some days it pays to be slow

So it was Saturday and since I have switched to working out in the mornings, it was time to sleep in.  Consequently, we got a late start to our day.  I know, quite shocking! (for those of you who don't know us well, we are late on a legendary scale...)  First order of business was to get the Boo a haircut.  Once that was accomplished it was time to eat.  We ended up at the Millstone, the cafe with the awesome treehouse we spoke of in a previous post.  It also had this very cool swing and lots of other great outdoor places to play.  Consequently, brunch went on for hours, which suited us just fine.

Since it was a gorgeous day with little to no wind, we thought a sojourn to the beach would work just fine.  By now it's late in the afternoon and the Boo didn't get a ton of sleep the night before.  He passes out in the car as we are trying to figure out which beach to go to.  Since we want him to nap a bit we decide a beach a bit further away would be a good idea giving the Boo plenty of time to sleep in transit, plus we knew our friends Bruno and Antoine were at Boulders Beach checking out the penguins.

When we were at Boulders last weekend we had lamely forgotten to bring our beach gear.  Now we may be slow but we do learn, so we figured we could do Boulders Beach round 2, only this time we were ready to swim and play.  So off we went to Boulders.

And this is why being slow pays off - not only were the crowds on their way home by the time we got there but large parts of the beach were now in shade AND as the people left and the sun dipped, the critters came out.

This curious penguin was just a meter or two from our beach towel and kept on eye on us for quite a while.  Eventually, he decided that things were safe and took a stroll across the beach.  The Boo gave chase though we did explain the difference between "watching" and "harassing" the penguin, and he backed off a bit.

As the penguins kept criss-crossing the beach singly and in pairs, we were visited by a small family of Eqyptian geese, a dassie and a large-spotted genet.

Finally, as sunset neared we thought it best to pack up and find a restaurant to enjoy the last rays of the day.  On our way out of Boulders Beach, we caught a couple of penguins making a break for it.

They hopped down to the asphalt and toddled off up the hill and away from the beach together, two for the road ;)

We headed back up the road a bit to Kalk Bay and our current favorite seaside restaurant the Brass Bell.  Where we enjoyed the sunset and I finally remembered to photograph the yummy, and beautifully presented, Cape Malay Curry (only this time Tim ordered it with chicken instead of the butternut and lentil I had previously.)

Love it when a full day at the beach can start at 4pm!

Happy Birthday, Grandma Ellen!!

The Boo would like to wish his Grandma Ellen a very fun and festive Happy Birthday!!

Grandma Ellen (Tim's mom) is one of the inspirations for this blog as well as one of the Boo's most favorite people.  She is an accomplished watercolorist, makes the coolest handmade books and cards, and has one very sweet dog, Trevor.  The Boo loves to visit Grandma Ellen to play at her house with her supercool vintage toys (Fisher-Price circa 1970's - woo hoo!).  He also likes to iChat with her and keep her up to date on his very busy life.

Below is a picture of the Boo with his Grandma Ellen.  She helped him celebrate his 4th birthday this year in Arizona!

Happy Birthday, Grandma Ellen!

about those baboons...

So to continue from the penguins...a little later that day, after our lovely lunch...we arrived in the parking area for Cape Point.

We wanted to go the lighthouse atop Cape Point, way up here:

But we have a 4.5 year old who has decided he's not much for walking.  Fortunately for us, we could take the Flying Dutchman funicular to the top.  Woo hoo!  The Boo loves anything related to a railway and the views going up were spectacular:
I was completely captivated by this lovely beach between Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope:


The view from the lighthouse to Cape Point made you feel as if you were at the end of the world.


Eventually, we went back down and headed to the Cape of Good Hope.  On the road we met up with a resident troupe of baboons, who we'll hear more from a bit later.  We also made the acquaintance of a young ostrich.




When we finally made it to the Cape of Good Hope (we were slow not because the distances were far, but because the wildlife was so fascinating...), the Boo loved practicing his rockhopper skills while telling the photographer (aka me) what to do and where to go ;)




We eventually tore ourselves from the view, chased the Boo off the rocks and reluctantly got back in the car to go home.  As we passed the now closed Buffelsfontein Visitor Centre, we met back up with our troupe of baboons.  The alpha male, who is quite intimidating and not to be trifled with (actually, no one should let their guard down around baboons and all of our photos were taken from the car), was no where in sight, but the females and younger baboons were grooming and playing on the grounds of the Centre.


