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!

is it really Christmas on Friday?

Well this past week flew by.

On Monday I took the Boo and his buddy to the Waterfront for ice cream and to check out the boats, one of our favorite pastimes. We ended up stumbling into a carnival and I got conned in to taking two munchkins on a very rickety, but fun, roller-coaster. Goofy smiles at their best!

On Tuesday, was the SAAO year end staff picnic at a winery in the Nuy Valley.  Staff came down from the telescope at Sutherland and out from Cape Town and it was a great way to put faces to the names of people I had only heard of. 

We had a really great day.  I ended up playing a hilarious drunken game of Petanque (think Bocce ball with really dense metal balls) with some of the Sutherland staff. One of the resident dogs, who had a fascination with rocks, kept trying to run off with these really heavy balls.  Fortunately I held my own, and developed a dead eye in defensively knocking out our opponents shots, as my teammate was Tim's boss ;)  Wouldn't do to mess up that relationship!

The Boo at play on the winery grounds:  In the first shot the vineyards are just beyond the trees and stretch all the way to the base of the mountains in the background.

There were large concrete tubes on the winery grounds that the Boo had a ton of fun with.



Indications of a successful day:


On Wednesday, South Africa took the day off for Reconciliation Day.  The New York Times had an article on this but it didn't seem to mesh with our experience of the holiday in Cape Town.  The NYTimes article seemed to focus on the meaning of December 16th to the Afrikaaner portion of the white population but I learned of the holiday from the black staff on site who were staying home with their families to recognize "their day."  The history here is thick and recent and we are only just learning our way through it.

Since SAAO was closed, we did enjoy our day off, historically-loaded holiday or not.  I went for breakfast at the Millstone (cafe with the treehouse) with Minna, our favorite Finnish neighbor.  Her youngest daughter was at horse camp all week at the stables at Oude Molen Eco-Village and it was a great opportunity for her and I to steal a little adult time. 

When I got back onsite after a wonderful-as-always breakfast, the Boo and Tim met me at the trampoline just across from Minna's house.


Since it ain't a holiday in Cape Town if you don't go to the beach, we called up Benne and Robin and met up with them at the Dunes in Hout Bay.  This is the same place they took us to our first weekend in Cape Town, the one on the beach with an awesome playground in the sand.  We spent hours at the cafe as the Boo hit it off with a host of different South African kids.  We rounded out the day on the beach and then followed Benne and Robin home to their cool house for homemade lasagna and entertaining conversation.


Thursday and Friday followed suit, with lots of outdoor play and visiting with neighbors and friends.  Now I hear that Christmas is this Friday.  Was I supposed to do something about that?

and on the last day of preschool...

the Lord said let there be singing:


Please excuse the grainy photo, the "big" camera is being put to good use at the telescope in Sutherland, so we-who-have-been-left-behind must muddle through with lesser technology. But hopefully the above shot gives you the sense of chaos and joy that is the under-6 set when it assembles for the last-day-of-school concert. The kids were asked to wear green and there was an international theme going on that I didn't quite have a good grasp of.

We've only been at this school for a little less then a month, but I was actually sad to hear that most of the Boo's best buddies would be moving up to Grade R (South African version of kindergarten) next year. The kids at this school never ceased to amaze Tim and I with how sweet and friendly they were. They also did a great job of making the Boo feel comfortable in his new environment. The Boo will be back for next year and I, faced with 5 weeks of no childcare, am definitely looking forward to it ;) (the Boo is too!)

Speaking of buddies who have graduated - here (for the Nanas) is a shot of two who loom large in the Boo's world:

Princess G is on the left and Princess E is on the right. Last week when I went to pick up the Boo at school, he was tailing Princess E around the playground asking her to marry him in a sing-song voice!?!! I learned a new word this week to describe my reaction to that little activity - "adorified" - I was somewhat 'horrified' by that 'adorable' behavior (the girl's mother was a bit ummm... surprised...)

Princess G is Princess E's best friend and was really not interested in sharing, so quite a few of the Boo's stories from this week included him putting himself in timeout because of his behavior towards Princess G in what appeared to be a few scuffles over who got to sit next to Princess E. Wow...preschool social life is getting a bit too complicated for me to follow. Sadly, I think the Boo is going to miss both of these munchkins when he returns to school next year, though at least I can put off the wedding planning for a while.

So before we knew it, we were back home and it was only 10:30am (the things we accomplish when we get up and out of the house early!!!) If I was going to feed the Boo at home, then somebody had to do the dishes first. Since the only somebody around was me, I decided that going out to celebrate the last day of preschool sounded like more fun then dish-duty. So while I texted Robin to see if she was up for lunch somewhere, the Boo's on-site 4 year-old partner-in-crime showed up. All four of us jumped in the car and headed off to the Millstone for lunch, and a little playing in the dirt and climbing of the treehouse.

