Hello, Irene (and Happy Birthday Ryan!)

You wouldn’t think that a hurricane heading up the Atlantic seaboard would affect us here 12,000 km away in Africa, but this storm caused a huge problem for us. On Saturday, it became evident that Irene was scheduled to arrive at JFK the same time we were on Sunday. Unfortunately, the airlines noticed this coincidence as well & cancelled our flight. Actually they only pretended to cancel it, they reinstated it 12 hours later as a freight flight – but more on that later. So how do we get home? I guess that’s not so easy when you are halfway around the world! South African Airlines supposedly has 3 flights a day to NY, but the next flight that we could get on was September 11^th! Unbelievable! As much as I am loving Africa, I really miss my dog & my bed! Also, that would mean my kids would miss the first TWO weeks of school. Talk about starting off on the wrong foot. Illana talked to every rep on the phone, plus every travel agent in Cape Town – very confusing & time consuming! We tried to fly through Dubai, London, Ethopia (truly!), but one, this made for really long flights & layovers in not so nice places & two, will cost lots of extra money. SAA was going to give us a full refund, but Illana did such a good job of getting the cheapest fare that anything outside of SA -> JFK on SAA would cost us extra. Finally Rich & Illana sweet talked a SAA agent to send us to DC on September 4^th for no extra charge – thanks! So we will arrive in Dulles on Sunday morning 9/5 & then we rented a super cargo van (remember 8 people 16+ bags!) to drive us the 5 hours home.

So on Sunday morning we were glued to CNN watching Irene hit NY/CT. It really didn’t look that bad so we were hopeful that JFK would re-open quickly & we could have our flight back. Well, SAA never told us that our flight was switched to a freight plane & not cancelled, so 2 hours before it was supposed to leave one of the many travel agents we talked to noticed that we were still on that flight. We thought about taking it, but JFK was still closed and the idea of taking off for a destination that wasn’t accepting arrivals was a sketchy one. Add in a freight flight with no in-flight entertainment (4 kids + 17 hours) with an unspecified layover in Dakar and we decided to skip it. Later we found out it landed Monday afternoon in JFK (our limo driver was there to meet us too!) Ouch. Oh well. Next problem, were to stay for the next 6 days. Susan & Johann, our hosts, were heading out to vacation on Tuesday morning. They offered to change their plans or for us to come with them. But we didn’t want them to do that & the place that they were going was supposedly very beautiful, but it was 6+ hours away. I wanted to get closer to home, not farther away. Also we needed to have an internet connection since Rich, Leonard & Illana all needed to work (no more vacation time!) Leonard’s aunt to the rescue! She offered her family’s beach house in De Kelders for our use. One hour from Cape Town, right on the coast, plenty of room + good cell access! Problem solved.

Once all the plans were finalized Monday afternoon, we packed up our bags & loaded them into the poor VW van (crammed full!). The kids said their tearful goodbyes to Susan & Johann, as well as all the neighborhood kids they had befriended. We chugged up over Sir Lowry’s Pass with hangliders flying over us and down onto the Whale Coast. De Kelders (the caves) is between Hermanus (whale watching capital of the world) and Gansbaai (shark cage diving center) on Walker Bay. The house is beautiful & right on the water. You look out the window & you can see whales playing in the water! They are everywhere. Haven’t seen any sharks – which is fine by me!

Anyway today is Ryan’s 11^th birthday. Didn’t think that he would celebrate it here, but a birthday is a birthday, so we made a cake (not much choice in cake mixes here!) and went to Spurs for dinner…again! I felt so bad because we didn’t have any presents or cards for him, but he has been a good sport about it & I promised him a party when he got back – so I think it’s been a good day for him. At least it is a memorable one!

So Happy 11^th Birthday Ryan! Love, Mommy, Daddy & Rachel!