We then got a complete acrobatic show courtesy of the younger members of the troupe.  They took over the deeply slanted roof of one of the out-buildings of the Visitor Centre and played what appeared to be the baboon version of King of the Hill.  As each young'un ascended the roof, the others already there would try to knock him off.  They sometimes succeeded and the newcomer would fall to the ground, bounce (literally!), shake himself off and head back up.  We watched this cycle over and over with a few variations for about 20+ minutes.









Oo-de-lally, Oo-de-lally
Golly, what a day!

and now for something completely different

Above photo - Guinea fowl courtesy of Mangoverde.  Haven't seen any turkeys here in South Africa but the guinea fowl are quite plentiful.


About that Thanksgiving Day...

I was trading facebook wall posts with my best friend who was getting all excited about Thanksgiving.  She calls herself the black Martha Stewart, so I just usually let her have at it.  But, being the contrarian that I can be, I mentioned that I was so happy to not have to deal with American Thanksgiving, indicating it was my least favorite holiday.  She came right back at me, all aghast.  I chuckled, because of course I was primarily going for just that reaction.

But then I got to thinking, did I really hate Thanksgiving?  Shouldn't I be happy about an actual American holiday that has very little to do with selling greeting cards and much to do with counting your blessings.  Once I thought about my actual Thanksgiving experience, I realized that Thanksgiving has treated me well, primarily because my friends always took such good care of me on Thanksgiving Day (and I never had to do all the cooking...).

So some Thanksgivings for which I'm very thankful:

2008 - pretty much any Thanksgiving at Julia and Chris' house, they always have a great guest list, Chris is an awesome cook, and between Julia and the critters and the general merriment in the Juliaverse (oh, and the Boo would say their awesome stash of toys), this is always a good time.

2007 - Thanksgiving on my own in NYC - Tim took the Boo to see his mom in Minnesota and I took off to NYC for time to myself and to get a tattoo from a particular tattoo artist.  Vanessa and Rob were in Virginia, but let me have their awesome apartment in Brooklyn to myself.  I got to spend much time with my girl, Isabelle.  Nice little break from parenthood.

2005 - Thanksgiving at Christian and Shari's - Christian is another amazing cook, Shari is always welcoming, and this was where the Boo had his first solid food (or the first solid food he didn't spit back in my face) - Groppi's amazing, and amazingly rich, mushroom soup. 

2004 - Thanksgiving at Julia and Chris' - this was when Tim and I first announced our pregnancy to everyone.  I felt so odd doing that as I had spent my entire adult life trying to not be pregnant that when it happened unexpectedly after our wedding I was just so shocked.  I kind of felt like I had gotten caught doing something I wasn't supposed to do.  Everybody was so supportive that it helped Tim and I get much more comfortable with the wonderful surprise that was the Boo.

2002 - Thanksgiving at the Ranch (off the Turquoise Trail between Santa Fe and ABQ) - 11 people, 6 dogs, the high New Mexico desert in crisp late Fall, the Christmas lights getting turned on in the main plaza in Santa Fe, thank you, Julia, for inviting us...that trip is still remembered as a little slice of heaven.

2001 - Thanksgiving at Julia's old house - my dearly departed dog Dublin, hated being in the house, so stood just outside the front door and watched the rest of us eat our meal.  Nobody complained about the door being open to the cold night so my sweet rescue dog with quite a few issues could be more comfortable.  Love my dog-people friends.

1999 - Thanksgiving at Vanessa and Rob's place in Park Slope, Brooklyn - Vanessa and Rob are the champs at pulling off a great dinner party.  I already had my ticket to leave New York, but so enjoyed this time with my good friends.

1998 - Thanksgiving in Manhattan by myself - I had only just moved in to my apartment on the Upper East Side in October, and this was a time to finally unpack the last of the boxes and get settled without having to be anywhere else.  I took long walks around Manhattan on my own and so enjoyed getting to know my new city.  Still one of my favorite places to just walk and walk.

1997 - Thanksgiving in Bangkok - my Thai bosses, trying to be culturally attuned, took me and my American co-worker to one of the high end hotels for a Thanksgiving buffet to end all buffets.  They were a bit perturbed when my co-worker and I shunned the turkey and stuffing and headed straight for the plates upon plates of fresh sashimi and sushi.

