Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Whether the weather cooperates or not doesn't keep us from go, go, going....
We woke (We woke only because Barry had a wakeup call!) up early! It was a beautiful morning with a fantastic view of Table Mountain from our room! Of course, Barry had to get a little work done on his phone and ipad first thing. We went to Reuben's for a beautiful and tasty breakfast. I must say that the views of the water didn't hurt! Everything that the 3 of us ate was scrumptious! I will admit that that I have never had oysters on the half shell for breakfast! For a Louisiana girl, it was a perfect breakfast! Diana, the head of guest relations here at The One & Only and Virgine (Yes, I meant to spell it that way!) got our day and night here all "sorted" out as they like to say here. We were "collected" by our driver and guide today named Rose. She was wonderful! We went down to the Cape of Good Hope. We have done that and thought Davis would enjoy it. I took fabulous photos of our day on my new 64GB card. Well, my IPad wont read that card! Thank goodness Barry took a few pics on his iPhone! I am hoping that Davis's laptop will read it! I'll share a couple of pics that are from Barry's phone! Tonight, we are meeting a beautiful young lady for dinner. We met Morgane almost 2 years ago at the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge where we were both staying. She is from France and was with her parents and 2 sisters on vacation. We have kept up through FB. She is here doing an internship. It will be fun to reconnect! We experienced COLD weather, windy weather, warm weather, and sunny weather all in a matter of hours today! I am hoping for sunny and warm tomorrow!
Sent from my iPad
Sent from my iPad
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
The One and Only Cape Town
It's 1:21am here in Cape Town, but my body doesn't think it's time to sleep. Barry wanted to order a 6am wakeup call, but Davis and I persuaded him to make it for 7. He has been working nonstop on the iPad since we got here! So far, no vacation for him! Our hotel is lovely with beautiful views of Table Mountain. We loved, loved taking the cable car up to the top when we were here before. The sunset.....the view of Robben Island...the beautiful city of Cape Town all spread out before us. We couldn't wait to take Davis up to have that same experience! Well, guess what, the cable car is CLOSED for maintenance while we are here!!!! I feel a little bit like the Grizwalds felt when the got to WallyWorld and it was closed! Ugh! But, that is not what is keeping me up!!! There is another reason why I can't sleep.....but first the story behind the story ....... I was sleeping really well in my cubicle. I think I could have slept till wheels down. But, I woke up with a nose bleed. Not just any ole nose bleed.....it was gushing! Blood was all over the pretty white linen pillowcase! I was holding my nose with both hands which now look like I have been on a recent episode of CSI! I am trying to get Barry's attention (Yes, he is in the cubicle sort of beside me...working!). He couldn't hear me saying, "Get me some tissues!", because my hands were covering my mouth! I couldn't unbuckle my seat belt because of my nasty hands! I had a lot of looks when I did make myself semi- presentable to walk up the aisle to the lady's room. Which brings me to now! WHY is my nose bleeding again???? I have tissue wadded up under my upper lip. And I even have a tissue stuck in my nose so that I could type this! But it isn't slowing down!!!!!! If I looked like Angelina Jolie, I would for sure take a pick of me and send to y'all! You'll just have to use your imagination! And many of y'all know what blood does to me! UGH!!!!
Sent from my iPad
Sent from my iPad
I am sure that everyone sitting in our cabin would like to thanks the genius from Butler Snow that insisted Barry get this fabulous app on your phone that lets you dictate into you phone.....and then magic occurs and it all appears on someone's computer in Ridgeland?! This went on for quiet awhile. I am sure glad I had a pair of earplugs!!!
Sent from my iPad
Sent from my iPad
Monday, August 12, 2013
Departure Challenged as Always!
Departure challenged is the term that defines our efforts to leave good ole Jackson today for Cape Town via Atlanta and Johannesburg. As I write this entry, I am sitting in my cubicle on my Delta flight. Barry and I have both just finished a lovely 5 course meal up here in our individual cubicles. Davis is in economy.....economy comfort to be exact. I am having a feeling that he did not just have a 5 course meal. I bet he didn't have an offer of champagne and a hot towel either. Oh well, he is only 22 and I think he can sleep anywhere anytime! Unlike his parents that are lucky to get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep these days!
I have been dreaming of this trip since my first trip to Africa in the fall of 2011. Barry and I couldn't wait to bring our kids to a place that we both fell deeply in love with within a day of being there. And so...our first challenge! Last year all of our children received a trip (with us, of course!) to Africa for Christmas! Yay! No babies on the horizon were being anticipated and everyone was a resounding YES! ExOfficio safari clothing, binoculars, airline tickets, and lodge/camp reservations were the big Santa gifts under our Christmas tree. And then, we got the call in January, a surprise grandson was on the way! We couldn't be more excited!!!! Way much more important than a trip! But, do we go on and just take 3 to Africa? Caroline kiddingly said that Katie did this on purpose so that she could have her own ( meaning with Taylor and us, but no siblings ) trip! Katie has always wanted to be an only child! Ha! We wish that they were with us! But we are over the moon excited about the birth of Richard Knox Nicholas! We just pray that he waits to make his debut when we return!
