The whole gang - on a 1.5 hour ocean cruise looking for wild life, especially hoping for dolphins and whales.
My sister and her family were able to come visit us from Turkey. They spent the week with us adventuring all over the Cape area. We loved having them spend time with us.
Cousins at the Two Oceans Aquarium
My brother-in-law, Aaron, has always wanted to visit Cape Town, so we were especially glad he was able to cross this off his bucket list. We are sure, though, that now he’s been here, he may want to come back—maybe even permanently. This city (and this country) tends to have that effect on people.
These two, plus Nora, were peas in a pod. It was great to see friendships forming over the week.
We got to visit Cape Town a few times, including a coffee tour for Brian and Aaron, which was to their liking. It was to Erin and I’s liking that we didn’t have to go on the tour. The kids, Erin, and I went to pet a cheetah while they sipped coffee.
The girls and Heidi with Tobias the cheetah.
The boys and Tobias the cheetah.
We also went on a fun ocean cruise to see some ocean wildlife. We—especially Aaron and I—were really hoping to see dolphins and whales. Unfortunately, we only saw seals and penguins. The really neat thing was that the groups of penguins (a huddle) were so far from land. I’ve only ever seen them in shallow water by the rock colonies they live in.
Nora found a shell with an inhabitant.
We also spent a day going down the coast. We were able to have everyone meet Tahiyya, which was such a great time. We then headed down to meet some penguins at Seaforth Beach. Unfortunately, there were only two penguins out that day, but it was a good day for shells. Nora found a really neat shell, only to discover it still had someone living in it.
Erin discovered the “medium” cone should be called the “AS BIG AS YOUR FACE” cone.
Erin and I had a fun tradition of fitting in an ice cream cone by the beach in every day, except the very last day. We had so much fun eating our cones and enjoying people watching by the beach, except for one day when we kept getting whiffs of trash. That day stunk literally.
I call this one: Cousins connecting over the internet while sitting next to each other on the couch.
The week was such a great blessing to us because Turkey is not next door to Illinois. We don’t know when we’ll see them next. It’s always so much fun to connect and spend time together. We are so thankful they took time and all the effort to make it to this corner of the world to hang out with us and meet the newest Malcolm.