The boys diggin' the dirt under the treehouse:


The cafe is situated within the Oude Molen Eco Village (Rachel, read the link about the Eco-Village, you'll love it!).  The Eco Village includes organic gardens that are used to sustain the village population with the surplus sold at the cafe and in the surrounding neighborhood for income.  The extensive gardens and the village's location backing up to the wetlands of the Black River give this urban area (we're 5 minutes from our house at the Observatory, 15 minutes from downtown Cape Town) a very 'country' feel. Additionally, there are micro-enterprises housed around the site and many of these are artistic in nature, so color and whimsy abound. Finally there are horse corrals and stables to go with our country theme.  Trail riding and lessons are available and the horses are very friendly.  The horses are cared for by older children who appear to live on site (there is a street kids educational/training program at the Village, but I'm not sure if the stables are part of this or not.)  All of this, plus the Waldorf school, and a few resident dogs and chickens, combine to keep bringing us back on a regular basis.  This is one very cool and very beautiful place.

The Boo and his buddy goofing around with a curious horse:





Well, that school year sure flew by! Now what to do with the next 5 weeks...

we've been abandoned...

Let me rephrase, Timmy is up at the telescope doing great science and the Boo and I have been left behind to suffer through 4 Timmy-less days in Cape Town. Yeah, there are definitely worse places to suffer in (see tag for "complaining when you have nothing to complain about"...) so I know you are not feeling too sorry for us.

Anyways, since the routine was shot I figured a little more shake up wouldn't hurt anyone. So when I picked up the Boo from preschool instead of taking him right back home as was our usual plan, I told him we had a job to do. Nothing gets the Boo's attention like a job ;) The "job" was to finish up our Christmas shopping so we headed down in to the City Bowl.

The Boo suffered through the shopping with promises of playgrounds on the beach. So, once Santa was satisfied, we rolled on down the hill and landed at one of our favorite places - Mouille Point. Our opening photograph is the Mouille Point playground we touched on briefly in an earlier post with Signal Hill off to the left and the Boo in his orange shirt somewhere left of center.

We did some tree climbing:


We did some playground peeking:


We had ice cream (Mama had iced coffee...mmmm....South Africa's version of a frapuccino) at one of our favorite cafes, Cafe Neo, while we gazed at the lighthouse, blue water and large container ship off the coast:


We went back to play some more:

Eventually the Boo got tired and we were ready to go but it was now a little after 5pm. On a previous outing to this part of town we made the mistake of leaving right at 5pm and what should have been a 15 minute drive turned into an hour-long slog through less-then-fun traffic.  Again, we may be slow but we do learn, so instead of fighting traffic we hopped a little ways up the coast to the Waterfront, one of our favorite haunts.  There are many Boo-friendly eateries there and watching the boats come and go never gets old.

Of course, best laid plans and all....the Boo fell asleep in the car and was pretty much down for the count.  Now, I would rather sit on the Waterfront then sit in traffic, so I muscled the sleeping child out of the carpark and up to the daylight.  And since I've always been more lucky then good, we walked right in to a free outdoor concert.  So while the Boo slept on my shoulder, I was able to get off my feet and enjoy an excellent concert by a band from Stellenbosch that played all sorts of different "traditional" songs as long as violin, accordion and percussion were involved in the tradition.  The amphitheater was packed and the crowd was really in to the music.


The Boo woke up about 10 minutes after the concert was over and we enjoyed our dinner overlooking the docks and the boats.  Right before we left, he hugged me and said, "Thank you for bringing me here, Mommy."  So a good time was had by all.... at least until we got home and the Boo realized Daddy was "having a sleepover at the telescope."  But that is a story for another day...

whooops! we've been busy...

I haven't forgotten you. We've been busy with the arrival of all our stuff and the internet has been darn flaky every time I felt like sharing.

Our big shipment of stuff arrived as well as the five boxes of stuff we shipped from my brother's house in October. Everything is here now and well... I'd happily send half of it back. All this stuff is draining my energy. But then it isn't really about me....while I'm in clutter hell, the Boo is in toy heaven.

As you can see, Diego is as concerned as we are about the current toy takeover of the house.

While the Boo was enjoying school, I avoided our cluttered house (because you need to leave the de-clutter fairies plenty of time to do their work in peace...) by going motorcycle shopping with our favorite Quebecois astronomer, Bruno.  Buying a vehicle, whether two or four wheels, is a great way to see all sorts of different parts of Cape Town and meet a variety of very cool South Africans. I learned a lot about the diverse riding community in Cape Town and Bruno rode off into the sunset on a gorgeous BMW 800GS.  I may just have to work my way up to joining him.


We are now enjoying a gorgeous Cape Town weekend.  Kicked it off this morning with a Cape Crossfit workout on the beach.  Timmy and the Boo got up in time to join me and while they soaked up the sand and the surf, I "worked out."  But really, nothing that fun is really work.   Sorry, no pictures (next time)...but envision yourself getting superfit while frolicking on the sand in Malibu with an excellent cafe right across the street ready to serve you a yummy breakfast post-workout.  Oh, and don't forget the excellent company ;) and gorgeous weather. Well, that's what it was like, only instead of Southern California it was Camp's Bay, South Africa and even better ;)

The only reason we left was because the Boo's social calendar is starting to fill.  We had 2 birthday parties to go to today (in opposite directions from home...).  But we had to do a little social triage and pick one which was a bit of a no-brainer since the princess turning 5 today was none other then the little girl that basically took the Boo by the hand and introduced him to everyone and everything on his first day at his new school.  Plus her party had a slip and slide (the other party had monkeys, but ummm... don't tell the Boo that ;)

Get ready, get set, go:

Slide:

Splash:

Smile:

Repeat:

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!