excited about being able to take pictures of the Green Point stadium from above. For those who don’t know, the Green Point was one of the stadiums for the World Cup when it was in South Africa.

Swimming with the Fishies...

After having our fill of the sights to be seen from Signal Hill, we journeyed on to the waterfront, where we leisurely made our way through the mall area and headed to Mugg and Bean for lunch. Inese, Jason, and I then traipsed through the Aquarium while Ariana browsed the stores some more. Later, after purchasing supplies for food at the Pick n’ Pay, we sat on a bench on the wharf snacking away before boarding the Jolly Roger Pirate Boat for our Sunset “Cruise”. The sea was once again not as calm as it could have been. We enjoyed riding the pirate ship. Inese and Ariana tried to stay on the ship from their less than perfect seats while Jason and I enjoyed the better seating by the railing.

Baboon at Sir Lowry's Pass Lookout

On Sabbath, Jason, the Grandparents, and I went to the Helderberg College Church before taking a drive east along the coast to see what there was to see. Unfortunately, Sabbath was also a sad day. After living almost 96 years my last remaining great grandparent passed away after declining rapidly for the past few weeks. While expected, it was still sad, but at the same time a relief from the obvious suffering that he was going through.

Sunday was spent partially at the house and partially at the Somerset West Mall where Jason and I walked up and down browsing various stores. On our way to the SW Mall, we took Jason up to the Top of Sir Lowry’s Pass where there is a stunning view of the Cape Town Basin and where he could do some “shopping” with the Curio sellers found at the lookout.

Hangin' with the Cheetahs

On Monday we went to visit the Cheetahs at Paardevlei. The Cheetah Outreach program, which used to be located at Spier, had recently moved to the Paardevlei complex, right near the Somerset West Mall. Grandma, Jason, and I drove around the complex for a while trying to find out where the Cheetah Outreach was. We finally found it and decided that it would have been easier if we had entered at the entrance by the Mall, instead of the entrance by the Strand. Jason and I moseyed around looking at all the animals, most of which were unfortunately napping in their little dens or houses. The Meerkats were out though, and they were SO CUTE! One came right up to the fence and was sniffing at me. He tried to give me a little high five but there was a fence in the way… Anyway, back to Cheetah’s… Jason and I splurged and got tickets to pet the baby Cheetahs. Unfortunately they weren’t baby, baby. They were six months old but still, oh so adorable. There were two of them napping by their handler and we got to go up to them and pet them while they slept. They were SO CUTE!

Jason getting his turn with the petting

After we left the Cheetahs we stopped by the Strand so that Jason and I could browse through the little booths and sellers and try to find some souvenirs. That evening the two of us joined up with Lyndsay and François for a New Year’s Eve concert at Kirstenbosch Gardens in Cape Town. We got so cold that we actually ended up leaving early and missed the real act. We stayed for about two hours picnicking and listened to the first act before we (almost) froze and decided to leave. We arrived back at Lyndsay and François’s house nine minutes before midnight, just in time to go out on the balcony and watch the fireworks shooting off all along the coast from the Strand right around to Cape Point.

NYE Concert at Kirstenbosch Gardens

New Year’s day started with brunch at the Rozons’ before heading back to the Grandparents to get Jason all packed up and ready for his loooooonnnng journey back to Denmark. Fortunately, we went to check him in online, and, not-so-fortunately, found that the airline that he was supposed to use to get from Cape Town to Johannesburg had been liquidated in November and so he had to get a different flight. Nice of them to email and tell us that, really (that was total sarcasm, in case you missed it). We spent the next few ragged minutes finding Jason a flight to Johannesburg so that he wouldn’t miss his connections. We found one and then had to hurriedly leave the house in order to make it to the airport on time. Unfortunately when we got into the Cape Town area on the N2 (the freeway going through town), we found the traffic at almost a standstill. We were getting quite frantic about making it to the airport on time before we found the reason for the hold up. The area of Khayelitsha right next to the freeway, the largest Shantytown in Africa according to Wikipedia, had burned to the ground. It was actually quite a sad sight. Luckily for us, though I feel bad saying that we were lucky after seeing those homes burned down, we made it to the airport with only ten minutes until the check in counters for Jason’s flight closed… an experience we do not wish to repeat.

Since dropping Jason off at the airport, my vacation has been spent sleeping, studying, and watching TV. I go back to work next week and do quite look forward to being productive again.