A Flat Tire In Africa

We left the beautiful Ernie Els Winery in Stellenbosch and were driving along a narrow brick road. As we were commenting on the expense it must have been to pave a road as long as that with bricks (look I even took a picture I thought it was so cool) we were approached by an oncoming truck. Now, I must remind you that in South Africa not only is the driver on the right side (or should I say wrong side) of the car but you also have to drive on the left side (also the wrong side) of the road. It was so strange. We actually adjusted easier than we thought we would, you just really had to concentrate hard - especially at intersections when you were trying to figure out which direction the cars would be coming from and which lane to turn into. The only part that we didn't really ever get the hang of was that the blinker was on the right side of the steering wheel and the windshield wipers were on the left. So every single time we went to turn on the blinker we turned on the windshield wipers instead - and it never got old, we laughed at each other EVERY time. So back to the oncoming truck.

Jeff swerved out of the way, off the road to the right and we fell of the side of the lovely brick road - the sharp, jagged edged, brick road - slightly startled by the feeling of falling off the road he swerved back. We continued on our little drive, the whole time Jeff complaining about how awful our car performed when he got over 120 kilometers an hour and kept complaining that it must be really windy out because the car kept pulling to the left. We had no idea that anything was actually wrong. It wasn't until an hour or so later that a nice passer by on the highway - let me also explain that most of the roads down there are single lane but with an extremely large side pull-off area. We found out that if the person behind you is going faster than you, instead of hogging the lane and making them pass you in the oncoming lane, you pull off the side and let then pass - so considerate. Anyway, someone came up behind us, so trying to do as they do in South Africa we maneuvered toward the left to let our friend pass. As he passed he honked and started waving and motioning his hands together. We both looked at each other and thought "oh crap, do we have a flat tire?"

We immediately pulled off the side of the road to see that indeed, we had a flat tire and it had probably been that way for an hour, thinking back to our little run in with the brick road back in Stellenbosch! Lucky for us, our little Kia Rio had a spare and my trusty husband changed that tire like a champ. And we definitely didn't let it affect our excitment and enjoyment of the adventure we were on - but look at that view that was around us, how could anyone be upset? The funniest part was the next morning when we popped into a tire repair shop - Speedy Tire in Knysna - and the guy there went above and beyond to help us out. He didn't have our size tire, so he called around to other places in town and found one. It didn't stop there though, he said it would be hard for us to find the location so he personally lead us there, stayed to help out, and also personally lead us to an ATM and back to get cash since we were a few dollars short to pay for the tire. What a nice guy! If anything we thought the entire event added to our trip, making it even more exciting and giving me a story I can continue to tell during my Life As A Wife.

Stellenbosch Wine Country

I was completely blown away by the infrastructure and level of development in South Africa. I pictured a barren wasteland - brown, flat land, with shacks periodically scattered. But, it wasn't that at all. It was green and luscious, well developed and full of rolling hills and mountains. Keep in mind I was only in the Southern Cape. I think the brown, barren land is in the Northern Cape, next time I might venture that way for a different experience (yes, I am already talking about a next time). Well, an area of South Africa that represents those beautiful rolling green hills quite well is the wine country of Stellenbosch. Jeff and I had read about the area in books and online before our trip and knew this was an area we couldn't miss. Plus, we love wine, so wine in South Africa was even more exciting. We heard about Spier Winery, which seems to be one of the biggest and most well-known, and figured we better hit it up. It didn't disappoint.