1994 - Thanksgiving in NYC - I was living in DC, Isabelle, my roommate from Prague, was (and still is) living in NYC.  I took the bus up to meet her and got more of a taste for Manhattan, a town that initially intimidated me, but I now love.

1993 - Thanksgiving in Waynesboro, VA - my new friend, Erik, took me home to his family for Thanksgiving.  Erik is the middle of 5 boys and his older brothers had not settled down with their wives and families yet, so his mother seemed quite happy to have a girl in the house.  I was at loose ends in Washington, DC, having just started my first job after college and was so happy to be included in somebody's celebrations.  Erik, babe, I know you're busy, but I miss you!

1991 - Thanksgiving in Prague - 2 of the guys on our Study Abroad program in Prague in the Fall of 1991, somehow, some way, managed to track down 2 large turkeys (pretty challenging for Prague in 1991) and cook them all day in the funky ovens in our common kitchen at Kajetanka (even more challenging as these ovens were not familiar with the concept of steady heat.)  I heard one of them had been on the phone throughout the day with his mom getting pointers (again, not easy in Prague 1991) on the meal.  The rest of us got handwritten invitations asking us to show up for dinner, dress nicely, and bring wine.  My photo album detailing this amazing meal and party is in Tucson, but I recently shared it with a friend from the program who passed through Tucson right before we left, so the images are fresh in my mind.  We had an incredible time up high in that Kajetanka kitchen, enjoying each other,  good food and lots of Moravian wine (we had more empty wine bottles after the show then we had people in attendance...).  Being 21 in Prague right after the Velvet Revolution was a special time and place that no longer exists, but I am so thankful to have been a part of it.

Anyways, I could go on, but I am sure the point has been made.  Thanksgiving has been exceedingly good to me because of the amazing friends I have in my life and I need to be little more mindful of how good I have it.  Thank you, friends, glad you're here!

And to those who may be worried that I have given my family short shift, my mom was a trauma nurse for 40 years and often worked the Thursday of the Thanksgiving holiday (time and half, baby!).  Consequently, I typically celebrated Thanksgiving with my family on the Friday, assuming I was in town.  So best of both worlds.  I am a lucky girl!  Love you, mom!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

before we get to the baboons

I'm a bit short on time today, but wanted to get a few more pictures up.  Above is the view from the terrace of Boulders Beach Restaurant.  The restaurant (and there is a lodge too) is located just above the parking area for Boulders Beach, home to our penguins from yesterday's post.

Tim commented that he is fast becoming accustomed to eating lunch by the beach and I wholeheartedly agree.  This is one of our favorite things about the Cape, gorgeous places to eat and drink are always close at hand and they are often quite a good value, especially considering the high quality of the food.

I had the open-faced vegetarian sandwich.  What you can't see in the picture is the truly yummy pesto that anchored the vegetables to the bread.  Delicious!  Tim enjoyed his antipasto plate and a cold beer and the Boo...well the Boo was only interested in chips (french fries) but at least they came from a less expensive kiddie menu.

penguins, baboons, and ostriches, oh my!

Well, can't believe we really live here.  So Saturday was another mind-blowing day.  We took 269 images with the big camera just to give you an indication of all the eye candy South Africa offered up to us.  Amazing!

I'll have to make multiple postings in order to really do our day justice.  But let's start with the penguins.  There is a colony of African Penguins (aka Jackass Penguins, due to the braying sound they make) on Boulders Beach just south of Simon's Town on the eastern shore of the Cape Peninsula.  This is just a little further down the road then our previous foray in to Kalk Bay.

The colony only established itself in the 1980's once the fish stocks were able to recover somewhat from the vast overfishing that occurred up through the 1970's.  The penguins took over the beach but started making a nuisance of themselves by showing up in people's gardens.  So the South African National Parks System (or it's predecessor at the time) made Boulders Beach a national park. They put up "penguin fence" to contain the colony and allow people to view and experience the penguins without tramping over their nests or putting the penguins (or the people...) at physical risk.  There are boardwalks that wind through the thickets that border the beach and jut out over the sand to provide viewing points for the beach itself.  The penguins seem completely unfazed by all the human attention they receive and just go about their business as usual, which is fascinating to watch.

