MyCiTi

After being cooped up for a few days and driving only to the store I decided to wander up the road to the bus stop and purchase a MyCiTi bus pass. The bus took me to the Civic Center stop downtown then I caught the transfer to the V&A Waterfront to walk around. There are some tourist traps, primarily restaurants but they have a nice food court and a lot to see including an active wharf with a dry dock. There were two ships being repainted and repaired and it was cool to watch the workers. The Information Center had many brochures on area activities as well as several booking agents. The food is reasonable, for the most part and alcohol is cheap (you can buy a decent bottle of wine for $3-4). Cuban cigars are not! $26 a stick for a Montechristo. There are several tours leaving from the wharf including boat trips for sunset cruises, daytime cruises and trips to Robben Island where Mandela spent 27 years. Also many helicopters departing for tours of Cape Town and Cape Point. Apparently the aquarium is world-class so we'll check that out soon. The buses are nice and I guess the entire system was brought on board for the World Cup back in 2010. In fact, much of the town was spruced up for that event and it has made a big difference. I'll make a trek to Cape Town Stadium (55k capacity & new for World Cup as well) but it looks like there aren't any events in the near future, probably as we are headed into winter. I just missed the Justin Bieber concert. Crap. I'm trying to wrap my head around all of the cool things to do here. * Paraglide from the top of Signal Hill down to the beach. * Great white shark cage diving near Seal Island. It's the only place on the planet where great white sharks breach. * Wine country tours - there are many wineries just outside of the city. * Table Mountain Cableway - takes you to the top of Table Mountain. * Many museums and much, much more. I will keep you posted but it's time to go!

Lions Head, Signal Point and Camps Bay

The first weekend was full of adventure as Ambereen refused to allow me to sleep during the day so as to adjust to local time as quickly as possible. On Saturday we had a wonderful breakfast at a seaside restaurant then drove to a winery just outside of town. It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed their offerings. She is a great tour guide and I got to see some incredible sights already. Cape Town is such a gorgeous city. We drove up to Signal Point and watched several paragliders take off. It's something we plan on doing while I am here. Breathtaking views! We drove to Lions Head and hiked for a bit. The sun was so warm - and it's almost winter here. Spent several hours wandering around the V & A Waterfront and met her brother for dinner. I will start driving soon so that I can get around during the day. In the meantime we will take plenty of pictures which I will upload to this site soon. I'm off for a long walk on the beach!

Cape Town South Africa

I've finally crossed the pond and instead of going to Europe like many people, I made it to Cape Town, South Africa to spend some quality time with Ambereen. The flight was an adventure as in included three legs over 27 hours. Tampa to JFK was a breeze although I made it to the next gate as they were boarding with time for a bathroom break. JFK - Amsterdam started off well as I had a great seat with plenty of legroom and a cool seatmate. Then the family with two small children sat down across the isle and all hell broke loose. The kids were not pleased, one in particular and he alternated between screaming and crying for much of the trip. My noise canceling headphones paid for themselves on that leg alone. I HIGHLY recommend them for anyone who travels. It turns out the other child was sick and when I exited the bathroom after a much needed break I opened the door and stepped into a pile of puke. Awesome. The poor mother was exasperated and I got some paper towels and found a flight attendant to help clean. I then took my seat and introduced my seatmate to the wonderful world of scotch. 4 episodes of Boardwalk Empire and a few scotches and bourbons later, all was well. With a 4 hour layover in Amsterdam I didn't have time to venture out so I found a place to relax and waited for my gate to open. I hope to spend time in that city another day. Perhaps Octoberfest sometime soon? The flight from Amsterdam to Cape Town was 11 hours and while I had the window seat (good place to rest my head and I didn't have to move for anyone) the aisle seat was soon occupied by a rowdy Kiwi who had apparently spent his layover in the bar. Now I am certainly not one to judge, but holy cow was he wound up! The poor woman next to me bore the brunt of his enthusiasm and after an entertaining hour I put on my headphones and selected Django Unchained for my first movie. I was able to sleep for a few hours as well. In the meantime, the Kiwi plowed through at least 7 bottles of wine and when I woke up he was singing quite loudly and getting a lot of attention. iPod on high thank you very much. He spilled wine all over his leg during landing and proceeded to attempt to sing the South African national anthem but instead sang the French anthem. People were cracking up. Ambereen was waiting for me - it's been 7 long months! I missed you! We drove back to her place and it was time to crash. Good night.

