December 1, we left Arusha to travel by the Impala Shuttle to Nairobi, Kenya. After a night at the Mennonite Guest House, we flew to Cape Town, South Africa for ten days of exploration of the city, the Cape and the wine country. We had a wonderful time taking in the history and culture of Cape Town. An added bit of excitement was the fact that our stay coincided with the draw for the order of the World Cup soccer games to be held in South Africa in 2010. Cape Town put on quite a party for the 100,000+ soccer fans who came for the festivities.
From Cape Town, we traveled down the Cape to visit the Kirstenbosch Gardens (glorious!) and then to Fishoek, where we stayed at the Sunny Cove Inn (owned by former ELCA Lutheran missionaries). We spent a day visiting the South African penguins at Boulder Beach and hiking all over Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. That's a picture of us looking out from the highest point of the Cape of Good Hope.Franschoek was our last stop while in SA. We spent several days doing wine tastings at vineyards around the area, and we decided that there are no bad South African wines. The countryside was very picturesque with the vineyards covering the sides of the mountains. It's definitely a place we'd love to return to in the future!
We flew back out of Cape Town to Nairobi on Dec. 12 and then on to the U.S., arriving at Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 14. After a couple of enjoyable days spent with our niece, Meredith, who now lives in Leesburg, we took her to the airport on Dec. 17 for her Christmas trip to be with family in Arizona and drove off in her Mini Cooper to Maryland.
You probably know that the largest December snow storm in history hit the Eastern U.S. on Friday-Saturday, Dec. 18-19. Well, Mini Coopers are not the best vehicles for driving in 20+ inches of snow! We had planned to visit Holy Communion Lutheran Church, Fallston (one of our sponsor churches) on Sunday morning, but the blizzard nixed that idea.
By Monday, however, Maryland roads were clear, so we headed out and down to Virginia. Bad idea! The governor of Virginia decreed that no roads would be plowed until after all the snow stopped falling. As a result, Virginia roads were in horrible shape. Traveling through Charlottesville in the Mini was treacherous, even with Bob's excellent driving. Driving west from Charlottesville on Rt. 250, we saw at least 20 cars that had been left stranded on the sides of the road. When we tried to drive up the snow-covered hill toward JMe's cousins' house in the mountains near Crozet, we realized that our little car was just not up to the challenge. We slid back down the hill and went to stay at a Holiday Inn back in Charlottesville for the night hoping that a family member with a 4X4 would be able to pick us up the next day. Our little car is now parked in a church lot in Crozet, and we're pretty much snowed in with JMe's cousins. All is well.
We plan to head into Waynesboro to be with the rest of JMe's family for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Since a new generation of cousins is now living on the family farm, there will be new traditions begun this year. There have been many changes in our lives during the past decade, but one constant has been the love of our family and friends.
Posts