And that brings me to Challenge #2! I'll just skip the usual challenge of Barry leaving work! (It's always fun for Barry to leave every morning for work at the crack of dawn and come home when the 10 o'clock news is winding down for the 2 weeks preceding a trip! And even more fun to wake up because of the light of the iPad at 4 am because he is doing work email!). At 11:30 pm Friday night as I was looking over our documents, I could hear Davis still moving around upstairs. He had flown home on Thursday night to retrieve his Africa "stuff" and fly with us to Cape Town. I knew he had received his documents from our travel advisor, Erica, because we had discussed it. I got up and walked to the bottom of the steps and asked Davis to bring down his documents in the morning so that I could put all of our stuff together. "Huh? What?" My stomach plummeted.....the documents were in NYC at his apartment. Oh! No! How can we get them to Jackson? Luckily, David, Davis' roommate was in NYC. After googling how could I get them before our departure, I finally began to exhale. FedEx could do it! I called them and set it all up! Big problem, we couldn't get the roommate on the phone! Rescheduled again...and we reached David early Saturday morning and his schedule would work with meeting a courier! I'll have to say until I actually signed for them on Sunday, I was pretty much a wreck!
Challenge 3....As usual we forgot something on the way to the airport, but did have enough time to go back and get BARRY'S sunglasses! Our flight was delayed leaving Jackson because of air traffic. Our flight did lots of circles before landing because of weather! I know that it rains a lot in Portland and Seattle, but rarely is Atlanta not having a weather event when I visit their airport!
Challenge 4... And hopefully this won't be a challenge....but, we were LATE leaving Atlanta because of weather! We spent a god hour on the Tarmac! I just really don't want to miss our connection to Cape Town! I guess my last challenge will be to sleep! Barry has been asleep for a good while....
Sent from my iPad
I have been dreaming of this trip since my first trip to Africa in the fall of 2011. Barry and I couldn't wait to bring our kids to a place that we both fell deeply in love with within a day of being there. And so...our first challenge! Last year all of our children received a trip (with us, of course!) to Africa for Christmas! Yay! No babies on the horizon were being anticipated and everyone was a resounding YES! ExOfficio safari clothing, binoculars, airline tickets, and lodge/camp reservations were the big Santa gifts under our Christmas tree. And then, we got the call in January, a surprise grandson was on the way! We couldn't be more excited!!!! Way much more important than a trip! But, do we go on and just take 3 to Africa? Caroline kiddingly said that Katie did this on purpose so that she could have her own ( meaning with Taylor and us, but no siblings ) trip! Katie has always wanted to be an only child! Ha! We wish that they were with us! But we are over the moon excited about the birth of Richard Knox Nicholas! We just pray that he waits to make his debut when we return!
And that brings me to Challenge #2! I'll just skip the usual challenge of Barry leaving work! (It's always fun for Barry to leave every morning for work at the crack of dawn and come home when the 10 o'clock news is winding down for the 2 weeks preceding a trip! And even more fun to wake up because of the light of the iPad at 4 am because he is doing work email!). At 11:30 pm Friday night as I was looking over our documents, I could hear Davis still moving around upstairs. He had flown home on Thursday night to retrieve his Africa "stuff" and fly with us to Cape Town. I knew he had received his documents from our travel advisor, Erica, because we had discussed it. I got up and walked to the bottom of the steps and asked Davis to bring down his documents in the morning so that I could put all of our stuff together. "Huh? What?" My stomach plummeted.....the documents were in NYC at his apartment. Oh! No! How can we get them to Jackson? Luckily, David, Davis' roommate was in NYC. After googling how could I get them before our departure, I finally began to exhale. FedEx could do it! I called them and set it all up! Big problem, we couldn't get the roommate on the phone! Rescheduled again...and we reached David early Saturday morning and his schedule would work with meeting a courier! I'll have to say until I actually signed for them on Sunday, I was pretty much a wreck!
Challenge 3....As usual we forgot something on the way to the airport, but did have enough time to go back and get BARRY'S sunglasses! Our flight was delayed leaving Jackson because of air traffic. Our flight did lots of circles before landing because of weather! I know that it rains a lot in Portland and Seattle, but rarely is Atlanta not having a weather event when I visit their airport!
Challenge 4... And hopefully this won't be a challenge....but, we were LATE leaving Atlanta because of weather! We spent a god hour on the Tarmac! I just really don't want to miss our connection to Cape Town! I guess my last challenge will be to sleep! Barry has been asleep for a good while....
Sent from my iPad
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