The Cape of Good Hope!

Hello again, friends! Here's my second blog installment of our visit to South Africa! If you missed the last one, CLICK HERE and go check it out!

I am just about ready to put into words our visit to Bridges Academy and the Townships (and it's only taken me 8 days to sort them out!), so be sure to check back here this weekend for that one. Until that one is up, though, here are my favorite moments from our weekend stay at the Cape of Good Hope!

The Beach at Muizenberg with the Cape Peninsula spread out behind it.

The famous beach huts at Muizenberg behind Steph and her awesome roommate, Katie. I wish I had noticed when I took it that Katie was looking down. C'est la vie!

A delicious lunch at this super bohemian restaurant in Kalk Bay, Cape to Cuba. Yes, that is the image of Che Guevara on the glass doors. Which reminds me - have you ever seen The Motorcycle Diaries?

L to R: Steph, me, Katie after our yummy Cuban lunch!

Boulder's Beach in Simon's Town!

Boulders Beach is a must visit at the Cape because of the PENGUINS that live there!

Yep - they play at the beach all day and come up into the trees to sleep in their little homes at night (I'm not kidding, folks!).

We spent the night in Simon's Town at a CHARMING Guest House called the Cheriton B&B. We all wished that we could stay for several days longer. And with a view like this, who wouldn't?

Jason and I on the beach at Boulders.

Katie and Steph on the Cape Peninsula in the Cape of Good Hope National Park.

Steph and I on the Cape Peninsula. Love the woman in the background - or is that a man?

Look at how spectacular this is over looking the Cape and the Indian Ocean! Did I mention that one side of the Peninsula is the Indian Ocean and the other is the Atlantic? They meet at the Cape of Good Hope which was once called the "Cape of Storms".

I OBVIOUSLY missed my calling. Cover of Vogue, here I come! (Note the extreme sarcasm.)

Steph's car, Little Blue, has got some serious junk in her trunk. I love that Katie is in there!

We journeyed down to the water from the cliffs and saw some Baboons on the way (YES - Wild ones with blue butts and all! I was so excited!). Jason was doing some serious shooting out here.

Steph and Katie enjoying the sun and the tide pools.

Have you ever seen WILD ostriches before? We have. And yes we were that close, probably not the safest. We also saw wildebeest and springbok and all number of antelope-y creatures, but sadly, no zebras.

This was the photo I was able to get of Jason and I at the Cape of Good Hope. Fortunately, Steph has a much nicer one on HER camera.

Where's Jason? It's just like "Where's Waldo?", but with my husband instead. And this is one of the reasons I love him. :)

Yes, my feet have set foot on the Cape of Good Hope. Have yours? They SHOULD!

Steph and Katie enjoying the Cape.

I love this photo of Steph and I at the Cape of Good Hope. :) It's almost as cool as our photo on Camels in front of the pyramids. Well, okay, not really, but close...

View of the Atlantic Side of the Cape. Promise me you'll go there someday. Promise!

So that's our weekend on the Cape! We brought back a lot of photos, a few souvenirs, some great memories and a rockin' sunburn - I'm still peeling a bit. (Mom - I was wearing SPF 55, slathered thickly on, and I still got burned - the African sun is INTENSE!) Plus, we drank a LOT of South African wine (all whites, nicely chilled - it was too hot for reds). Thank you, Steph and Katie for spending the weekend with us!

Love from Cape Town

Okay... I confess... we've been back from South Africa for four days (this is day five), and I'm only just starting to THINK about blogging. I've been feeling guilty that there hasn't been a blog yet, but I haven't been able to find the right words. In fact, I've only just started to go through my pictures from our trip, and it made me start to cry. Cry good or cry bad? Both. Because the fact is, like my visit to Egypt four years ago, I'm still processing it all. I had such an amazing time - but I saw some things that will be forever imprinted on my heart and my mind. And I'm not sure that I'm quite ready to talk about them yet. Not just yet.

So, for this post, I'll keep it light. For those of you who are wondering what we were doing in South Africa, here's a quick recap: My dear friend Steph is a teacher, and for the past four years she's been teaching in Africa. The first three were at the American High School in Egypt (for the children of diplomats and wealthy Egyptians), the last year has been at Bridges Academy outside of Cape Town. Bridges Academy is a boarding school for Orphans and Vulnerable Children out of the Townships in Cape Town, where all of the students accepted are provided a quality education in a safe, beautiful location, all free to them. And in the years since Bridges Academy opened, they've have a 100% graduation (matriculation) rate. That's unheard of! It's an amazing school, and Bridges of Hope is an incredible organization - as soon as I have the words to really tell you about our experience with the school and their organization, I will. In the meantime, however, here are some of my favorite photos from our first weekend in the Western Cape.

