Stairmaster from Hell/Purple Tongues

I had originally intended to write one blog entry about my trip to Cape Town but then explaining Easter Sunday turned into a mondo entry and the same happened when retelling the adventures of Monday. This is my attempt to wrap up the tales from Cape Town.

On Tuesday morning, feeling ambitious, we decided to conquer Table Mountain. In the picture below we were feeling energetic and completely naive of the monster hike awaiting us. (correction: Lisa knew what was waiting having hiked it before but failed to mention just how challenging the hike is) I didn't think the hike looked too steep but to quote Martina McBride: "wrong again." I told Chris he needed to squat down to get in the timed picture- I didn't know he was going to opt for the "cheerleader pose."














The "people mover" was closed because of wind so only the true hard-core climbers like ourselves would be enjoying the mountain this morning. The beginning portion of the hike felt like a StairMaster from hell and I was huffing and puffing, praying for a stretch of flat land, or at least a hill that wasn't so straight up. The path finally veered to the right and wasn't as steep and I could catch my breath. After happily trotting along for about 20 minutes, Chris came running towards me looking very confused. Long story short, we had both taken a wrong turn and had been walking the wrong way for quite some time. Crap. We finally caught up to Lisa and Judith and jumped back on the StairMaster from hell.











Lisa, Judith and I collapsed in every tiny shaded portion of the hike to rest our legs and escape from the scorching sun. We befriended our fellow hikers who also needed a few moments to recover in the shade and laughed as we overheard them saying, "I will NEVER do this again!" (Chris had run up ahead of us) I remember Pike's Peak being quite challenging but for about 1 and 1/2 hours we were climbing up giant rocks and I don't remember my thighs killing like this when I hiked Pike's Peak. However, the challenge made the reward even greater and reaching the top gave us a wonderful feeling of accomplishment.We enjoyed our picnic lunch at the top, marveled at the view, took random pictures, and began the descent down the mountain.











In the picture below, we were about to start climbing down as several people were just finishing the hike. We were all smiles as they struggled up the last leg and we couldn't help but cheer them on and tell them how close they were to finishing. It reminded me of the passage in Hebrews which compares our Christian walk to running a race and says in chapter 10, " And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds. Let us not give up in meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as we see the Day approaching."

It got me thinking as we stumbled down the mountain how crucial fellowship is to our faith. It was the neatest feeling to be at the top of the mountain, watching others struggle as they labored up that last leg of the hike, and being able to encourage them and clap for them and watch their demeanor change. Knowing the end of the hike or the "Day" was near, and hearing our cheers, they pressed on with renewed strength and I was convicted by this picture of what Christian fellowship can look like. I want to do more such "encouraging" to other Christians as we struggle up this "mountain" we are all climbing but what does that look like? Encouragement in this situation was easy: clapping, smiling and cheering, "way to go!" "you're doing great!" and "almost there!" But how can we as Christians literally ENCOURAGE one another? I know I would feel awkward if people clapped for me when I did my devotions or gave me high-fives for going to church. So what does it look like to truly encourage one another in our walks as the author of Hebrews tells us to? It's a thought I've been pondering and frankly, I haven't reached a lot of answers but would love to hear any of your thoughts.
If you've ever run stadium stairs, you are probably familiar with "shaking leg syndrome" as I like to call it. Perhaps I have vitamin deficiencies (I was taking "Women's One a Days" but then I got a cold and I was convinced it was because of the vitamins and haven't started taking them again. Good logic don't you think?) or something is freakishly wrong with my legs but when I climb down hills, my legs shake uncontrollably. The others laughed whenever we would stop to rest and my legs looked like a dog's when he gets his belly scratched. I often felt like my legs were about to buckle, but we made it down without me ever tripping which was a small miracle.

After showering, we headed off to our next adventure: wine-tasting. Some of you may be thinking right now: I thought Katie didn't drink? I don't. Don't worry, I'm not one to pass judgement if are a drinker because I don't think there is anything wrong with it if you are of age and not getting drunk. However, it has been ingrained in my consciousness that I would be doing wrong by drinking and plus, I ABHOR the taste of all alcohol. Really. Even the scent makes me cringe. Lisa and Judith don't enjoy alcohol either but being in a town with world-renown vineyards, we felt we'd be missing out if we skipped them. Luckily Chris does enjoy wine so we could enjoy the "wine-tasting" experience although us girls don't actually like wine. Lisa and I would sniff the wine to decide which would make us gag the worst which is why in the following picture we are laughing uncontrollably. We were reenacting our "sniffing" of the wine, but since it was a timed picture we were sniffing for a good 10 seconds before realizing the picture would not capture what we were doing.
I'm sure many of you are thinking: what a waste of a delicious opportunity! We may not have enjoyed tasting the wine, but we sure had a fun time. Occasionally we would take a sip (see picture) but the results were never pretty. The last face is not posed- genuine disgust. I don't think you're supposed to make these faces when wine-tasting:)After tasting the wine, we ventured into the vineyard and did some covert exploring and sampling of the grapes. Just like the signs prohibiting us to touch the penguins felt like a challenge, so too the many signs telling us not to pick the grapes only tempted us more. Not only was the vineyard breath-taking, the grapes were thee best grapes I've ever eaten. How on earth can they turn such sweet goodness into bitter-vinegar-tasting-wine? I don't get it. We thought we were so sneaky taking the grapes, until Judith opened her mouth to reveal and bright purple tongue. I love that in the picture below, Lisa hadn't eaten enough grapes yet and resembles a panting dog. (didn't mean to call you a dog Lisa- you're tongue just looks funny)













