A "Tumblr" Christmas by the Sea

We have a beautiful fake Christmas tree that Katie won at the Christmas Stroll in Wakefield, MA before we left for Africa.  We had put it up in Pretoria and one day the kids did find a surprise under it...a scorpion...we haven't seen those in Pretoria, but there had been a great deal of rain so we think it came in to get to the dry spot.

We left our tree in Pretoria for the scorpions to enjoy and Charlie was a bit worried about what we would do for a tree in Cape Town.

Katie's tree

Luckily for us we stopped in this cute breakfast place outside Mossel Bay and he found some wooden Christmas trees that he declared would work for Santa.

So we loaded up on decorations,  I even found a little Merry Christmas bunting that looked nice so Katie declared it a "Tumblr" Christmas.  So Tumblr & Pinterest-eat your heart out!

Kelly's feet in the reflection look like Santa is coming down the chimney in sandals!

We had fun exploring the area on different day trips,  we met our Australian friends in wine country (Stellenbosch) and did some tastings, we even found a place that does picnics on the lawn, you choose your shady spot and they bring you bean bags and wonderful food!

 At the end they even come and clean everything up for you...you really can be spoiled here in SA!

We even got to see some of the wine cellars...

We also visited a cool penguin sanctuary, where they rescue orphaned penguin chicks.  Our favorite was the Ambassador Penguin called "Rocky", as he is a rockhopper penguin.   He visits with school groups, etc, and he was super cute to watch in action.

Rocky on his surf board...

We also explored Simonstown, the former British naval base, now a SA Navy town.  There is a cool story of a dog during WWII that was sworn in to the Navy, he was loved by the sailors and there is even a statue in the harbor that honors him.  His name was "Just Nuisance".  At the Navy Museum they have a big exhibit on him and they also have a cool shipwreck room with all treasures from old ships. Charlie loved the old jail in the basement of the museum.

Navy ships in Simonstown Harbor

We also found another lighthouse to climb, at Kommetjie, tallest lighthouse in SA.  It had real stairs instead of ladders, and an amazing view at the top.

Charlie on the stairs, I wouldn't let him go outside at the top...he was mad at me, but I didn't want him to blow off the side!  Was windy up there!

Charlie had us up at the crack of dawn to open all of his surprises from Santa, see the bright sun in the picture!

After opening all our presents we headed down to eat breakfast in the little town, what a treat to eat under the palm tree!

We did miss all of our family and friends that we have spent past Christmases with and we hope that all of you had a great Christmas too!

On the Road Again...

To spend Christmas in Cape Town we drove from Pretoria which takes about 15 hours and takes you through much of South Africa.  Including the Big and Little Karoo Deserts.  We took the more scenic route toward the coast so we could see Cape Agulhas, where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet.

All loaded up, we brought a few bikes...

 Our first night we were the only guests at a very pretty  place that hosts weddings.  Kelly loved taking pictures.

 Charlie was happy to pose at the hanging picture frame.

 We ate at the "New York" restaurant in Bloemfontein, the menu was supposed to be American, but none of it was.  What cracked us up was the menu item called "Hudson River Kingklip".  Kingklip is a tasty South African fish, however what New Yorker would eat anything out of the Hudson?

We passed through Oudtshoorn, the ostrich capital of the world, we took a quick break to stop at one of the ostrich farms.  We bought some giant painted ostrich eggs, which the kids have admired since we came to South Africa.  There were ostrich farms everywhere you looked.

Our next stop for the night was near Mossel Bay, here is the view from Pinnacle Point, where we stayed in a big golf estate by the sea.

Before dinner we hiked to a cave.

The sunset near the club house.

Back from the cave.

We had really nice fish for dinner...

The sunrise view from our place.  Now on the road so we can see the two oceans.

Greg wanted to represent the Atlantic side...so I got the Indian...

We climbed the ladders all the way to the top of the lighthouse...top ladder was wobbly and super steep, there were a few people that made it to the top one but didn't go all the way, all of us went up though!

Agulhas Lighthouse!

We then headed for Cape Town and went through a really neat mountain pass on the way, then the view opened up and Charlie was back to his favorite place, the last time we left Cape Town he cried the entire way back to Pretoria!

