South Africa (2/2): Cape Town

After a few days in the wine country, we took a full day road trip down the coast to get to our next stop - Cape Town.  I hadn't been back to Cape Town since I was in South Africa back in the late '90s for work.  I was amazed at how much had changed - particularly the townships where there were new schools and parks and houses and electricity.  Cape Town itself was as beautiful and vibrant as ever.

Gorgeous, bright double rainbow on our drive down the coast!

Windy coast

Boulder Beach to see the penguns

The beach at our cottage.  Our cottage was in a fun neighborhood.  We had to park at a public parking lot and walk down and up stairs and down little sidewalk "alleys" in a beach neighborhood with no roads.  Charming but would be difficult to live there full time and get groceries there every week!

Township tour with a great organization called Uthundu which took us to several non-profit organizations who are doing great work in these undeserved areas.  Our first stop is an organization that helps elderly women during the day and a place for girls to go afterschool.  These young ladies (and their two male helpers) sang us a great few songs on our visit.

Roof top garden over one of the Cape Town townships - fresh veggies where it's not easy to get them

Our girls and a preschool teacher at a nursery

Sweet kids at a nursery warmly welcomed us

Picnic lunch with a picturesque visitor

A bit chilly but not a bad day for an outdoor lunch

Clouds rolling over the 12 Apostles mountains in the background 

View from lunch

Beach fun

View back towards our cottage at Clifton Beach 4.  Our cottage is to the left of the middle palm tree - behind the white one on the beach.  There are no roads in this neighborhood.  We park at the public beach parking and walk up and down a ton of stairs and around narrow walkways.  A charming older neighborhood!

Outdoor shower - a great place to rinse off the sand from the beach

The seals at the waterfront

Hiking at Cape Point which is the most "south-westernly" point in Africa but NOT the southern most tip (Jake was disappointed by that fact!) 

Was still a gorgeous place to spend the day hiking

We discovered this wonderful ice cream spot in Camps Bay - Peppermint Crunch -  yum! We *might* have gone back for more more than once...

A-n-d, we run into a family from our school on the gondola heading up to the top of Table Mountain!  Small world!!  These sweet boys are in Anna and Meredith's classes

Gondola views

Our tiny, quick glimpse of the beautiful view from the top of Table Mountain...

.... and then the clouds rolled in.

Meredith and Jane LOVED the fog/ clouds

They ran this way and that and would yell, "Are we lost?  Can you see us?"

The cold rest of us finally talked them off the mountian.

A little hike near the bottom.  Nice view of the city below.

Not at the top but still a bit chilly (and windy)

Playground!

Zip line

We found a fabulous local food court type place.  Regan picked out a burrito from a Mexican place.  I got a vegan raw food pizza.  It was delicious!

A-n-d then we run into ANOTHER family from our school!  Another small world!  After we got back, we found out that the two families we ran into from our school were on the same flight back to Abu Dhabi together!

Beach art

Fantastic meal on our last night - Meredith tackling the sushi.