The sun set and we set out to find dinner. After checking the menus in no less than 20 restaurants at the Waterfront, we settled on pizza which turned out to be the best pizza I've had in Africa. With full bellies and tired legs, we collapsed in our beds at the hostel which was the last night for Lisa and Chris who left the next morning.











On Wednesday morning, Judith and I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at our beloved "Mugg and Bean," explored a craft fair, tried unsuccessfully to book late tickets to Robben Island, and toured the District 6 Museum. For those who are terribly uneducated about South African history (I say this facetiously since I teach history and knew very little about this), Robben Island is where Nelson Mandela was held as a political prisoner for 18 years. District 6 has come to symbolize the injustices of the apartheid system in South Africa where blacks and whites were legally separated in all areas of society. District 6 was an all-black area which the government decided to rebuild and in the process, forced everyone to move. Judith and I got a taste of the history of South Africa and having lived in Mozambique for almost 20 years, Judith even remembers apartheid in South Africa! Even she was surprised that this "history" of apartheid in South Africa was not so long ago. She remembered going on vacation with her family and her maid's family in South Africa but the Christian organization would not allow the maid's family to stay at the same place. I guess we assume Christians must always fight against such injustices but sadly, that has not always been the case in history. The following are poems and pieces written during and about apartheid which were written on tiles throughout the District 6 museum.

After touring the museums, we enjoyed authentic German pretzels and Swiss chocolates which got me very excited about Europe. Not only were the treats delicious, the German woman working at the bakery looked incredibly masculine and it made me laugh thinking of all the hilarious people-watching Trent and I will enjoy. We ended our last evening by taking a sailboat ride around the harbor as the sun set behind the ocean. Simply amazing.











Despite our many layers of clothing, for awhile the boat ride was FREEZING and waves were crashing into the boat so they gave us our fashionable ponchos.
It was a majestic view and wonderful way to end an incredible trip to Cape Town.

California in Cape Town

The longer I live in Africa, the more I love it but ironically, the more I also love and appreciate the US of A and specifically my home state. I'm finding myself spouting out more "California pride" statements than ever before. Perhaps since I was born and raised in the great golden state, I didn't need to defend it to my fellow Californians but now, surrounded by non-Californians, I can't help but sing her praises. (Yes, California is a girl) When I think about the places I've vacationed, the roads I've traveled, and cities I've lived in inside of California, I am amazed yet again by how blessed I am. Last week, as my friends and I experienced the beauty and wonder of Cape Town, I couldn't help but think of my beloved state. Cape Town reminded me so much of many of the different beach towns in California so needless to say, I loved it.

Monday's Excursions We awoke on Monday and before setting out on our adventures for the day, we admired the amazing view from our parking lot of Table Mountain. Notice our "morning eyes?" We look more chipper later in the day. Maps in hand, we set out to explore the coast with our final destination being the Cape of Good Hope. We paused at a tiny beach town to find crepes which Lisa and I were craving. Following a sign that said, "15 minute walking trail," we wound our way up a hill and stumbled upon a beautiful view of the harbor. We ended up in the midst of a bunch of cute homes tucked together on the hill and it reminded me so much of Summerland, the city I lived in my Senior year at Westmont. As a warning, be prepared to see several pictures of the four of us in front of an ocean. Maybe you are of the opinion that "an ocean's an ocean," but I am not and each spot along the coast holds memories so I'm including them all:) Sorry if you get annoyed looking at so many similar pictures, and in truth, I think even my friends grew annoyed by my need to continually set up a timer shot and take yet another picture.
It was in this quaint little "Summerland-esqe" town that we ate the infamous crepes with chocolate sauce. I'm pretty certain the following is one of those "you had to be there" stories which no one else enjoys but it made us laugh so hard for the rest of the trip and I don't want to forget about it. So we finally found a cute restaurant overlooking the harbor which served crepes and we all ordered the mother load batch of these delectable "pancakes" as they call them in South Africa. I didn't want to be a party pooper and admit that my crepes were less than delicious so I kept my mouth shut and doused them in more chocolate sauce. Little did I know, Lisa did the same. Finally she confessed that she wasn't enjoying her crepes like usual and we decided that the restaurant must have used sour milk when making Lisa's and mine. Extremely non-confrontational, we didn't complain but were left with an awful aftertaste in our mouths. Chris, who appears to have numb taste buds and thought his were fine although they were just as gross, suggested eating a spoonful of chocolate to get rid of the bad taste. This sounded like a logical solution so I took a giant spoonful, bottom's up, and discovered the hard way that the milk in our crepes was not sour, the chocolate sauce was. Moral of the story: try the sauce before you cover your meal in it.

