106: Easter Egg Hunt Life Lessons — Random’est Day — Skabenga Barfs
Happy rainy windy Easter from Durban!
The kids were very excited about the hotel’s easter egg hunt for kids, scheduled for 10 am.
We showed up right at 10 am at the meeting place: The hotel kids club. From there the nice counselor ladies led all the kids to a garden for the hunt.
We were in the rear of the line when James and Willa realized other kids had buckets and they didn’t — so they ran back to the room a few doors down to get pails.
Now they were several minutes behind the group.
When we caught up, the hunt was already underway, with kids racing around frantically grabbing at eggs. But Willa and James got all clingy and shy about participating. Eventually they set out in search of hidden chocolate eggs, but they were so sheepish compared to the others (at one point James spotted an egg in a tree and waved Teddy over to get it for him, but then another kid ran over to grab it, and James backed off).
At the end — the whole thing lasted 3 minutes — Willa and James had really meager hauls compared to other kids. And they were devastated.
Shall we count the life lessons here?
- Early bird gets the worm (we showed up right on time — should always arrive early)
- Come prepared (hadn’t thought through the needs — including bringing buckets)
- Set forth without fear (instead they wasted precious time clinging to me and begging me to help them)
- Stand your ground/be resourceful/stand up for yourself (when that other kid moved in on James’s candy,, James looked at us for help and ceded the candy in shyness)
- Go for it! Kids were racing around while ours were tentative and reserved
- Sometimes you won’t have as much as others.
Live and learn, people!!
Fake smiles 
Some chick with way more candy
The rest of the day was super random — in good ways and less good!
We drove 30 minutes to a slightly dystopian place called Flag Farm, a very modest kid-friendly animal farm with tractor rides and magic shows. Felt fitting for Easter.
Pigs and chickens and bunnies roam freely, while other animals, from goats and tortoises to blind ponies and four-horned sheep to alligators and wolves, all live in pens.
It was a strange place. But of course the kids LOOOOOVED it.
I think it was roughly around the moment when we were inside a rundown cow shed, dancing alongside 20 other kids and a moth-eaten Bugs Bunny mascot to “Baby Shark” on top volume that Teddy turned to me and goes, “This might be the strangest thing we’ve done all year.”
We stayed for two hours at least. Willa and James took a tractor ride, each did a lap on a pony (guided by a barefoot and totally miserable looking guy), jumped on a grit-covered bouncy castle thing and fed all the animals from their little bag of carrots and feed.
Our faces:
Video here:
As we were leaving, we asked Willa if she liked this farm or our two weeks on safari better. She got all sheepish and goes, “I don’t really want saaaay it, but …..this place.” D’oh!
The next place was equally as random, but in a better way!
Just as my aunt Nancy and uncle Rick always say: “Don’t invite us somewhere unless you mean it because we WILL show up,” we’ve started saying, “Don’t recommend something in a city unless it’s good because we WILL go wherever you tell us.”
Case in point: One of our travel agents for Africa used to live in a suburb of Durban and recommended lunch at a place called Ray’s Kitchen. Turns out it’s in a gated residential community clubhouse, and on Easter Sunday it was a packed family affair.
Somehow we got a table.
Imagine the most random place — the Moorings Country Club in Vero Beach, FL comes to mind — and a family of four from Australia or Argentina just showing up out of the blue for Easter brunch, no family or friends bringing them, just there on their own.
We were chuckling to ourselves about how out of place we were. But once again, these moments are among our favorite — when we’re total interlopers on someone else’s faraway everyday existence.
The crowd was white and preppy. Lots of long, wine bottle-filled tables with grandmas and grandpas out with the kids and grandkids for the big day.
And the food was insanely good. One thing in particular stood out: a chicken pizza with Indian spices and crumbled papadums sprinkled on top. We drank rose and took it all in.
We drove back to the hotel.
Haven’t described The Oyster Box yet. It’s a 60-year-old hotel on the beach that’s iconic but a bit past its prime. You can imagine in the 50s and 60s it must have been like Shutters. Today it’s a little worn, a little tired. The staff wear colonial getups and the crowd’s crowded because of Easter. But everywhere we’ve been people have raved about it — you have to go to the Lighthouse Bar!
And it’s true, especially if you like time capsules, it’s a fun place to see.
There’s even a resident cat named Skabenga who’s always in the front entrance or in the lobby or gift shop. He’s very fat and wears a crystal collar.
When we returned home from lunch today, Skabenga was there to greet us. In fact, he had a special treat for us! I’m not kidding, as we walked toward him, he gagged a few times and threw up a glob of something brown right on the welcome mat. Ha!!
The kids were soooooo bad and annoying again tonight so we put them to sleep around 6:30 pm without dinner!! Not sure whether it’s them or us…but we were glad to have quiet time. We fell asleep by 9.