Cape Point

Cape Point is at the southwestern most point of Africa. Cape of Good Hope is there as well. I have always wanted to go there. In school, when we would learn about the explorers & how dangerous it was to ‘round the Cape’, I thought that it would be cool to see where 2 oceans meet. The Atlantic & the Indian ocean don’t actually meet there, but don’t spoil the moment for me please! It is spectacular! Incredibly views & a long hike up to the lighthouse at the top of the point, even Ryan’s face was red by the time we got to the top. We are 12,000+ km from NYC – a long way from home! We were hoping to see some of the Cape baboons at the point, but all we saw were ostriches. This one ostrich was very funny. It was in a parking lot, eating stones (aids in digestion), so we drove up to it to see it. It runs behind a big rock and ducks down & hides. It poked up its head every so often to see if we were still there.

The ride down to Cape Point was beautiful as well. We drove through miles of dunes. We stopped in Muizenberg to watch the surfers & to see the cute colored little beach shacks. We stopped in Simonstown to see Just Nuisance’s statue. He was a Great Dane who was the mascot of the Royal Navy during WWII. Also there were more outdoor markets to shop in. We stopped at Boulders Beach to see the penguins, smells very fishy! You used to be able to walk down on the beach to see them, but now you are not allowed. But there were plenty to see there.  After Cape Point we drove over to Chapmans’s Peak. On our way we did see some of those ‘very, naughty’ Cape Baboons. The drive up to Chapman’s Peak is very narrow & curvy as you go up to the top. And another spectacular view. Having the ocean and the mountains so close together makes for many breathtaking sights!

Cape Town!

Flying down to Cape Town from Joburg, we got to see some of the land of South Africa. We flew over Kimberley which is where the big diamond mine. Even 30,000 ft in the air you can see the big hole in the middle of the town that is the mine. The middle of the country is very arid, but as you approach Cape Town the mountains start to appear & as you go over them, everything starts to turn green. It is the rainy season in Cape Town & spring is just starting, so everything is greener. Table Mountain is very dramatic and is very large in the middle of the city, right on the water. We are hoping to get a clear day & go up to the top one day. The clouds seem to hang over this mountain – it’s called the ‘tablecloth’.  The beaches are beautiful but the water is still cold – 12 degrees Celsius (55 degree farenheit). We are staying over by Somerset West, by the vineyards (they call them wine farms), again with Susan & Johann. They are brave enough to have all 8 of us in their house for 8 days and they have a bed for everyone!

We drove past the Strand (the beach) in False Bay and up Gordon’s Bay (no guardrails!) but we spotted our first whale! I can’t believe how close they are to shore! So many waves as well. The weather forcast for this week is not great, several days of rain ahead. But Johann, says ‘ you’ll get four seasons in a day’. So I don’t think it will be a complete washout. So on the rainy Sunday we had down to the waterfront, called the V&A (Victoria & Albert) waterfront. Similar to the South Street Seaport, only bigger & nicer. We went into the Two Oceans Aquarium, where Ryan took a picture of every fish in there. The spider crabs, were the one thing that I really didn’t like, they were almost as big as Ryan! In this aquarium, you can dive in the shark tank, so it was weird to see these divers floating around in the tank!

The shopping at the waterfront was great. The Red Shed is full of crafters with their booths. You see lots of wooden animals, beaded animals, animal skins, wooden bowls & statues. Rich is happy to compare prices on his giraffe, it looks like he got a good deal. A rainy day well spent! The next day we woke up to more rain, but it looked like the skies were clearing so we headed over to Stellenbosch, which is a college town surrounded by wine farms. In fact, the wine farms now charge for wine tastings, because all the college students would drink them dry for free! We stopped at Ernie Els’ place, beautiful gardens with a koi pond & large rocks – the kids played in this garden while we took a look inside. Rich bought some wine, but we didn’t taste any – I must be getting old, 10am is way too early to start drinking!  Then we headed over to Tokara, which is Susan & Johann’s favorite wine. Johann is a conisseur of wine. Every night he brings out bottles of wine for us to try – reds, whites, pinot noir, rose, vanilla white, coffee red. Anyway, we tasted & bought some wines. Loved the olive oil there & bought some bottles of that as well. I’m starting to panic on how I am going to fit everything in our luggage to get home.