We arrived and immediately headed to the tasting area. We each had three from the vintage collection and they were tasty! After that, we roamed the property to check out the cheetah and eagle refuge and then popped into the on site deli to pick up some fixings for a picnic lunch along the lake on the property. It was beautiful and peaceful, except for the ducks that were pretty much jumping into our laps to try and eat our food. While at Spier we picked up a map of wineries in the area and realized that Stellenbosch was much larger than we thought, there were over 100 wineries in the area. We knew our time was limited and we only had time for one more stop, so we picked the Ernie Els Winery. Yes, Ernie Els, the pro-golfer! Jeff and I actually watched Mr. Els play in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines last year so we thought this was a perfect stop. Between my brother and Jeff's Dad (both avid golfers) we thought they would get a kick out of the visit as well. Mr. Els definitely selected one of the most beautiful pieces of land I have ever seen. It was perched up on a hill surrounded by mountains and rolling hills of vineyards. Breathtaking! We again went straight for the tasting and both enjoyed three wines from the collection. We picked up a couple of bottles to bring home with us and are looking forward to a special event to pop a bottle wine and reminisce about our trip.

We left wine country with a 4 hour drive ahead of us to Knysna. Our drive took us past a forest fire (this picture doesn't do it justice, you could actually see flames!), through farmland with more cows and sheep than I have ever seen in my life and onto our next adventure...a flat tire! The next story I tell about our adventures in South Africa during my Life As A Wife.

Cape Town

We arrived to Cape Town, South Africa on Saturday night and we were ready to hit the ground running. We made our way to our hotel, the Ambassador, which was absolutely beautiful and right on the water in Bantry Bay. As recommended by friends before we left we knew we needed to hit up Long Street and experience the night life. Thanks to our lovely hotel receptionist we found out that Mama Africa's was the place to eat! It was everything I hoped for! Authentic, native food (we ate kudu and crocodile), live music (which consisted of 3, 13 year old boys in wife beaters playing wooden / leather drums to African beats), and overall just a really cool rustic atmosphere. We followed up dinner with a few drinks at the Dubliner, an Irish pub across the street also with a live bar and of course, I fell asleep in the cab ride back to the hotel.

The next day we were ambitious and decided to head up to Table Mountain via the cable car and then hike our way down. We were at the mountain when the doors opened (which is when we also found out about Africa time - we were there at 9:00 am when it was supposed to open but nobody was there to help us until 9:30 am). It was absolutely gorgeous! You could see the entire city and all along the beautiful coastlines - both the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean. The hike down was pretty interesting, mostly because of the people we passed who were hiking up. Mind you, it took us over two hours to hike down, so I am thinking the hike up has to tkae longer than that! There was a group wearing flip flops and drinking beer, there were families with little kids, like 4 years old, families with dogs but not typical hiking dogs like a lab or something, nope more like shitzu's and pomeranians, and then there was one guy wearing like penny loafers and eating wine gums (chewy little candies that are named by different wines). One guy that was wearing sandles even told Jeff, "man, if I had shoes like yours I would have ran a marathon today" - random! The funniest part of it all was that some of the people hiking up looked like they were absolutely dying (sweating, breathing hard, looking miserable) while these other people were eating candy and drinking beer. So funny. After our hike we hit up the big shopping area in town, but after a quick lunch we were pretty zonked so we spent the rest of the day laying by the pool at our hotel, which overlooked the Atlantic Ocean. That day concluded with an amazing dinner at a little Indian food restaurant in Camps Bay - the swankier, upscale part of Cape Town that reminded us a lot of a Southern California coastal town.

We concluded our experience in Cape Town with a visit to the local aquarium. While there, they announced that they were going to be removing one of the sharks from the predator zone tank and that there would be divers in there to capture her. We couldn't miss that, pretty crazy to watch divers swimming around with a bunch of sharks and sting rays. We also saw penguins, so cute! A huge sea turtle and some pretty cool other fish. Cape Town was great, it seems like the place to be! The perfect combination of city life, beach towns and nature reserves. What an amazing city to experience during my Life As A Wife.

South Africa, Amazing - Getting There, Not So Much

Wow, where do I begin. I just returned from one of the most amazing vacations I have ever experienced. Not only was it the furthest I have ever traveled (nearly 24 hours of travel each way) but it was the most diverse vacation as well. From hiking mountains to lounging poolside along the Atlantic Ocean, from the world's longest bungee jump to a full day at the Indian Ocean beach, from being a bridesmaid in a wedding to hunting for kudu - what an trip! I have many stories to share and am planning to do mutiple blogs to cover it all, be sure to check back for more. For this first entry, let's chat about the getting there part.

