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.