On Wednesday, rain again. So we started out by doing some more shopping. We went to a sports store (like Sports Authority) to check out the Sprinbok gear. Everyone in South Africa wears green & gold, for their Rugby team, the Springboks. Imagine all of the US wearing Yankee colors! They were a little low on green & gold wear but Ryan decided to get a cricket set & a rugby ball. Still not sure of the rules, but he is figuring it out. Cricket games can last for days (and I complain about baseball games being too long!). But Ryan and Steffan have been playing rugby everyday with the neighborhood boys. Not sure what that will do to his football game when we get home! But after the shopping, again it looked like it was clearing & we headed over to Speir, which is a wine farm that has some animals as well. There was a bird of prey exhibit that the kids loved. You could pay to hang out with the spotted owls. So the kids had so much fun having the owls swoop around them and land on their hands, arms & even heads. They fed them chicken feet (which was gross). The barn owls you could only pet, but if you sang to them they would dance! There was also a cheetah rescue sanctuary as well. So we got to pet a cheetah. They are bigger than you think! The kids were very good, the longer that you are calm & don’t stress the cheetah out, the longer you get to pet them. What beautiful animals! One was just laying around & then this man wearing a striped jacket went by on a Segway, you had to see that cheetah go. I think he thought it was a small zebra! Now thoroughly drenched (turns out the sky didn’t clear up) we headed by home. I have been trying to keep up with the laundry, but it has been hard. The washer is a ¼ of the size of mine at home & they don’t like to dry their clothes in a dryer. So the clothes hang on a line inside until they dry, which in this weather takes a very long time. I broke a dryer trying to dry out some of Ryans stuff!  The next few days will be sunny so we should all dry out!

Rachel's post

Okay so on day one we went on a 14 hour plane ride…it was awful never doing that again ever!!!!!!!!!!! So once we arrived in jo-burg it was about 8 at and we still had to have dinner and stuff. I was exhausted so there’s a time difference of about 6 hours ahead so we arrived at 8 that means it was about 2 in the afternoon back home. We spent a couple days in jo-burg touring and we went to gold rush city and went down in a mine! Cally you would hate it it’s so claustrophobic down there!!! After that we went to Sun City we stopped at this place called a curio shop. There were all these poor people trying to sell you their stuff saying it was handmade and then you would go to the next person over and they would have the same exact thing identical to the last…ya they were REALLY annoying. My dad loved it though he loves to bargain with the natives…so I’m NEVER going back there again. Once we hit Sun City that’s when the real fun began. We went on safari after safari! I was the elephant spotter because I was the only person who could actually spot the elephants. We saw the most of wildebeest’s and impala. We also saw a lot of rhinos one of them came up to the vehicle we were so close! I freaked then! Oh and everyday we were there we saw lions which is very fortunate…the last day there was a HUGE male lion walking along the road that was cool. Oh one time on the safari we went to stop and have breakfast at a viewing point and I really had to use the bathroom…we found the bathroom but it was a brick wall with a tin roof and there were rocks and sticks blocking the entrance and there was no door…I still used it cause it was insanely clean but it was really strange. That night when we went back we were playing spud (our fav game) outside our room. We invited the people next door to come play with us. There was a 15 year old Bryce, 13 Kyle, 12 Jodi, 9 Tamika, and Ronan 8. They were from Botswana. And they were a lot of fun…we tried to meet up the next day but failed cause we went to see birds instead. Once we got to the bird aviary we tried to feed them (we would feed the “go away” birds on the porch of our room bread) I succeeded first then so did Ryan Bianca and Stefan. Then a bird flew up and landed on Leonard!!! It was cool then all the birds started landing on me it was awesome! I had birds up my arm! But that was the last bit of fun there after that we went on our drive back to jo-burg. The boys dropped me mom Illana and Bianca off at a mall and we went African shopping! It was really cool. They don’t have like Aeropostal, Abercrombie and Fitch, or Forever 21 instead they have stores with different names but identitical clothing. I went into one store that was a mix of H&M and Forever 21. That was my favorite store. Once we were done shopping the guys picked us up and we went to a steak house called spur and it was exactly like outback except outback is themed Australian and spur is themed American…it was kind of insulting cause they had native paintings on every wall and danced to country music the whole time! But on the plus side while we were there I got a balloon and my face painted!!!!! After that we went home packed and went to bed. We woke up got on the plane and that’s where I am now on my way to Cape Town! I’m going to pet a cheetah and walk with penguins on the beach! Can’t wait!!! JJJ

Ryan’s view

My favorite thing that happened over vacation was that in Sun City there were monkeys playing all over the trees and the street and they were eat all around us and we got great pictures and it was so much fun but my mom and sister didn’t come because they didn’t care that much today we are3 going to a cheetah farm to pet asleep cheetahs and tamed cheetah did you know they can run up to 75 miles per hour and 120 kilometers per hour.