As the title of this blog mentioned, the getting there part was not so amazing. It was at least 24 hours of travel each way. I must admit though, as bad as it was, it easier than I thought it would be. In order to make the trip as enjoyable as possible we tried to bring as many things to entertain us we could fit in our carry on bags. Books and magazines. I actually read three books during the trip, Confessions of a Shopaholic (totally ready to watch the movie now - loved the book), A New World (an Oprah Book Club recommendation - self help book that helped me "live in the moment" during my vacation), and Made To Stick (a marketing book that I got from my boss for Christmas - great, easy read with practical advice). I have realized that flights are pretty much the only time I ever read...sad, going to have to work on that. I also made it through two US Weekly's that I had saved up before the trip. Electronic devices. So, I love Sudoku and found this great little electronic handheld Sudoku puzzle thing at Target and thought it would be perfect for my trip. Unfortuntately, I didn't try it out before I left, bad mistake. After about 2 - 5 minutes of use, it would just mysteriously turn off. So annoying! Oh well, thanks to my buddy Lyndsey, I had a Nintendo DS complete with tons of games, including Sudoku, so that eased my annoyance of my own little Sudoku (taking that back this weekend!). Sleep. Jeff and I also made every effort to adjust to whatever time zone it was that we were traveling to as soon as we got on the plane and timed our naps accordingly - as many of you know, God gifted me with the ability to sleep anywhere, anytime and through anything. Movies. Unfortunately, the movies selected for the flight there were not that intrigueing - Nights in Rodanthe and another one I can't even remember, and then some low budget flick that Jeff was excited to watch but about 20 minutes into it they said "I am sorry, we are experiencing technical problems and will have to turn off the in-flight entertainment." We did however watch a movie titled Flash of Genious on the flight home and it was pretty entertaining. Free wine! Yes, they serve free alcohol on international flights, definitely helped me sleep even better.

Altogether, I must say that those two full days of travel wouldn't have been nearly as bearable without my travel buddy. It was so nice to have Jeff with me the entire time, making me feel like it was all going to be over soon. I couldn't have made the trip alone, that's for sure! Oh the joys of traveling with my husband during my Life As a Wife.

I'm Off To The Dark Continent

It is 12:00 am and I just finished packing my bags for the big hop across the pond to South Africa! When I say pond, I mean the Atlantic Ocean. Yes, Jeff and I depart at 6:30 am tomorrow morning from LAX for a nice 5 hour flight to NY JFK airport. Only to then get onto a plane that will be our home for the next 17 hours - an 8 hour flight to Senegal, a two hour stop off to refuel (not allowed to deplane) and then another 7 hours to Cape Town, South Africa! Wahoo...don't worry we are prepared for the long journey - Nintendo DS (thanks to Lyndsey), Sudoku, books, magazines, snacks, medicines, neck pillows and more!

Once we arrive in South Africa our travels take us along the coast. We begin in Cape Town, drive to Knysna, then to Jeffrey's Bay, all the way up to Durban, and then back down to a small city near Port Elizabeth, Kenton-on-Sea, for my friend Melinda's wedding. It's going to be amazing! We will be sure to take tons of pictures, gather many stories and try to experience the culture to the fullest. I can't wait to get back and tell you all about it. I still can't believe I am going to South Africa!!! Also, looking at this map, does anyone else think it is strange that there is randomly another country in the middle of South Africa - Lesotho???

Wish us luck on our once in a lifetime, big vacation during my Life As A Wife!!