Views of the back of Table Mountain from the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden.

Views of Cape Town from Kirstenbosch.

Jason doing his thing at the V&A Waterfront. To see his final images, click here.

Steph and I encounter a giant beaded Elephant at the V&A Waterfront.

South Africans for some reason have a particular interest in Native Americans (whom they call the "Red Man" - I'm not kidding folks) and the American West. In fact there's a restaurant chain with TONS of locations that's ALWAYS busy called SPUR - and it's "Red Man" and American West themed.

We enjoyed a Braai (barbecue) and a night in Camps Bay at Steph's friend Sara's house. We woke to storm clouds that would impede our plans to go to the top of Table Mountain, but here's the view of Camps Bay from Sara's apartment.

In the Nemo tank at the Two Oceans Aquarium.

Some of the many colorful houses in Cape Town's Bo Kaap neighborhood.

Steph and Sara in Hout Bay.

Tug Boats in Hout Bay.

Yachts in Hout Bay.

At a vineyard outside of Paarl (very close to Steph's house) where we went to do some wine tasting. If you look carefully, the garden area surrounding the Scarecrow is planted to look like the South African flag.

Ever since I started doing all the gardening at the ranch, I've become very observant as to how and what others plant. I loved this combo of Dwarf sunflowers and Dahlia-blossomed Zinnias.

Jason and I before wine tasting at Fairview with the wine country of Paarl and Franschoek laid out behind us. One of the Fairview wines, Goats do Roam can be purchased in the States at Trader Joes if you're interested in a little taste of South Africa!

At Fairview, where they make Goats do Roam, they have (fittingly) Goats. This one was super hungry and literally dove right in!

So that's the recap of our first weekend in South Africa. What I didn't post about was our Friday visit to the Lion Rescue right near Steph's house (incidentally, did I mention that Steph lives in a house on a Wine Farm?!). That's because I forgot my camera when we went there (I know... lame...), but fortunately for you, Jason created an entire post about it! So, go check it out and check back here soon for another installment of our South African adventures!

Thankful in Atlanta

I love the movie Sleepless in Seattle. I haven't seen it in forever, but I think I need to rectify that soon. Anyhow, if I was calling in to a radio show right now, I'd be calling myself, "Thankful in Atlanta". For two reasons - one, I'm currently in Atlanta (I know... it's impossible to keep up with our geographic location); two, I have so much to be thankful for.

As we have been getting ready to fly to South Africa tomorrow, I was thinking that I needed to post another blog before we go. Then, I saw my friend Charley's post on being thankful, and decided that was perfect. After all, we really could all use to spend some time verbalizing (or at least writing down) the things we're thankful for. We shouldn't limit it to a holiday!

With that said, here's a list of some of the things that I'm grateful for this week:

-The hospitality of Tommy, Deborah, Lara and Daniel who have been taking great care of us and letting us bum around their house here in Atlanta. We've been having an AMAZING time!
-The opportunity to have five months of "vacation", and our amazing families for helping us make the most of our time!
-Two round-trip tickets to Cape Town, South Africa!
-Great conversations with Mom, Kelli and Solange.
-Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. It has changed our financial lives, and strengthened our marriage. Go check it out!
-A husband who loves me no matter what, and who thinks I'm beautiful (inside and out) when I feel like I'm at my ugliest.

We'll be in Cape Town South Africa at Bridges of Hope through the end of the month. If I can blog, I will, but if I don't get a chance, rest assured that I WILL be taking photos on this journey, and expect some posts that I'm super excited about when we return!

Lara and I watch the boys having redneck moments from the back of Daniel's truck!

Cruisin' 2012!

We're back from our New Year's cruise! Aside from some serious rain in Roatan, the weather was beautiful and we ALL had a really great time!

We were off celebrating Jason's Aunt Irene's 80th birthday, and it was truly a family affair! There were ten of us who went, so let me show you the cast of characters (all photos are from Irene's birthday dinner!):

My brother in law, Rob, and Aunt Irene.

Jason's parents Bob and Catherine.

Catherine's best friend, Aunt Deborah, and her son (and Jason's cousin), Daniel.

Aunt Irene and Jason's G'ma Joyce.

Aunt Irene and her niece, Pam.

Jason and I.

Now that you've seen the cast of characters, let me recap our trip for you! As I said before, we had a BLAST on this trip. I do, however, have a confession to make. Neither Jason OR I took photos on this trip. Seriously. The family photos above are the limit of photos that were taken by us, and all were on Jason's camera. After that, I'm not really sure what came over us - we just didn't pull the cameras out. Which is crazy because, well, it was pretty freaking spectacular. Thanks to Catherine and Pam, though, we do have photos from the whole trip, so I'll try to credit them appropriately as I use their photos. Okay. Ready? Set? GO!