Our next stop was in Simon's Town where the famous "Boulder's Beach" resides. This beach is famous because penguins, that's right- real life penguins, live there. I'm not a huge bird-lover, in fact I'm quite the opposite, but it's not every day you get to see penguins in the wild and what's more- penguins on the beach. Very weird and a "must-see" in Cape Town. Walking to the beach, we passed tons of penguins napping, bathing, and just "chillin" near the trail. (Very rarely will I use the word "chillin" but I found it ironic and appropriate in this context) In the first picture I am explaining to a stranger how to use my camera when he took the picture and am also playing the role of the"4Th wheel." While walking on the trail, we ran into our Swedish friends from Maputo. Elvira is the funniest little girl who constantly entertains me. You can see in the picture why I am so fond of her- she does silly faces even when I don't tell her to:) A girl after my own heart.
Since Lisa and Judith had already been on the beach with the penguins in past trips, they saved their money and Chris and I ventured into "Penguin world" alone with one goal in mind: touch a penguin. The vast number of signs instructing us to "not touch the penguins" only inflamed our desire to do that very thing. We came across two love birds (pun intended) snuggling on a rock and decided to make our move. I must tell you that these "cute, little birds" actually throw some pretty vicious looks and their beaks looked much larger when up close. I am justifying why you only see my hand approaching the penguin. My camera wasn't fast enough to capture the moment I actually made contact with the feathery ball of attitude. I promise that I did actually touch her but I wasn't about to pet her for the sake of a picture- do you see the dirty look she is giving me? I can't say I blame her though- do you notice the girl in the pink on the other side of the rock? We were tag-teaming the penguin and she would distract the bird for me so I could touch her and then I would do the same for her.












Our next victims were three friends hanging out on the rocks. I decided to join them and pretend to be a penguin. Yes, my expression is a "penguin face." Please take note in the second picture of the nervous laughing and arms prepared to push me off the rock at any moment.










After wading through the freezing ocean and scaling rock formations, we found a whole clan of the crazy, "Chilly-Willy's." I love how they nap on top of each other. I squatted as close as I could to them without peeing my pants from fear. Who knew I could be so afraid of a penguin? The beaks I tell you, those beaks are frightening. I felt pretty awful when I tried to make a penguin run so we could watch it waddle because I accidentally chose to torment a crippled penguin. He waddled away with limp and while Chris laughed at me, I nearly cried- who chases an injured penguin? Apparently I do.











After we had our fill of harassing the penguins, we continued our tour of the coast. Question for you: what do Bartholomeus Dias and ostriches have in common? Answer: we drove past both of them on our journey to Cape Point. Bartholomeus Dias was the first to sail around the western tip of Africa in 1488 (little piece of trivia which may come in handy when playing Jeopardy) and being a history-lover, I of course enjoyed this. However, I confess that I was more excited when we drove past wild ostriches. Being terrified of little black and white birds with "big beaks," you can imagine my sentiments towards ostriches. Pretty much my worst nightmare involves an ostrich-chase at some point. However, in the safety of the car, I was able to marvel at these giant, feathered beasts.








We arrived at Cape Point and had a mini-hike waiting for us. Lisa wasn't feeling well so Chris, Judith and I ventured to the point together and oohed and awed at the amazing view, quite confident we could see Antarctica in the horizon.











Driving a bit further, we arrived at the Cape of Good Hope. Incredible beauty.
Continuing our trek, we drove along an incredible coastline that reminded me of the drive to Santa Barbara. We stopped for a picture and right after we took the picture, a huge gust of wind made all of us literally fall forwards.












We arrived in a little fishing town where we stopped to partake in some greasy and delicious fish 'n chips. Side note: I had never ordered fish 'n chips before coming to Africa because I always thought the idea of fish with potato chips sounded gross. (This is from the girl who thought "grilled cheese sandwiches" were actually called "girl cheese sandwiches" until high school so you shouldn't be too surprised.) I was pleasantly surprised to learn that "chips" actually means fries and it is a new favorite of mine.
As the sun dipped behind the mountains, we began our journey back to the city, pausing only at a local icecream spot. It was a remarkable day full of awe-inspiring views, laughter, adventure, randomness, history, and wild birds; a Monday I will surely never forget.