Goodbye Sun City!

We didn’t really take advantage of all the things that we could do here; although Johann & Susan enjoyed the casino. So we did go over to the bird aviary & the kids got the birds to eat out of their hands, took a look at the beautiful Gary Player golf course, played in the arcade. Rachel begged to go on a Segway tour, but we ran out of time. Just outside of Sun City, Rich did some more bargaining at a little curio market. I stayed in the car…I don’t know how he enjoys haggling like that! So we headed back to Johannesburg for a quick overnight stop and then we will fly down to Cape Town the next morning. But we did make a quick stop at a mall. Rachel had lots of fun shopping. They are starting to put out the spring/summer clothes. But it’s weird, they combine food stores with clothing stores. Woolworth’s which is a supermarket also has clothes at some of its stores and the malls have grocery stores in them as well. It looks like Pick’n’Pay, another supermarket, sells the same clothes that are found in Target. For dinner we went to a play called Spurs. It’s considered an ‘american’ steakhouse. It’s a lot of fun, especially for the kids. The wait staff, all dressed in green & gold (Bok’s colors!), does this 2 step kind of dance every ½ hour. We said it was Ryan’s birthday so they brought him dessert & sang to him! They also got their face painted in the kids play area.

On our way back from dinner, it was after 8pm & dark. We weren’t going far to get back to Johann & Susan’s house. They live in a very nice area called Northcliff. But it really startled me to see these men lying down in the middle of an intersection like they were waiting to get run over. I guess that this is a way to get a car to stop & then they can rob you or hijack your car. Very unsettling – lots of people run red lights at night & I can see why.

The Animals…during the day

The great thing about this Pilanesberg Preserve is that you can drive into the preserve by yourself during the day. Think Wild Safari Adventure at Great Adventure, only much bigger! Supposedly the animals are most active during the early morning & at sunset. So at 7am, the 10 of us pile into our H1 truck (kids in the trunk) and head off. A nice thing about going in winter was that the vegetation is sparser and easier to see through. Rachel was our elephant ‘spotter’ she was the only one that could seem to find them. But Leonard was very good at spotting animals, lots of practice when he was growing up. We also saw another pair of lions; supposedly we are very lucky to have seen lions every time we were in the park… The lions started chasing these zebras, but Leonard’s dad explained that it was just sport, that the zebras were too aware of them to be caught! We spent 6 hours driving around in the car, just stopping for come coffee & snacks halfway through. You stop at these special fenced in areas, but I still felt a little apprehensive getting out of the car. Everyone seems to regard the rules, which aren’t many (unlike the US) - don’t feed the animals & don’t get out of the car. People would stop in their car to report where they had seen certain animals nearby. The only animals that we didn’t see were the leopard, cheetah & buffalo. Poor Ryan, all he wanted to see was a buffalo, but we kept seeing wildebeest! It amazed me how some groups of animals would stay together. Like the impalas & the wildebeest, as well as the warthogs! We loved the warthogs, especially the little ones; they would crawl on the front knees eating because that was the only way their mouths would reach the ground.

Can I just say that South Africa has the cleanest, nicest public bathrooms? Even the bathroom that we went to at the remote part of the preserve didn’t have a door, you had to wind through this little brick hut to get to it (they put stones & a big branch in front of it to block the animals). But it was a very clean little bathroom with running water & toilet paper!

Another interesting thing that we saw was the burning of the park. They set intentional fires to destroy the old undergrowth, so that new grasses with more nutrients will grow. We would just see smoke during the day, but you could really see the flames at night.

We got up early the next day & also went back that night for another drive. I felt bad for Leonard, he must have drove about 15 hours in that park & probably only went 50 miles! It was hard to leave that place. Rich was in heaven – hanging out with all the animals. We did go to a market just outside of the preserve gate. We bought lots of souvenirs, including a 1m sized giraffe that we are calling Camille. Hopefully, we can get her on the plane!