Roatan, Honduras
After a day at sea, we arrived at the Island of Roatan, in Honduras. Jason and I were supposed to dive here, and were SEVERELY disappointed when we got out on the dock and our dive trip was cancelled. It started pouring rain and never let up, so in reality we got lucky. The water visibility from the storm would have been terrible and I probably would have been throwing up on the dive boat from rough seas. Because our trip was cancelled, we were given a full refund by the ship and were able to go on a much better dive later in the trip. We did get a taxi ride around the island during the rain storm, and did some shopping far away from the ship. Since the reefs at Roatan are considered some of the most spectacular in the world, we'll be planning a trip back there to dive in the next year or two. Hopefully with better weather!

Stormy Roatan. Photo by Catherine.

Roatan from the ship. Photo by Pam.

Belize City, Belize
The sky was clear and the North Winds were a-blowing as we arrived in Belize City. But the water was clear, the visibility was good, and Jason and I were determined to do some diving on the reef in Belize. Interestingly, the same reef system stretches from Roatan to Belize to Mexico in case you were unaware! So we tendered into Belize City and went on the hunt for a dive shop that would take us out on the reef in Belize. We found one! The seas were rough, and I ended up chumming the waters before the end of the day, but the diving was spectacular, and we had lunch (beans and rice, stew chicken and plantains) on a deserted strip of sand about 100 feet long and 20 feet wide. Very Pirates of the Caribbean, surrounded by incredible turquoise waters! The reef was the most spectacular I've seen, and the sealife was extremely varied. Despite my stomach pyrotechnics, I believe that Belize was my favorite stop on our cruise, and I know that Jason would agree.

Tendering to Belize City. Photo by Pam.

Belize City harbor. Photo by Pam.

See the cruise ship in the distance? Photo by Catherine.

Costa Maya, Mexico
Costa Maya was our (meaning the whole family - not ours personally) super shopping day, and that meant that Jason and I spent a lot of time translating and haggling for prices. Basically, I translated and Jason haggled, although Jason's understanding of spoken Spanish is really very good. And what trip to Mexico is complete without a visit to Senor Frogs? (I still haven't figured out how to add accent markings and ~ over my n's in html.... sorry...) Another super fun day!

Costa Maya from our ship, the Norwegian Star. Photo by Catherine.

Jason and Daniel making themselves look as tall as possible. Not that they need any help! Photo by Catherine.

Daniel and Jason! Photo by Catherine.

Jason shows off his vaquero skills learned in Wyoming. Photo by Catherine.

Rob cops a feel. Photo by Catherine.

Rob continues to get friendly with the local art installation. Photo by Catherine.

Things can get crazy at Senor Frogs... Photo by our waiter.

Translation: "After six shots/drinks, there are no ugly women." Photo by Catherine.

I love this photo of Catherine and Deborah. We all were given name tags by a waiter. Catherine is "The Boss" and Deborah's says, "I (heart) my truck." The rest of ours probably shouldn't be repeated here, but they were funny! Photo by Yours Truly on Catherine's camera.

Back on board, Rob and I did some SERIOUS dancing (and rum punch drinking) as we sailed away from Costa Maya. Photo by Catherine.

Cozumel, Mexico There was more serious shopping to be done in Cozumel, by everyone but us. So Jason and I continued our translating/bartering shtick, and everyone walked away happy! Towards the end of our day, we found an AWESOME restaurant to sit and have drinks and some SERIOUS, KILLER chips, salsa and guacamole. There's nothing quite so good as the authentic thing, and I could have good chips/salsa/guac as a meal EVERY DAY. Seriously.

Cozumel from the ship. Photo by Catherine.

Deborah's new boots! Photo by Catherine.

One of Daniel's two pairs of new boots. Photo by Catherine.

I just LOVED these "bar stools". Photo by Catherine.

Rob and I take our turn on the barstools. Photo by Pam.

Bob, Catherine, Rob and Irene wait patiently in the boot store! Photo by Pam.

Irene and G'ma in front of the Norwegian Star. Photo by Pam.

Bob and I are so excited for Chips/Salsa/Guac! Photo by Catherine.

At dinner that night, sailing away from Cozumel. Photo by Pam.

Wrapping it up We had a seriously AMAZING time. Played lots of Dominoes, watched a lot of football (GO BLUE!) and enjoyed each other's company. What a great way to celebrate Irene! SO.... HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY, AUNT IRENE!!!!!!!!