Slackers

Well, between limited WiFi access and a hell of a lot of fun I have completely neglected my blog. We'll play a bit of catch-up with some help in the very near future. In the meantime, a quick update. All is well and we've been having a blast! We holed up in Tampa for a few weeks with a side trip to Naples then St Pete. Visited Hamish, his wife Sarah and met their baby Kai. The visit to St Pete was to see Elliot who got married on June 1st. Sorry we weren't able to make it to the wedding but the time we spent was great. We left Tampa a few days ago and drove to Cape Canaveral to visit Kennedy Space Center. Haven't been there since I was a child and it was still super cool to see huge rockets, launch pads and the building currently housing two space shuttles. The full-scale Saturn 5 was awe inspiring. Cannot imagine being strapped to that thing at launch. Hit St Augustine for two nights then off to Jekyll Island. after that on to Savannah. It is a super cool town and we walked for miles. The squares are so nice to visit in the summer. We stopped by a visitor's center (highly recommended anywhere you go) and found out that Grace Potter and the Nocturnals were throwing a free concert at Forsyth Park so we grabbed the beach chairs and hung out for a few hours. It was fantastic and we took the local scene in. Next stop was Hilton Head where our friend Scott offered his sisters condo to us. Lo and behold, it's a 3 bedroom condo on the island - on a golf course and a short bike ride to the beach. SCORE!!!! We ran all over the place here and checked things out. The beach is super nice and the difference between low and high tide is at least a pitching wedge. We had to move our camp three times as we were being inundated with the sea. This morning we got up at 5:30 to bike to the beach for the sunrise. The bike path is along the road but under some beautiful trees and we got there early enough to take some pre-sunrise pics and ride on the beach. Along the way we saw turtle tracks and investigated further. We found a fresh loggerhead nest and I stuck sticks in the sand to mark it and we were trying to figure out who to notify when a cart rolled up and two people got out to do some research. They found the nest with a probe, extracted an egg and marked the nest with tubes and tape. This was the 81st nest of the season on the island. We happened to visit the turtle sanctuary on Jekyll Island and we'll fill you in on those details in another post. Needless to say it was fascinating. Time to run for now - headed off to visit Harbor Town for the sunset!!!!

Honeymoon Island State Park

Don't know how we did it, but we got dad to the beach!

Wow! Is Destin beach nice...beautiful beaches everywhere. Never been here before for some reason. Ran in to an old school buddy and his dad yesterday and had a great visit. Staying at a state park tonite and headed to Tallahassee tomorrow then on to Tampa.

Nawlins

My last experience in this city was mixed. I was here with dad and a few other buddies when Ohio State played LSU for the national championship. We had fun on Bourbon Street for two nights until game day when the Buckeyes got their asses handed to them by the home team. I couldn't wait to get out of town. Fast forward to 2012 - our friends Estafania and Mike moved to New Orleans from Denver and we dropped in for a visit. We were able to get a real tour. The trolley car took us to the Garden District where we walked near Tulane University then through the park to Magazine Street. We had lunch then came back into town to visit the French Market. Hit Harrah's Casino for a bit then it was time for dinner. We bypassed Bourbon Street for Frenchmen Street where the locals hang out. Saw HBO filming an episode of Treme' then had the best fried chicken at the Praline Connection while the storm hit full force. Once the rain stopped a group of musicians started playing on the street corner. They played for well over an hour and even had a battle across the street. What a show! We then walked down the street to another bar where it was a version of open mike night. There were people everywhere on stage just jamming away. All in all a great day in Nawlins. I feel better about this town than I did before.

Now it's time to hit the road again. Florida is next up. Perhaps the Gulf Island National Seashore near Pensacola?