Some of our favorite penguins but first a warning:









It was quite common to see two penguins cuddled up together as they mate for life.  If they are nesting on their own they'll seek out the shelter of the dense thicket and bushes.  Otherwise they build nests in the sand and group together for security.

Their interactions could be quite hilarious.  In the photo of the the penguins in the sand nest, the one penguin that you can barely see because he's so far in the nest is actually digging the sand and flipping it up and out of the nest.  The sand was hitting the penguin on the far left of the photo full on in the face and you could just see him getting more and more irritated, until he finally moved out of the line of fire.


That security thing is key as Tim spotted this mongoose in the grass not far from the above nests.  The mongoose is pretty well camouflaged but you should be able to see his tail in the center of the photo.  For whatever reason, he didn't make a move on the penguins while we were watching.


More shots of life on the beach, penguin-style.  In the first you can see some penguins are molting. This is a 5-6 week long process that they do entirely on land, meaning they don't eat during that time.  The brown penguins are under 2 years of age and haven't had their first molt yet.  You can see the boulders that give the beach it's name and provide some shelter and security for the penguins.




We leave you with a few parting shots.  First of the Boo showing off his "penguin egg." You put the penguin egg in water and after a while it hatches a baby penguin, leave the baby penguin in the water and it continues to grow.  This process fascinated the Boo for the rest of the weekend!

The Boo got a huge kick out of the boardwalks through the thickets that brought us up close and personal to the penguins.  He loved spotting the penguins in the bushes and even found one right under the steps of the boardwalk that we would have completely missed.  He had less patience for the hanging out over the beach and watching the colony as a whole.  But the whole day made a big impression.  He kept asking to go back to the "Wild."






Watch for our next post for babboons and ostriches and 360 degree views.

playing hooky

So, the Boo loves his new preschool, but in some respects he's very much my child, i.e. he can't stand going to the same place day after day and needs regular breaks from the schedule.  Yesterday he asked to stay home and "do something fun" with me.  "Do something fun" is Boo-speak for get out of the house.  So what to do with the Boo?

There is wonderful blog Tim and I follow - Cape Town Daily Photo - and they recently posted about water taxi rides in the canals that connect to the Victoria and Albert Waterfront.  Since the Boo loves taxis and the Boo loves boats, I figured a little water taxi action might be just the mommy-and-me activity we were looking for.  So off we went.

It took a little maneuvering, but eventually we tracked down the water taxi going through the lock (there's no set schedule, but if you talk to the right person near the water route they can call one for you - good to know!) .  He made a special stop to pick up the Boo and I.  We then traveled through the canal to the Cape Town International Conference Center and back through the water lock and in to the Alfred and then Victoria basins of the harbour.  Paul at Cape Town Daily Photo has a link to the route plotted on Google Maps.



Above is the view of the high-priced real estate and accommodations to be found along the canal.  Below is the canal lock from the top (canal elevation) to the bottom (harbour elevation).



The Boo seemed to really enjoy the ride and got a kick out of all the seabirds along the route, many with nests and eggs in those nests.  Our taxi returned us to the Waterfront proper (a place we seem to constantly circle back to, we've been there 7 or 8 times since landing in Cape Town) where we were greeted by a very friendly seal (umm...I was a bit slow on the camera draw to capture that, but the Boo loved it!)



The Boo then hit me up for ice cream as we enjoyed the comings and goings on the Waterfront.  A successful mommy-and-Boo outing!

water, water, everywhere part 2

So after posting yesterday about the ocean views from the highways, I thought I would give you a better visual.

This was taken while we were bombing down the M3.  Tim was driving, the Boo was asleep on my left shoulder and I just stuck our little pocket camera out the window and snapped with my right hand.  So not the most technically gifted shot, but this is very typical of the view up and down the M3.


Same MO as above, only didn't have the window rolled down on this one so you can see some of the rain smudges.  Taken on Camps Bay Road.  Still less then 30 minutes from our house.

Taken from the Sea Point Promenade, only 20 minutes from home.  We're out of the car now (hence the horizon is level) and on foot in search of La Vie Cafe - great vibe-y bar/cafe with wood-fired pizzas, interesting cocktail menu and an attractive crowd.  The Boo loved the milkshake made just for him.