The Baboons & Monkeys

Johan had warned us to be vigilant about keeping our windows & doors closed & locked all the time. He was worried about break-ins…by the baboons. We didn’t really believe him, but the next morning at the unit across the street, the baboons had struck. They had taken the sliding door off its hinges to get in the unit. Unfortunately, we missed all the excitement. Ryan wanted to stick a banana & a video camera on our patio, so that we could see what they do.

We did see monkeys roaming the complex, at one point; Rich & Ryan set themselves up in the middle of a garden and watched the monkey run all around them.

So the unit that got invaded by baboons was hit the next afternoon by monkeys. They obviously hadn’t learned their lesson…they left a window open. The monkeys invaded & got bags of food & fruit, brought it outside and had a feast. That was fun to watch. There is a primate control officer on duty at the resort, and he just follows them around and chases them off the playground & out of the pool area. He must have been taking a break when they did this, but he came around & chased them away. We couldn’t wait for the owners to come back to see their reaction. When the SUV pulled up, we gathered around on the patio for the show. Out of the car poured 5 or 6 kids, a mom carrying a baby & a dad. I don’t think they noticed at all!  Disappointing!

The Animals…at night!

So far into this trip, we had only seen dogs, cats, a stray cow & other farm animals, we were excited to see some wild ones! From our condo we could see the back side of the preserve & the kids would stare at it & think that they could see animals anywhere. But we were very excited to go on a night safari. It was in an open air truck, and beforehand, we were a little nervous about the animals but not realizing that we would be high up in the truck & that we should be worried about the cold! Usually this part of Africa is warm, even in winter, but there was a wave of cold air hanging over us. So we wore layers of clothes, including ski jackets. Illana & Leonard, having done this before, brought some hot chocolate & beer, so we were all set.

Solly, our driver gave us blankets, so we huddled under those as we entered the park. It’s hundreds of square miles big, and while it’s full of animals, the animals could be anywhere. It looks like you think Africa should look like, with lots of grasses & craggy hills & scrubby trees all around these roads, mostly dirt tracks. Solly starts out explaining that he is going to go fast because there were lions spotted up the road a bit, but he keeps stopping to talk to us. And we started spotting animals; we spotted several rhinoceroses, wildebeest & impalas, which Solly kept calling McDonalds for lions because of the ‘M’ marking on their buts! By this time it was pitch black out & very dusty, but our driver had several spotlights that he kept flashing around. It was actually pretty easy to find animals in the dark that way because their eyes would reflect the light. We did catch a glimpse of a Lion & Solly decided to watch a nearby herd of wildebeest because it looked like the lion was stalking them. Rich thought that was cool but all I could picture was traumatized kids that would not sleep the rest of the trip! A little too much ‘Wild Kingdom’ for me! I really didn’t want to hear the sounds of a lion mauling a wildebeest or any other animal! Because it was really very quiet there, the only vehicles allowed after 6pm where these special game drive trucks, so there were only a few trucks around. Thankfully the lion & our truck moved on & we found a giraffe & also, a baby hippo that was out of the water. It was so cute! We also saw bunnies & steenbock (rock deer). We learned that there are about 50+ Lions in the park that originally came from Namibia, not Kruger, because of the diseases that the Lions in Kruger were carrying. And only 1 cheetah!  Check out the eyes!!

On our way to Sun City

We have been staying with Illana’s parents, Susan & Johan, in Johannesburg and now they are taking us to Sun City, which is about 2 hours northwest of Johannesburg. It is a huge resort, built by the same person who built Atlantis in the Bahamas. But it borders the Pilanesberg National Park. This park was created about 40 years ago out of an extinct volcanic crater and is full of all the animals that we had been hoping to see in Africa.

