Summer Breeze, Makes Me Feel Fine

Hi all,

I'm excited to report that we're going home to the States to visit family and friends on the east coast in late June through late July.  (Hope to see some of you!)  I'm sad we won't make it out west for my great cousin (aka my grandmother's first cousin) Max's 90th birthday & retirement party. (Here's to having a job you want to keep doing until you're 90!)  But next year I hope we'll make it to California to see Noah's birth family, Max and Ron, Roger and Marsha, etc. In the meantime, my goal is to get caught up to the present before we fly out. 

Back in January, it was hot here. Not Atlanta hot, but Africa hot - blazing blue skies, low humidity and torrential rain for brief periods in the evenings.

We spent a good amount of time in our backyard enjoying the rubber-raft-turned-kiddie-pool sent to us by my dad.

 Who needs a slide or a real pool when you can take a running leap into this one?  
(Noah looks on, taking in the moves.)

 Water Boy

 We house-sat a friend's dog, a beagle named Max, for a week.  He was incredibly quiet and calm. Let's just say he got a lot of attention while in our house.

To say that Noah loved him is to put it mildly. Noah loved him so much that he sometimes didn't know how to control his love.  At one point when adults were briefly out of sight, Noah pushed Max over the edge and he bit Noah on his forehead.  I came running down the stairs to the sight of a lot of blood (I guess the head bleeds a lot) and rushed him down to the local ER.  He was a trooper and didn't need stitches, but did get some antibiotics. Anyway, we tried to counsel Noah on how to convey your love more appropriately. Luckily Noah didn't seem the least bit traumatized.  Upon returning home, he immediately asked "Where doggie?" and went over to snuggle with him.  Apparently some bonds are greater than blood.  (Did I mention there was a lot of it?  And Adam was at work.)

A full-bodied dish

A friend sent this from her Blackberry - it was taken at a local Italian restaurant.  (They have those here, though sometimes they get the flavors a bit wrong.  Makes me miss home.)

I believe Lucy was giggling about something, but it has the look of (a future scene...) "You are so embarrassing me, Dad!"  

Our new tent!

After running the tent my folks gave me for my bar mitzvah (really) into the ground, Adam surprised me with a new larger (family friendly) tent for Hanukkah.  (Apparently Jews like to pair religion and camping.  "Kids, Moses camped for 40 days and 40 nights in a much smaller tent with no mosquito netting, so be thankful and go to bed!")  It took a month to arrive from REI in Seattle and with great fanfare, we set it up in the yard for a test run.

Lucy took the opportunity to grab every piece of camping or potential-camping equipment from the garage and haul it out to the new tent.  It is quite roomy, though South Africans love big tents, so it doesn't look all that large when we camp.  (We've seen people with full-on portable kitchens and separate tents for dining, plug-in fridges, you name it.)

 Adam's birthday!   We celebrated with cupcakes and our favorite "likely illegal in the States" firecracker candle.  (Our friend's daughter, Massie, was there for the festivities.)

Noah is still thinking about the pyrotechnics when the cupcakes are finally served.

Glamping

In mid Jan, we were invited by some gay friends from Joburg to go "glamping" with them. Of course this means "Gay Camping," which means...  well, we weren't really sure. (One can imagine, though. "Honey, bring the tent with the linen drapes!  You know how synthetics irritate my skin. Plus, it'll match the high veld grasses.")   It was at a beautiful campground called Mountain Sanctuary, about an hour away from Pretoria.

 We took a hike to explore some natural water slides we had been told about.

 Did somebody say water slides?!  Lucy didn't need any coaxing to hike.

  Noah followed Lucy's lead and walked right in.

No matter what I tried, I could not get Noah to stop drinking the water.  Luckily it was crystal clear. (That makes it OK, right?!)

 Changing back at our tent -- this time with its fancy fly up. (Luckily, no rain).

In the meantime, the Glamping commenced!  

(Sure, I'll have a little bubbly.  Reminds me of my days back in Boy Scouts...)

 Noah - "Lucy, get up!  If they're only having cocktails now, we won't get our hot dogs for hours!"

 Noah decided, "Why fight it?" and got into his PJs, while Adam enjoyed a glass of champagne

Lucy flirted with all the boys

I tried to read to Noah as night descended.  Note Noah's legs flipped up. He loved the tent almost as much as he loved Max and conveyed that "if I thought he was going to bed, I had another thing coming!"

Meanwhile the girls focused on the important things. (We brought a Hershey's "S'mores Kit"that Judy and Stan sent us and introduced the locals to the joys of graham crackers + marshmallows + chocolate.  We have yet to find graham crackers here and their marshmallows are distinctly different and feel even more like puffed plastic than their American counterparts.)

The next morning, over brunch (it is glamping, remember), Lucy convinced Colin to read to her from a favorite Richard Scarry book.  (Quite a civilized affair, eh?)

 As Hillary said, it takes a village.

 As usual, our campsite had acacia trees with their crazy thorns. 

 The thorns didn't stop Noah from running around with no shoes and his favorite monkey.

Before departing, we explored a larger natural pool and water slide, which was (pardon my Rhode Island) wicked slippery. 

But nothing stopped Lucy.

Noah considered the whole thing rather tiresome and sacked out.

