Back from Vac

A rhyming title, how about that? Spring Vac is now over, although I'm still not back into the swing of things yet. Mom is here, and I'm trying my best to entertain her, although at the moment she's trying not to doze off while sitting beside me in the computer lab.

Mom arrived on Saturday night, healthy, though tired and missing her luggage. We had a slow day on Sunday, going to the late church service, then wandering around Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. (Meanwhile, her luggage DID arrive...) It was lovely to share a beautiful, cloudless day with Mom enjoying the colors and fragrances in the garden. On Monday I took her to the top of Table Mountain to get a view of the city (and no stalking dassies this time, hooray!) Then we went out for Mexican food before going to see a poetry reading.

On Tuesday we packed and flew to Johannesburg to prepare for our safari. We spent Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in Kruger National Park riding around in open vehicles, looking out for wild game. We managed to spot all of the "Big Five" (lions, leopards, buffalo, rhinos, and elephants), plus giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, mongooses (mongeese? hmm...), snakes, eagles, imapala, kudu, duikers, and even a couple of cheetahs, which were a rare and suprising treat. One morning we even got stuck because a lioness and her four cubs were napping in the middle of the road we had been traversing. I got some amazing, close-up pictures of the lions being lazy and holding up traffic. We also had a night drive, ate lots of great food, and generally enjoyed the warm, savanna weather.

We arrived safely back in Cape Town on Saturday night. On Sunday we drove east of Cape Town toward the "Garden Route". We drove through the colorful, patchwork fields of the winelands, then stopped at Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa. We both dipped our fingers (and toes, accidentally!) in the Indian Ocean before heading back to Cape Town.

On Monday classes started again, but Mom and I still had fun visiting the Waterfront for some shopping and a dinner with live jazz. I decided to go to the creche with SAEP on Tuesday as usual, but I brought Mom along and she got to meet the children and see where I've been working. We also went out for African food, which was lovely.

Today I misbehaved by skipping my classes and taking Mom to Cape Point instead. We watched the penguins waddling around and playing in the surf, enjoyed the incredible mountain and beach views, and had a magnificent lunch out.

I promise I'll tell more stories later, but at the moment Mom has fallen asleep in the chair beside me, so I need to get her back to the house.