On the ride down, we stopped at several places. Mgawne, which is a glass shop that features products made in Swaziland out of recycled glass bottles. We also stopped at this store in Hartbeesport Dam, called the Windmill; it was the Stew Leonards of South Africa. Fruit is sooo cheap here! After driving past the dam, we stopped at a ‘curio’ shop. Basically, an indoor flea market. There were booths after booths, filled with people trying to get you to buy something. Unfortunately we were the only shoppers & they bombarded us. If you showed the least bit of interest in something, they would put it in your hands & not take it back. My poor kids were so overwhelmed, and they felt very bad because the sellers would talk about how they had no money to feed their children and that they would be in dire straits if you didn’t purchase something from them. We had to explain that this wasn’t true & that these sellers didn’t actually make these products. Even Rich, who loves to bargain, didn’t like it there. Heading onto Sun City, poor Bianca had to use the restroom but her dad refused to stop…because there had been high instances of carjacking on the road that we were traveling on.

So we were very happy to reach Sun City and check in to our condo. It’s a beautiful place, has casinos & a big venue for shows. A lot like Mohegan Sun. But even on the golf courses & just walking around, we started to see some wild animals. We saw bush babies & mongoose, and some very naughty monkeys! Johan & Susan have been here many times before & know all the ‘ins’ around the place. We walked through the Lost City golf course to see the crocodile pit on the 13^th hole! Now, in the US it would have had fences & warning signs everywhere, but here in SA, there is only a knee high rock wall & a locked gate. We also walked through a ‘jungle’ to the back entrance of the ‘Valley of the Waves’ at the Lost City. It was almost like a ‘Jurassic Park’/Disney feel to the resort. The kids loved the huge wave pool & water slides here – and they were empty! Probably because the water was 12 degrees Celsius! Way too cool for me. My big splurge on this part of the trip was paying to have my laundry done while I sat by the pool.

Pretoria (Tshwane)

After seeing the Lippanzzer Stallion show, which the kids loved, especially feeding & playing with the horses afterwards, we headed north to Pretoria & the Voortrekker monument. Pretoria is not that far from Jo-burg, about an hour. The Voortrekker monument, was erected for the settlers the moved northward from Cape Town to settle in this region, similar to the pioneers heading west in the US. The monument had beautiful views of the areas & beautiful gardens. Inside the monument, it had a centograph with an inscription that is lit by sunlight at precisely noon on the 16^th of December, which was the anniversary of the Battle of the Bloody River. South Africa is similar to the US in that its settlers came from the same places, but, because of the geography & existing cultures, is so different today in language & customs.

In Pretoria, we headed over to the Union Buildings which are similar to our congressional buildings. Very pretty, but for security reasons, visitors cannot get inside. We had fun looking at the vendors’ stalls. Ryan wanted to buy one of everything!

Joburg (aka Johannesburg)

So we arrived Friday night (local time was 7:45 PM) We breezed though customs, got our stamp in our passport. Met up with Illana & Leonard's family. We needed extra cars for all the luggage!
rented a Hyundai H1 bus... and borrowed a 'bakkie' for the luggage.

It seems like a typical international city, although they drive on the wrong side of the road. Luckily Leonard has been driving. It looks a little like northern California in winter, or the hills of Texas. We haven’t been in ‘downtown’ Johannesburg, but all around it. The biggest difference is all the gates & fences. Crime is very high here and most people take lots of precautions. You have to be very careful driving & make sure the doors are locked, windows up & nothing of value showing. And definitely, no parking on the street.

Besides the fences, every house seems to have a braai (barbecue). They grill all the time: Lamb, ribs, boerewors (sausage)…Delicious!

While we were here for the first few days of our stay in South Africa, we went to a Braai, Golf Reef City & a Lippanzzer stallion show and Pretoria & the Voortrekker museum.

GOLD REEF CITY

Johannesburg was created because of gold. Back in the late 1800’s gold was discovered here & mines where created & the city was built around it. Now there is museum/amusement park called Gold Reef City that we visited. We went down into an unused mine about 550 feet and walked around the tunnels. To go from the top of the mine to the bottom shafts, it would take a worker 2 hours. How’s that for a commute! Then they would have to spend 8 hours down there in the hot, noisy, grimy cave and then take another 2 hours to come back up! No thanks! For every ton of rocks that they mined they would expect to get 4oz of gold. And then the gold would have to be processed to remove all the impurities. The kids favorite part, of course, was all the rides. The park was pretty empty, but I kept forgetting that it is winter here & the kids are all in school. People dress much nicer here; no “pants on the ground”, no ripped clothes, no obnoxious sayings on shirts. They are also so polite, so gracious. Everyone speaks English in businesses but most everyone we’ve met converses in Africaans. Still haven’t learned much of that. Except bakkie, which means pickup truck, which we needed to bring all of our luggage home from the airport!

