Day 56: First Full Day in Cape Town — A Beach Braai with Old Friends

[Note: Network is really slow in our Cape Town house so we’re posting without pics for now.]

We awoke this morning at 7 am to the sound of our burglar alarm going off. Awesome! It was just the wind, but nice to know it works – and that a security guy came right away after we didn’t answer their call (we couldn’t find the phone when we heard it ringing).

It didn’t wake the kids, who slept til 10:30…

Our kitchen is so awesome here. We were commenting that a room like this plus two bedrooms is all we’d need in a house – so perfect. The doors were wide open and another gorgeous sunny day poured in.

Basically this house is heaven. For NYC’ers used to a box in the sky, a little bit of space with a tiny little yard and some sunshine feels like magic.

We had a leisurely breakfast and did some school. After lunch back in the kitchen (we never want to leave it), we headed out to meet up with Luke Crowley and his wife Meg.

Luke was my year at Vanderbilt, and a good buddy back then, but I haven’t seen him since those days, I don’t think. He moved to South Africa in 2007 and hasn’t left. His awesome wife Meg is from Johannesburg.

They invited us to a “braai” aka a barbeque on the beach, so we set out around 4 toward the water. The beach they picked, Beta, sits between Camps Bay and Bakoven. With the mountains behind us — Lions Head and the Twelve Apostles — we posted up on the “beach,” which was really an expanse of dramatic boulders.

It was so good to see Luke and meet Meg. Both are fun, funny and very good with kids. We asked a zillion questions and got totally caught up on their lives and their experiences living in this city. James told them the piranha story AND the story of seeing a crab in the pool bathroom stall in Bahia (his personal favorite — that’s basically the whole story).

Willa and James had fun “helping” cook fish skewers and hot dogs on the grill, and exploring the tide pools with Meg. Baby starfish! A dead crab who’d been nibbled by seagulls! Amazing stuff.

As the sun set, the sky got more dramatic. It was so beautiful.

We look forward to diving in to this city in the weeks to come.