A Christmas visit with the kids

We rounded up some awesome American families and lots of fun playground toys and headed to see the kids at Leamogetswe Safety Home to share some pre-Christmas cheer.

One of the families even brought a loved Rudolph toy which the boy I was carrying around claimed as his own.  Whenever he would drop it he would point until I handed it to him again.

We made a quick stop at KFC to bring them a lunch they would love. (KFC is hugely popular all over South Africa)

Charlie and Kyle were awesome ketchup squirters, they made sure every kid had PLENTY of ketchup!
 

 All the little helpers, including Mo Mo the dog, who was super popular with the kids.

Kelly did some slow motion videos with the kids skipping rope and hula hooping, they LOVED seeing themselves in action!  I love seeing their smiles.

It was so wonderful to have tons of new toys (hula hoops, soccer balls, bubbles, etc)  to share and lots of families to play with all the kids and give them some attention.  

Noah is a rock star with the kids, he plays soccer with them and lifts them up and spins them around-they love it!

 I loved looking out on their field and seeing balls and toys and happy kids everywhere.

The kids were asking when we would be back and they were also asking us to bring back our friends big dogs who came on the last visit.  We promised to come see them in January.

Charlie's Three Moms

My friends from the Coast Guard, Megan-my classmate and Erica, who was two years behind us (but recently retired) came to see South Africa.   Greg had to be in the US for much of their visit, so when we traveled it was the six of us, the night before they left Charlie said it was going to be weird without Auntie Megan and Auntie Erica, because it was like he had three Moms, he went on to say  "The nice one, the fun one, and the mean one".  Here we are left to right Megan=Fun One, Erica=Nice one me=Mean One????

We all loved having them especially Kelly and Katie who love all visitors but especially ones that inspire them, after their visit they both want to go to the Coast Guard Academy! (Kelly always wanted to but this is big for Katie)

Our highlights were visiting the elephants at Bela Bela.

There was a new baby elephant born who is disrupting their entire show!  They do an elephant interaction where they go down the line and have each elephant show you something cool.  However, little Bella was a crazy girl and was going up and down the rows, causing trouble! However- she was ADORABLE!

 So cute, but such a handful!

Little Bella walking down the line and stirring up trouble!

Megan is brave enough to go for the kiss from the elephant...Kelly captured this!  I'm not clever enough to come up with a really good comment...I'll save that for my readers!

Then we headed to Ukutula to stay over night and see all the lions. The lions were fun but Kelly and Katie were our entertainment at the campfire!

 Baby hyena and lion that are friends now, but would never be in the wild.

Charlie patting the baby hyena..

 Enjoying the fire waiting for the teenagers to entertain us!

 Erica and the baby lion.

Megan and the cheetah.

In the morning Megan and Erica did a walk with the lions, they even got to see the lions go up in trees!

Our next adventure (after a few days of school for the kids) was meeting up in Cape Town for a weekend with our friends who let us all come to stay.  The kids were happy to have their buddies and we got to see the penguins....

We also checked out one winery that is famous because it has ducks that do a parade as they go to and from the fields every day as they go to eat the snails off the grape vines.

  I still don't know how you pronounce the name of this place...i

 So much to do, we opted for the tasting room..

 Interrupted our tastings to go see the adorable, hard working ducks coming back for a break...

 Loving the tasting room, very South African you get to sit down and relax and try all the wines.  In our Sonoma trip you just stand at the bar and taste and move on to the next winery...

The tasting room in the old farm house, this is classic "Cape Dutch" Architecture, which we always point out to Katie now, she got it wrong on a test when we first came, how was she to know what Cape Dutch Architecture was?

We enjoyed having the tide pools steps from our friends house and beautiful ocean views from every room in the house-even the shower in the guest bedroom has a view of the ocean-you can't go wrong!

 Kids and I checking out the tide pools we found starfish, sea anemone and a few other treasures.

View from the deck- amazing!

Sadly we all had to leave Cape Town, Charlie cried the entire ride to the airport and the whole plane ride back to Pretoria.  The only way I could get him to stop was to make his Christmas list for Santa and also to make a list of all the things we want to do when we go back.

Megan and Erica hit Vic Falls and Chobe then made their way back for a final night in Pretoria...we were all bummed to see them go...but were so happy that they came!