A 14 hour flight

Here are some do's & don'ts on a long overnight flight:

Do's

• Go for the aisle seat
• Anytime they offer you water, take it
• Use the bathroom before they finish serving breakfast!
• If you have picky eaters, ask for a kids or a vegetarian meal (you'll also be served first)
• Stand up as often as you can

Don'ts

• Try to sleep in Business class, they will kick you out (ask Rich)
• Try to sleep on the floor, you will be asked to get up (ask Ryan)
• Watch the flight statistics -- do you really want to know that you are 6000+ miles & have 11+ hours to go until you can get out of this seat?
• plan on sleeping much

Suprisingly, the flight was really not that bad. I panicked at the start thinking that I was going to have to sit in this cramped little seat for 14 hours straight! But they give you lots of food & drink, many movies & video games to choose from. The kids & I didn't sleep much but Rich actually got almost 6 hours sleep!

Let's see how we do on the 17 hour flight home!

Ready, Set....Wait

So I packed 200 lbs of clothes (not to mention washed them as well), made sure the cats had enough food, stopped the newspaper, mowed the lawn, etc trying to get ready for the limo to pick us up at 6am Thursday. But we received a phone call Wednesday night from South African Airways telling us that our flight was delayed by 9 hours. So, the good news is that I could actually get some sleep the night before, but unfortunately, we lost our seats together & we would probably lose a day in Johannesburg.

Since we were 8 people travelling together, getting the seating arrangements that were agreeable to everyone, including the airlines, was a little tricky. But Rich worked on that & we were all ready Thursday afternoon when Irv & the limo came to pick us up. I believe this could be the highlight of my kids trip - a white stretch limo filled with sodas for them.  We picked up Leonard, Illana & the kids & headed for JFK. After Check-in, dinner, security &  waiting for the POTUS to leave JFK around the same time, we took off!

Details, details

Luckily I haven't had to worry about the details too much. Illana has done most of the work, planning & coordinating everything! So, in a nutshell, here is what we have planned:

From	To	Where	Plan on seeing/doing
Thurs, Aug 11th		Leave NY	South African Airways
Fri, Aug 12th	Sun, Aug 14th	Johannesburg	See local areas & neighborhoods, Sandton city, Ngwneys Glass, Cradle of Humankind, Soweto, Voortrekker Monument, Union Buildings
Mon, Aug 15th	Thurs, Aug 18th	Sun City	Day/Night Safari, Wave Pool, Golf
Fri, Aug 19th		Johannesburg
Sat, Aug 20th	Sun, Aug 28th	Capetown	Table Mountain, Cape Point, Robben Island,Waterfront Aquarium, Penguins at Simonstown, Botanical Gardens, Tea Bag Ladies, Chapman's Peak, Monkey Village, Spier Wine Farm, Stellenbosch, Franschoek, Castle
Mon, Aug 29th		Arrive in NY	South African Airways

This is just a general list of what we are planning to see & do while we are there, it is subject to change with little or no notice!

With only 3 days left until we go, we are starting to get very excited. Busy packing, which is a challenge because it is winter there, and there has been snow, so we need to break out some of our winter gear to bring. We will need to fit into two 50lbs bags each - 18 days worth of winter clothes & summer clothes (Sun City is in a warmer area of SA) & toiletries! Plus leave room for souvenirs!

We're going...where?

For the past several years, the idea of going to South Africa had been tossed around by us. We have good friends who are originally from South Africa who had kindly suggested that we accompany them back there for a visit. An amazing offer -  but the timing never worked out. But this past winter, when the idea came up again, we realized that this time might be the perfect time to go. The kids are now a little older, 13 & 10,  we are all healthy (relatively speaking!) and able to get the time off of work! And the chance to see South Africa, up close & personal, was too good to pass up!

So after some scheduling & rescheduling and lots of planning, mostly by Illana, we are on our way to an adventure of a lifetime - at least we will be in 1 week!

Time to get packing!