Cape Town

This last week has been jam packed with fun. Deciding what pictures to share has been impossible. With hundreds to chose from you can only imagine why!

My best birthday ever on monday started early with a flight to Cape Town. My over sensitive nose was going nuts with the foreign passengers and other unpleasant smells on board so I borrowed some of my collected good smelling twigs from my moleskine to help with the problem and entertain mom.

We checked into our B&B aka The Mission Home. Sister Egan and President Egan are great people and made us feel welcome with breakfast buffets and the best advice on what to do and what not to waste our valuable time on.

It was too windy and the clouds weren't cooperating to let us to go to the top of table mountain, the number one tourist destination in town so we took a 2 and a half hour bus tour around the cape taking in the sights. Afterwards we went to the aquarium and saw a gazillion more creatures to add to my list of creatures to see. The clown fish were my favorite. I think I was a bit wind blown and dazed out because all I wanted to do was watch them swim in circles. The King Crab were amazing too, bigger than the average 3 year old! Yikes and yummy all the same.




















After seeing the sea creatures we wondered around on the boardwalk watching people and checking out the shops. We borrowed Ben's family's tradition and I chose a pancake place for my birthday dinner. Not your average pancake place, I had scallops and shrimp with mine.

We went back to the mission home and spent the evening chatting with the Egans until it was time to pass out. I feel like I'm constantly eating, sleeping and taking pictures. The perfect mix.



Day Two in Cape Town:
We were very lucky that the clouds cleared off the mountain so the three of us and every other tourist in the area met at Table Mountain to take the cable car to the top.

You all know me well enough to know that I'm always looking for adventure so this trip has been slightly mellow considering I wouldn't dream of taking the cable car when there are perfectly good trails going up the mountain. And when our bus guide told us about cheap paragliding I had to really work on believing myself when I said I didn't mind passing something like that up...











The wait in line was well worth it when we got to the top of the mountain. The great thing about ZA that I didn't know is that it has its very own floral kingdom. There are seven floral kingdoms in the world, and the one found here is the smallest and I have been so surprised by how extremely beautiful it has been. The things that grow wild here!!! Over a thousand plants that are indigenous to ZA: geraniums, protea, succulents as big as my head....






After the mountain we headed towards Cape Point, we'd gone a ways when we came to a road block no one bothered mentioning, but it worked to our advantage anyway since we saw a family looking down over the cliff at something causing much excitement. Being the nosy tourists we are, we went to check it out and found whales of all things! Two more joined them so we saw six total. This was a great find since we'd planned on traveling to see whales and instead had them come to us.



Next stop on the way to the cape was the penguins. Where else in the world can you see so many animals?! I am in heaven. The penguins were stinky, cute and molting. Not very fun to watch since all the did was, well, molt. Another fantastic meal afterwards. I had ostrich with a sweet tomato sauce mixed in with some kind of something drizzled in a red wine glaze. Oh my heck, the fooood here.














The last stop for the day was Cape Point. We got to the gate of the national park and the lady told us it was cold and windy and not worth our time since we only had about an hour before the park closed for the night.

She was SO wrong. It was absolutely gorgeous. The fields of protea are stunning and the hike to the light house was a blast. Literally. I don't know if I have ever been in that kind of wind before in my life. The gusts could almost lift me off the ground a couple of times and it could hold all my weight when I leaned into it. We had so much fun up on the light house blowing around in the wind.

Day Three: We set out again for another drive to another cape, Cape A'gulas this time. Its claim to fame being that it is the southern most tip of Africa and it is also where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet.




The scenery has been so diverse. Every drive we've taken has shown off different things that amaze me. There are so many influences and cultures and uses for the land its no wonder.


When we got back to Cape Town we went to Kirstenboche, a huge botanical garden. It was, of course, beautiful, but we'd missed the prime blooming season by about 3 weeks so everything was lush and green and well, lush and green is lush and green.

My favorite part of the third day was can you guess? No, not playing with a turtle or seeing a snake, or a family of ostrich.... it was: dinner. We went to a place called the CattleBaron with the Egans and a new couple just arriving. When the Egan's told us this place has the best steak ever I thought it might just be their opinion but I wanted to go there even so. I'm very aware of the fact the things can be sensationalized. You all get a bit of that here on my blog I'm sure since I think everything is 'the best' But you know I mean it. I wouldn't say it otherwise.

So...yes, I have had the best steak of my life. From now on all steaks will be held up to this steak and will sadly probably fall short. It was served on fire with the thickest yummiest mushroom sauce EVER. Everything was good I don't remember the last time I've eaten so much, I could have easily contested with Kwona and that is something to be proud of.