Happy Friday The 13th

Jeff and I's first Valentine's Day, 6 years ago, was spent driving around Salem, Oregon looking for a restaurant - any restaurant - with less than an hour wait. Yes, Jeff forgot to make reservations and as most people know, Valentine's Day is probably the biggest dining out holiday of the year. We ended up at a Mexican restaurant that year and it was perfect, a date with him that I will always remember. In an effort to not have to battle the crowds on Valentine's Day this year we decided to celebrate our romantic holiday on Friday the 13th. It was actually because we had other plans on the 14th with friends, but the 13th definitely proved to be a great idea!

When we were dating Jeff and I realized that Valentine's Day and Anniversaries are for both the guy and the girl, so we started a tradition of alternating who would be responsible for coming up with the plans for those two special holidays. This Valentine's Day was my turn. Trying to be creative I researched all kinds of things we could do: paintball, snowboarding, sporting clays (yes, none of these very romantic but nonetheless fun things that we have been wanting to do). When it came down to it, and since we were celebrating on a Friday night, I decided on dinner and a movie. We went to a Benihana style restaurant and ate enough food for 10 people. Those places are always so entertaining...however, our chef was horrible. He kept dropping things, his choo choo train volcano of onions fell over, he cut the shrimp soooo slow and didn't do any tricks with the shrimp tails or eggs (obviously I have a lot of experience at these places). Despite our chef's lack of talent, it was still fun and the food was amazing. The thing that tickled me the most was when halfway through the meal, the couple next to us asked "are you guys newlyweds?" They could tell by the way we interacted that we were still in that flirty, exciting stage. So cute! After a great dinner I drug my hubby to "He's Just Not Than Into You." A movie that I personally thought was hilarious and Jeff would have rather died than sit through it. But, he was sweet and didn't complain. What a guy, how did I get so lucky?

Altogether, it was a great first Valentine's Day as a married couple celebrated on Friday the 13th - which happens to be a lucky day for Jeff and I's relationship. I might just continue that tradition of celebrating the holiday, not actually on the holiday, during my Life As A Wife.

Awkward Moments - Passing While Walking

Have you ever had that awkward moment when you and someone walking just in front of you are going at relatively the same pace, but you are going just a little bit faster...its like you want to pass them by and leave them in the dust, but then you think, we only have 10 more feet to walk, wouldn't that be strange? FYI - this picture has nothing to do with this blog, but I thought it was funny and considering the topic of this blog the arrow should probably be facing up! Love my brother.

Earlier this week I was on my way to the doctor - one of many trips to the doc. lately (another story, another day) - and right as I was walking into the building a lady got out of a car and started walking in front of me. She was walking extremely slow, but we only had 30 or so feet to walk to the elevator, so I thought I could just suck it up and walk behind her. Well, it was excrutiating and awkward. I was right there next to her, walking as slow as I possibly could and it was as if we were walking together, but not. We both hopped into the elevator - yet another awkward situation, why does everyone look down, zip their lip and NEVER make contact in the elevator?? - and since she was a little older than me I felt bad and I figured I would let her get in first. Of course she picked the same floor as me and as we exited, again me being polite let her go first. I noticed she turned in the direction I was going in. Letting my competitive side come through, I decided I need to pass this sucker - I made a dash for it, passed like the wind and successfully entered my doctor's office. Wouldn't you know it, no less than 30 seconds later, the door opened to the office and it was none-other than my slow, left in the dust, little old lady. Awkward.

This morning, it happened again, but this time it was coming out of the parking garage at work. Between the 2 escalators you have to go up to get to the street level there is about a 20 foot span of flat space, a great opportunity to pass the slow person in front. But with such a small amount of space I was worried that I wouldn't pass in time and then there would be that awkward moment where we are neck-in-neck getting onto the next escalator. So again, I sucked it up and walked as slow as I possibly could. After the second escalator I made the attempt to pass, success! Only to one block later be standing at a crosswalk with her right next to me...awkward! Why is this such an awkward situation? Am I the only one who thinks so? Do I have too much free time if I am pondering things such as this during my Life As a Wife?