save a frog, save yourself

As I've mentioned before, the Boo, like his mother, is not real thrilled to do the same thing everyday no matter how much he enjoys it. Even though he loves his preschool, he occasionally needs a mid-week break. On Tuesday this week, I came home from my morning workout ready to rush him off to school, but instead of jumping in the car, he  asked to stay home and play with me. Knowing full well the time is fast approaching when he won't want to hang out with me and since I had no set appointments for the day, I figured we could get out and about and have a little fun. 

The Boo and I made a deal (if you know the Boo, you know he arranges his life via "deals"). If he would come with me and not fuss while I took my defective laptop to the iStore (SA version of the Apple Store) to get it serviced, then I would take him to the Two Oceans Aquarium (conveniently located at the Waterfront just a few blocks from the iStore) for some fishy fun. The Boo said "deal" and we were off. The Boo was on his best behavior and the iStore was remarkably efficient, so with a quick stop for frozen yogurt we were soon on our way to the aquarium. My mom and Aunt Sharon had given us some money for Christmas, so we splurged and purchased memberships for each of us so that we could enjoy the aquarium at our leisure throughout the year.  Thanks Mom and Auntie Sharon!!

 

The Two Oceans Aquarium is one of the cooler aquariums I've been to. It has a kelp forest that has such realistic wave action that it makes me almost seasick upon first viewing, but eventually I get caught up in the hypnotic movements just as I do with real waves at the beach. The wave action is vital to keeping the kelp alive, so a healthy captive kelp forest is no mean feat (and there are only 2 kelp forest exhibits in the world). Kelp forests are common along the coast of the Cape peninsula and it is cool to get the underwater perspective here without freezing your butt off in the cold Atlantic.

 The "Two Oceans" theme refers to South Africa's unique coastal geography where the cold Atlantic Ocean meets the warm Indian Ocean. Since the water temperature, and therefore the aquatic life, varies so greatly between the oceans the various exhibits are separated accordingly. The Boo is a big fan of what he calls the "Nemo tank" in the Indian Ocean area:

 

There is a large predator exhibit with ragged-tooth sharks, rays, turtles and other aquatic predators. The first time we visited the aquarium, a couple of months ago, we got to see the sharks being handfed by divers. This was rather entertaining as the loggerhead turtle kept sneaking up on the divers, giving them a bit of nudge, trying to snag some of the sharks' food. This visit, we arrived just in time to see the general feed. Even the rambunctious Boo sat still long enough to see these normally slow-moving big fish display some serious speed when zeroing in on dinner.

 

As with so many of our experiences here in South Africa, the aquarium was quite kid-centric. There was an entire floor devoted to kids with craft tables, play areas, a puppet theatre AND a small snack bar with juice boxes for the munchkins and cappuccino for the parental crowd. Additionally, the stairway down to the kid floor was one big play structure. There's an additional play area in the main cafe too. The Boo is a toy and play aficionado and ate up these areas with a spoon.

 

The aquarium eventually closed for the day but by this time the Boo and I had moved out on to the deck of the cafe overlooking some of the docks. Just below us there were several dozen South African fur seals (aka Cape fur seals) basking in the sun with occasional barks, grunts and downright aggressive growls when passing seals got a bit too close. This is one of the great pleasures of life in South Africa, being able to plop yourself down and just observe wild animals in their "natural" habitat (to the extent that docks in the Victoria and Alfred basin of the Waterfront are "natural") for as long as they care to put up with you.

 The Boo showed very little patience with this activity when we first arrived almost three months ago, but since then we've had enough wildlife encounters that he is starting to get as fascinated with animal behavior as his parents. So we found a warm vantage point on the dock above the seals and settled in for a good hour of observation alternating between enjoying the show and debating the whys and hows of certain behavior. There was a mother seal with at least half a dozen pups who cuddled together with her on top:

 

The seal in the bottom of the above photo has piece of plastic or twine caught around his neck resulting in the conspicuous line in his fur. Of the 20+ seals we observed during this time at least 4 had similar attachments. These "nooses" are the result of litter, specifically packaging materials, washing in to the sea. The assistant director of the aquarium goes in to the water every day to cut the "nooses" off as many seals as possible, but it's a delicate process as these are large wild animals not interested in sitting still for the procedure. Without removal, the material becomes embedded in the seal's skin leading to an open wound that often gets infected and leads to an early death. It's a stark reminder of how human pollution and behavior (the aquarium is trying to educate the public to make sure they cut the ties on packaging material to limit the potential threats) have such negative impacts on the wild animals with whom we share the planet (and is all this packaging truly necessary?)

 OK, off the soapbox and back to animal behavior....the seals on the deck seemed to get a bit ornery when a newcomer would get too close. This larger seal in the photo below seemed to actively goad the mother of the pups, though did not appear to be threatening the pups directly. The mom didn't seem too concerned with his intentions but eventually roused herself enough to tell him to get lost in no uncertain terms:

 

When they weren't jawing at each other, the seals seemed quite enthralled by the sun:

South Africa definitely has a way with water!

a playground with Guinness on tap

Our kinda/sorta plan (our plans are always up for debate and Tim's brain generates more options then decisions, so we never know exactly what we are up to until it's already mostly complete) for today was to head out somewhere for lunch and then maybe hit the beach.  So when we were debating our lunch options the Boo piped in that he wanted to go to "that place we were at with those people and their mother."  Decoding the Boo-speak, we figured out he was referring to our last trip to Forries with Benne and Robin ("those people" ;) and Benne's mom, Janke, visiting from Holland.  Since Forries is one of our favorite pubs, who were we to deny the wishes of the 4-year old.

