Recently

The dry season is upon us and so our fruit trees are blossoming!! We found out this year that we have a guava tree and a banana tree! Also an avocado tree! It's a huge tree, and we really didn't realize all that it would produce. Here's a picture of just the tip top of the tree and all the avocados on it.

Now times that by 20 and you might have an idea of how many avocados we really have, it's crazy! Tyler has been enjoying the avocados very much with his dinners.

And here are some pictures of us recently. We took these for our moms Mother's Day cards.

I LOVE this picture of these two handsome boys! They are great!!

V & A Waterfront

One of the best things in Cape Town was going over to the Victoria & Albert Waterfront everyday. It was where you got on the ferry to Robben Island, where a HUGE shopping mall is, where lots of food, and lots of fun are to be had. Also that was where we were able to have some Haagen Dazs ice cream EVERY DAY. It was soo yummy!

Speaking of ice cream here was a statue we walked by while going to the waterfront. Interesting we thought.

This is the clock tower right by the Robben Island ferry and museum.

The swinging bridge that takes you over to some malls.

Tyler on the bridge with the bay behind him.

I also saw many yachts while we were there, but this was the one I was hoping to have one day. Do you see the red carpet you walk on to get on the boat?!?

One of the shopping areas with the ferris wheel in the back.

Alfred Mall, I loved how all the buildings looked around there.

Saw this in one of the windows of the shop...was thinking about getting a feathery dress, looks perfect!

The shopping there was crazy great! We didn't buy much, but every time we saw a bookstore all three of us would just turn and go straight into it. We spent a lot of time in the many bookstores within the big mall there. They also had upscale stores like Louis Vuitton and Burberry (which I HAD to go into!).

We saw this statue on the way to the Aquarium (with Table Mountain in the background), it is made from Coca-Cola plastic bins!!! Pretty awesome...obviously he thinks he's number 1!

Here are some statues of very important people in Noble Square.

From left to right: Albert Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, FW de Klerk, and Nelson Mandela

A close up of Nelson Mandela's statue.

We had a fabulous time in Cape Town, South Africa and would encourage EVERYONE to visit there at least once. It's beautiful, relaxing, so much history, with good food and great shopping.

Prison at Robben Island

After we did the island tour we went and met our guide for the prison on Robben Island. The tour guides for just the prison part are all ex-prisoners that used to be there!!! What a perspective to get while walking around. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of the outside of the prison, but these will do.

Inside one of the big prisoner holding rooms, this would house about 60 men. They would sleep on the floor and have just 2 or 3 blankets they could use.

Here is the man that gave us our tour. He was in the prison for political reasons.

An example of the ID card for each prisoner.

Their meals. It is divided into two diets, B and C. They were different for different prisoners and what their crimes were politically.

Walking through the outside part of the prison.

In a prison cell. Spencer doesn't seem happy to be in there at all.

Each prison cell had information about one of the prisoners that stayed there. We went into the first one and it was the one where the guy who's prison card we saw.

Information about him, and what he went through.

The small shelf in the cell.

Hallway to go and see Nelson Mandela's cell.

This is where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. And that was all he had in the cell. The red bucket was the bathroom.

Not much, but what a great leader that came from this spot!

The outside courtyard area. This is where they would do exercises but also work on things like chipping away at stone.

It was interesting to see what the prison looked like and all that those men who were trying to change the political climate in South Africa had to go through.

Robben Island

Another tourist thing to do in Cape Town is to take the ferry out to Robben Island. Robben Island was once where a prison was held for political prisoners. There is also a small village on the island. People still live out there, but the prison is not used. One of their most famous prisoners was Nelson Mandela and current South African president Jacob Zuma.

After we got off the boat this was the entrance to the island.

Here is a photograph of what it looked like with the prisoners coming into the island. They were given very little when they got here. Just shorts and shirt, and they all had to have their heads shaved.

This island was also a place for those with leprosy, starting in 1845, to be quarantined. This is the cemetery of those who died of leprosy.

This was the limestone pit where prisoners came to dig. Many of them years later were diagnosed with diseases because they had inhaled so much limestone dust. It was huge and for them to just have picks and small shovels to dig all of this was crazy!

This pile of rocks was started by Nelson Mandela. One day he just laid a stone in the middle of the pit, and through the years other prisoners also went and put stones there.

They also dug out this cave where they would have some talks about things, you can barely see them but they even build out some benches inside.

The church on the island has been there for a long time.

It is also one that is famous because a lot of people come to it on Valentine's Day to get married. Our tour guide told us this past Feb. 14th there were 12 weddings!!!!

Here is the school K-12 on the island.

At the edge looking out over the bay.

The island has had much destruction and I found what seems to be a chimney on the beach.

The lighthouse.

A rotting whale, and let me tell you that smell will never go away for me. P.U.!

This is a gun that was build during WWII. They wanted to protect Cape Town if anything happened down there, well turns out they didn't use it. Mostly because they didn't finish building it until AFTER the war was over. :) Our tour guide said it was in proper African timeframe...which is true.

More on the prisoners of Robben Island next.

Table Mountain

One of the tourist spots for Cape Town, besides the city itself is Table Mountain, and you pretty much can't miss it once you get into Cape Town. Why is it called Table Mountain?? Well, look for yourself.

It looks like a table.

We drove up there, not to the very top but about half way up to be able to ride to the top. You can also hike up to the top but it looked steep and rough and I didn't want to carry 50 lb. Spencer halfway up, nor have Tyler do that.

Once we drove up to the place to get tickets to ride the gondola, this is the view we saw. All of Cape Town.

This was looking up from the get on point for the gondolas. It was a looonnnggg way up, but the ride itself took only 5 minutes.

A bit of a closer look.

When we got on the floor started to spin, so everyone could see all views. It was pretty cool. This was the hiking trail to go up, we saw two people on that trail and they looked tired.

A look back over Cape Town while going up the gondola.

More to the right.

See that first stripe in front of the rocks, that is the road that we parked on, and the building is on the left by the wires. A long way down!

We were even up above the clouds. It was soo pretty, and a little hard to breathe.

Remember what I was saying about perspective? Here is Spencer's head for some.

A little critter that was up on the rocks, we actually saw a lot of them.

Spencer didn't want to get near the edge, so he posed on the rocks.

Beautiful flower up on the mountain. I need to write down the names of all of these things when I take the picture, but I always forget. It was pretty big too.

Spencer and I looking out over the Atlantic Ocean. Is that my parents house I see WAAAYYY over on the other side?? :) just kidding!!! It would be a FAR ways off, since if we did see anything it would be South America, but you can't see it.

Here is what the top of Table Mountain looks like.

Cape Town from the very top of Table Mountain, you could see everything. If you look on the left side of the picture, on the right of that small hill, you see a circle. Got it? That is a stadium that was used for the World Cup.

I saw this guy sitting over there by his lonesome, so I took a picture. Not exactly how I wanted it to turn out, but it makes you see what a small piece of the earth we are.

Here is Lions Head mountain. Looks more like a lion's head when you are down in the city.