A New Visitor

We were very excited to have Adam's Aunt Shelley come to visit from Cleveland. (I believe that's west of Namibia.)  She did an amazing-sounding two week tour of South Africa and Botswana (which included landing in a prop plane on a grass field!  See Overseas Adventure Travel and come visit) and came over early to see us.  Lucy was quick to get her in on her favorite game in her room.

 Noah was polite and kept his bib (and shirt) on while she joined him for breakfast. 

Before heading down to Joburg to start her tour, we hiked a bit around our local nature reserve, Groenkloof. Didn't spot any animals that morning, but she later reported seeing a group of 96 elephants walking by her hotel in Zimbabwe, so I didn't feel too bad.

The Safari aired out the tent (and washed the [plastic] wine glasses by hand) for future glampouts. xo,
Glenn

Latkes, Hippos, Crabs and Hikes... Goodbye 2011

Hi all,

Wondering where his parents were, Adam's brother (aka Uncle Josh) tracked them down over here in South Africa during the last few days of 2011.  We had a great visit with Josh and his boyfriend Raj, who were here with Judy and Stan to ring in the new year.  

 The day after Josh and Raj arrived, we got them up at 4 am to go on a safari. 
(They were too jet lagged to resist.)  Lucy and Josh search for hippos at a viewing station.

Mud baths are all the rage this year.

Hippos put Lucy to sleep.

 A baboon greeted us by the side of the road.

 The whole gang... (Dorothy is holding Noah, and Michael, our compound's guard, is next to me.  I'll have to write about crime and safety in South Africa sometime. It's a complicated topic.)

It wouldn't be a proper Cohen gathering in December if Stan didn't make latkes. (We were going to have a belated Hanukkah party but after a long safari and given our jetlagged guests, we decided to just eat the latkes ourselves.)

 Josh pretends to help.

A fine Hanukkah(ish) meal.

Happy to have family in town*.
* Glenn, less happy to realize he'll have to start cooking again once Grandude Stan leaves.

 Raj and Josh and South Africa's favorite sweet chili sauce

Our last day with Judy and Stan (they flew home that night)... Grandude and Lucy play a mean Uno game in the backyard.  (Notice our crazy shrubs. I swear I had one as a house plant in Seattle.)

Knowing the Cohens wouldn't want us to mope around after their departure, we drove down to the Drakensburg Mountains to show Josh and Raj a bit of South Africa.  Here's a shot Josh took of Royal Natal National Park (in the KwaZulu-Natal province), about 5 hours from Pretoria.

We rented a cabin that was flanked by a pen with several miniature horses. The kids were entranced. (Noah was also in a "no pants" phase. "Loosen up, Dad! Pants confine the soul.")

 As the sun went down, Noah could still not get enough of the horses.  (Lucy was sure he was going to climb the barbed wire fence to try and ride one. Luckily he didn't.)

Making dinner out on the porch.

 Back to the horses he went.

(Yes, apparently I should have changed his diaper instead of snapping pictures. But I was entranced by the miniature horses too.)

  With Noah chasing after the local dog, Lucy had time to ask the mini horses some questions.

Adam and Raj prep for dinner

 Noah communes with nature as darkness descends. ("Must say good night to the horses!")

Earlier that day, Jungle Jane climbs the jungle gym.

Noah practices his new yoga pose.
(Downward Facing Diaper)

Before we went to bed and much to our surprise, we found a crab (!) in our kitchen.  How it made its way here from Baltimore I have no idea. (Who knew there were African crabs and that they didn't really need much water.  There was a small pond a few hundred meters from our cabin, but still.)

The next day we took a hike in Royal Natal.

 Hiking buddies

 I'm not sure what was so funny, but maybe it had to do with that small crab and the miniature horses. (What were we going to find tonight? A baby panda?) 

 Mountain Man

Watch your step!
We decided it was time for Noah to pull his weight around here and walk a bit on his own. 
(He was game for about 10 minutes. It's a start.)

Lucy explores a watering hole along the trail. (She changed into her bathing suit and was in before I finished unlacing my boots. To be fair, it was really, really hot.)

The local lifeguard

Noah was happy to walk when it involved walking through water.

That evening we were graced with an amazing sunset.  (Photo credit: Josh)

 The next day we hiked up part of Cathedral Peak.  We came upon a soft sandstone cave-like area where Lucy decided she wanted to be a mountain climber when she grows up.

Noah liked it too

She comes back down for a snack.

Papa at rest

Dad at rest

We all needed some personal space, apparently.

While we stopped to fill up the cars to drive home, the kids kept on riding.

Back in Pretoria, we took Josh and Raj over to our local nature reserve, Groenkloof.  As we walked the trails we met up with some local ostriches, also out on a short constitutional.

We were really lucky to happen upon one of the local giraffe in the reserve. (There are seven and you don't always see them.) 

The kids get out some energy before bed.

The last few climbs with Uncle Josh before he and Raj say their goodbyes and head back to New York. 

That wraps up 2011, the Safari's first full year over here.  Thanks for reading.  I'm going to try "speed blogging" a bit to catch up to the present, otherwise, I fear I'll be writing about Romney's latest attack ads, as interpreted by South Africa's talk radio station, well after the election.  (GobamaSA.)

xo,
Glenn