Forries, aka Forester's Arms, is an English-style pub that has been around since the late 1800's.  It has a wonderful, leafy beer garden and an entire section of it is given over to a playground and family area.  The Boo has always found cool kids to hang with here and the families attached to those kids have invariably been quite friendly.  Forries is about 5 minutes away and has Guinness on tap for about 20R (<$3).   The menu is extensive, the service is usually quite attentive (except when a big cricket match has just ended down the road in Newlands), and there is almost always a cricket or rugby game broadcast inside.  For those of you who know Tim, I think I just described his equivalent of nirvana!

We got there around 1:30 or so.  At 7pm our server, an engaging Zimbabwean, was asking us to pay up so that he could end his shift.  So much for the beach...

But it was a perfect afternoon outside under the trees, we chatted with each other, with those at the tables around us, with our friend Bruno when he showed up about 2/3 of the way in to our stay.  The Boo climbed, swung, twirled, slid and dug with a revolving cast of other kids for a solid 5 hours. I discovered a lovely drink called the rock shandy (the South African version is soda water, lemonade and a dash of Angostura bitters, delish!!) that kept me hydrated as I morphed in to the designated driver for the afternoon. We had nothing we had to do nor any place we had to be...so very relaxing...

I think all playgrounds should come with table service...and Guinness on tap!

the scenic route

The weekend before Christmas we took the above road - Chapman's Peak Drive - to get to the below beach - Nordhoek.


I can't really explain in words what great rejuvenation I am gaining from being so near to so much ocean.  Due to the (amazing!!) geography of the peninsula, this beach is basically a wind funnel and consequently the sand is powdery soft.


At one point I just sank down in to that velvety sand and zoned out staring at the waves.  I actually achieved a state of calmness that I have only ever approached through guided meditation.  I was so zeroed in to my own consciousness that I was completely unaware of anything or anyone around me except the movement of the waves.

Fortunately, Tim was on the ball enough to keep a close eye on the Boo as they navigated the rocks, the tide pools, and the pounding surf.




Happy day...

Commitment

I've been thinking about you often but haven't had the ability to sit still long enough, nor a consistently reliable internet connection, to get a post up. Now that it's 2010 things will change for the positive.  I'm committing to at least one post a week and may even be able to cajole my fellow blogger to contribute a few items that may be of interest to all.  We'll see... until then to catch you up:

Christmas in Cape Town

We spent the day on the beach at Camps Bay.


It was fun and quite relaxing.  We found the lead up to the Christmas holiday to be pretty low key even though all the stores were decked out with decorations to lure shoppers.  We never felt the frenzy that can hit in the U.S. on those last few days leading up to Christmas and we even spent part of Christmas Eve at the Waterfront which includes a large mall.  There were plenty of people out and about but it wasn't hectic and we bounced from pub to ice cream to pub without tripping over anyone or getting trampled. We came home to find Christmas gifts from our neighbors on the doorstep and learned that quite a bit of visiting and gift-exchanging goes on, at least on-site, on Christmas Eve. Ooops...still learning the ropes, but definitely appreciating our thoughtful neighbors.

On Christmas day itself, several grocery stores were open until 2pm and at Camps Bay about half the restaurants were open and serving customers.  The only glitch in our day was that we didn't anticipate that we wouldn't be able to buy wine at Woolworth's (a more expensive Trader Joe's) on Christmas.  Our wine stash at home had been depleted by various parties we had attended and we were hoping to celebrate the day on the beach with a little clandestine vino drinking (technically no alcohol allowed on the beach...but...)  Here in Cape Town, no wine is sold in grocery stores on Sunday and this seems to extend to certain holidays too.  If we had thought about this we probably could have guessed that we should have stocked up on Christmas Eve, but we weren't planning too hard.  So we were on the beach sans wine...and we had a great time anyways!  We learned our lesson and now keep a regular stash of wine in the house so we don't get caught out in the future ;)  All part of our cross-cultural adaptation (and on the way home from the beach we found an open liquor store, so this no-wine-sales-on-Christmas does not appear to apply to all types of stores).


We came home from the beach and were invited to a potluck dinner and Christmas celebration at the home of our awesome Finnish neighbors.  Most of the families who lived on site were there and there was a hilarious gift exchange (all gifts had to be under R20, approx $2.75).  It's quite fun to see a Russian PhD in Astrophysics wrestle with a 9-year old boy for possession of the hot gift item - a laser keychain.  Little did we know that the competitive gift exchange was just a buildup to musical-chairs-as-contact-sport on New Years Eve...but that's another story for another blog post.

Until then we leave you with a shot of the Boo, rocking out to the musical Christmas card his Nana sent him.  He's singing something to do with a "Hippopotamus Christmas" and wearing Tim's new glasses:



Hope your Christmas was full of good cheer and Happy 2010!