Boulder's Beach 11/1

This morning, after eating pancakes made by Papa John, we headed off to Boulder's Beach to check out the penguins. Yes, there are actually penguins in South Africa. We drove along the coast for about 45 minutes. We went through a lot of cute little towns that I would have loved to stop in if we didn't have children along. We made it to Boulder's Beach right around 11. We had packed a picnic lunch and decided to eat that first before doing anything else. After lunch, we headed over to the penguins. We paid the entrance fee, then headed down the board walk. Sure enough, there were penguins all over the place. I must admit that they were not as cute as I had imagined, but that's because most of them were molting and had patches of bare skin and tufts of loose feathers sticking up all over the place. Whenever they did the little penguin waddle, all the ickiness faded away because they just looked so funny waddling down the beach. Tyson and Jori loved peeking through the railings and talking to the penguins. Our favorite penguin looked like he was in time out. It was standing all alone with its back to all the other penguins and it was facing a bush. A little while later, another penguin came and looked like it was having a little conversation with the naughty little guy. Tyson said that was the mommy penguin talking to her baby.

After watching the penguins for a while longer, Darin, the kids and I headed to the beach for a swim. Yesterday the kids played in the Atlantic Ocean with Pop and Gram, and today they were splashing in the Indian Ocean. It was COLD. I got wet up to my ankles and that was it. Tyson and Jori both went all the way in. Funny how the cold doesn't seem to bother kids. While the kids played with Darin in the water, I found a big rock to sit on. My mom came and joined me a while later, and then Jori decided that she also had to lay out. My dad made his way to the beach and then he, Darin and Tyson went and walked out on a huge rock that jutted into the water. The guys collected shells while the ladies got some sun. Too much sun for me and my mom. In fact, I have a huge hand print on my arm from my loving husband and his sorry attempt at putting sunscreen on me.

We stayed at the beach for over an hour, then decided to head out and drive towards the Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost point of South Africa. On our way there, we ran into a troop of baboons playing on the side of the road. We pulled over to the side and a huge male came over and sat right next to the passenger side of the car. He yawned a couple times and showed all his teeth. His fangs were HUGE. We kept the windows up because baboons are aggressive monkeys to begin with, but the ones that have gotten used to humans are even more so because they know they can get food from them. There were some cute little baby ones playing on the side of the mountain. It was fun seeing them all jumping around.

Doris led us to the Cape of Good Hope, but then we found out that you had to pay a fee to drive all the way down there. We decided it was not worth it as the kids were getting antsy and we had about an hours drive to get back to our cottage. On our way back up the coast, we stopped at a little restaurant called Bertha's for some dessert. Tyson and Jori both loved walking by the water looking at the seagulls.

We made it home around 4:30. My parents headed over to the internet cafe while we stayed back to let the kids run around for a bit and give them baths. My parents were gracious enough to let Darin and I go out to dinner on our own tonight. We went to an awesome Italian restaurant, right next to where we are staying. We had dinner, drinks and dessert for under $25, and we have plenty of leftovers for a meal tomorrow. It is crazy how cheap some things are out here.

Darin and I got home around 7:30 and then we played Canadian Salad and Up and Down the River with my parents. Now I am typing this post, the kids are sleeping and everyone else is watching some CNN program about the presidential elections. I am glad we are missing most of it, because I am sick of it all after 3 days of very limited exposure.

Tomorrow we head out from Cape Town and will be staying in Hermanus, where we hope to do some whale watching. Darin was going to go shark cave diving, but all of the packages he's looked into have you out on the boat for 4-5 hours. Poor Darin tends to get seasick, so he is thinking that going out to see for 4 hours would not be such a good idea. Disappointing for sure, but maybe he'll find a package with a shorter time at sea once we are in Hermanus. We'll let you all know what happens!