Mission Accomplished

We are home from our first R&R'! R&R simply stands for "Rest and Relaxation". However, in this house it should be called S&E because all we did was "Shop and Eat!

Every family trip we've taken has some sort of drama and this one was no different! It began with Carter this time. The minute we got to the airport he started throwing up. He threw up the entire 2 hours we were there and once while on the plane. I was sure it was going to be a stomach virus and we would all be sick the entire trip...but thank God it ended by the time we got to Namibia! He perked up and no one else got sick....whew!

When we got to Namibia we were suppose to have a short layover but because we were off to a late start in Luanda, we landed and literally had to run to make the next flight. When we got on the plane we realized that we were separated and they had one of us sitting in 1st class and the other 4 in coach. Haha! Guess who got the golden ticket?!?

When we arrived in Cape Town we went to get our luggage only to realize it didn't make the flight...."Tomorrow" they said. "We will deliver it by 1pm".

We got our rental car and had so much fun watching Craig sit on the right side of the car, drive on the left side of the road, and shift gears with his left hand! Whoa!! Too much for me! I never even attempted that one. He did great!

During the week we did all of the "tourist" excursions. We took a cable car to the top of Table Mountain and hiked around, we saw a movie, went bowling, we took a boat to Robben Island and toured the prison where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, we drove south along the coast to a penguin colony and climbed "The Cape of Good Hope" to a lighthouse where you can see the Indian and Atlantic Ocean. Along the drive we ran into 2 packs of wild baboons and saw ostriches running around. It was breathtaking! We also found a really nice casino called GrandWest Casino. The first time there I hit big on the slots and doubled our money. Craig also won big playing switch blackjack. The second time there we lost some but still had fun. The kids enjoyed the casino because there was an ice skating rink and a huge game room. We also went down to the Victoria and Albert Waterfront a few times and every single day we went to a mall! We found a mall that had a Science center for kids. We were able to drop off our kids there while we shopped! It was wonderful!

Woolworth!! I L-O-V-E Woolworth! I shopped there (like a crazy, mad woman) everyday! It is the most amazing store on earth! I spent....well we won't go there....but let's just say, we left Luanda with 2 duffel bags and came home with 5. The US needs a Woolworth!!

Aside from all of the shopping and site seeing we did enjoy food! We feasted on McDonald's and KFC and Pizza and all sorts of other junk foods. It was great!

The kids really enjoyed themselves on this trip and did plenty of shopping and eating themselves! We stayed up late, slept in and had ice cream and dessert with just about every meal. They want to go back to Cape Town! We found a Toys R Us and another big toy store that they spent hours in.

There are a few things that we did not do that we will do next time. Craig really wanted to take a helicopter ride, the kids wanted to do a pirate cruise and I wanted to tour the wineries. Our next R&R to Johannesburg and Victoria Falls is already booked for December but if I can secure a spot on Nov. 1st for the "Two Ocean's Marathon", we will go back to Cape Town for our March/April R&R for sure. We originally said we would not go to a place twice while we were here, but Cape Town is an exception. We absolutely loved it!

Which brings me to an end...R&R...S&E....whatever you call it...our mission was accomplished!

Oh, I almost forgot the luggage! We arrived Friday and did not get our luggage until Sunday night! But we did get it :-).