Cape Town

Day 2 in Cape Town turned out lovely.  We got up, rented a car and left Cape Town and headed south towards Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. 

 Here is a map for you to all figure out where we are!

Our first stop was Boulder Bay, where thousands of penguins live.  They are close to seal island in False Bay.  The cool part is that we as a family watched a National Geographic show in the island, because the seals on this island eat these particular penguins, but unfortunately the great white sharks eat the seals.  It was a fun way to put an "educational" show we watched into reality.  Sad to say, the time of day we were there, the penguins had already left, but there was this sad little guy must have stayed back for the day, hiding in the boulders. It 's funny, I always thought of penguins in Antartica - not Africa!

Boulder Beach - where all the penguins are.

This is our rental car, tiny and fun!  It was sure fun to watch Ben drive from the passenger side, and a standard transmission, and then on the opposite side of the road - make the day into an adventure.

At the end of Cape Point there was this cool old light house, built in 1857.  There was a tremendous hike to the top, but it was worth the breeze and the views!

This is what we got to see on top of the light house!

Here we are on top of the lighthouse, at Cape Point.  It was a long hike up, but worth the views!

We made it to the Cape of Good Hope, which is the most south western tip of the African Continent.  Fun to see it, and it was absolutely breathtaking.

An ostrich, at the beach?

We kept seeing signs all day long about being warned of the baboons.  At first we thought they were joking, because surely there were not baboons on the same beaches as penguins, but alas there were, tons of them.  And they were quite the nuisance.  One charged at Ben because he was carrying a bag with souvenirs and they assume if you have a bag it was food.  All the local guys had to start throwing rocks at them to distract them.  Here is a cute little mommy one with a little baby clinging to her.

Our day ended with a beautiful sunset on top of Signal Mountain overlooking Cape Town.  It was a beautiful end to a wonderful day!

UK Day 2 - Cape Town Day 3

After another long 12 hour flight from London to Cape Town, we finally can say that we are in AFRICA!  We made is safe and sound, a little more sleepy than normal, but having a great time!  So here is a wrap up of our our last day in London, and our first day in Cape Town

 Buckingham Palace right after the changing of the guard.

 The endless lines (wrapped around and around for several blocks) for the line to get into Westminster Abbey - because for a week after the wedding it was left uncleaned - so it was still decorated for William and Kate.

 St Paul's Cathedral

London bridges (falling down, falling down) actually we did get stuck on it as we waited for a good size yaght to cross under.

The Cable Car to the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town.

 Ben and I top of Table Top Mountain in Cape Town

 V&A Waterfront (the pier) in Cape Town

The Cable Car to the top of Table Mountain

The magnificent view - it was a lovely afternoon!

Hello from the UK - Day 1, London

We promised the kids that we would share our adventure with them.  This is the easiest way for them to see what we are doing while they are stuck home without us!  We know they are in great hands, thanks Melanie!  I am sure they are having every bit as fun there as we are here!

Ok, so we had an overnight flight from Halifax to London last night.  We arrived here at 10 this morning, took the train into town and checked in to a wonderful Marriott adjacent to Hyde Park and the Marble Arch.  After a quick cat nap, we were ready to see the town.  With our limited time here, we decided the best route would be to take a tour.  So on we hopped onto a big double decker red bus and toured around.  We saw all sorts of things, but our highlights were, Westminster Abbey - just two days after the royal wedding, London's Eye, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben.  We even tried London's "Best" Hot Dog - which is exactly like on the movie Elf where he finds the worlds best cup of coffee - needless to say, I fed some of mine to the pigeons by the Tames River. 

Tomorrow we plan on going to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards, and going on a Thames River Tour.  Then we will hop back on the plane to head to our next stop - Cape Town, South Africa!

 Westminster Abbey

 Big Ben

 Ben Ben and Parliament Building

 Ben and London's Eye

 View of London from London's Eye

 From up top - look at the little people

 Ben and I on top - you always ask a person with a good camera to take yours in order to get a good picture back!



Trafalgar Square

Why Canadians like their Maple Syrup!

I thought it would be fun to show you a little outing we went on as a family a little while back, something totally Canadian...going to the Sugar Bush.  We went last year, and had so much fun, we had it on our spring to do list....  This particular Sugar Bush is about 5 minutes from our house, a perfect Saturday morning adventure.  


Ok, so here is how it works..... 1st smile at mom as we wait for Hayden and Dad to park the car...  nothing really to the process of making syrup, but still cute!  This place is owned by four different groups, so as you walk down the lane, you can see how others tap the trees.  The smell is to die for, heavenly goodness, yum!

This is the "new" way of tapping trees, these hoses grab the sap and carry it to larger

 hoses, which all eventually lead to the shack where their are boilers making syrup.  Cool to see, but a little modern for me!

Aubrey and Dad were a little slow.... she insisted on walking and using her rubber boots to the fullest by stomping in every puddle along the way, and I mean everyone, including in front of other pedestrians, and sometimes hitting the same one twice....

This process lasted until she fell, got cold water in her boots, then it was on Daddy's shoulders the rest of the way.

 Now here is the "old" way of tapping, good ol bucket and metal spile.  Makes for a cool picture.

This is the kids favorite, maple taffy on the snow.  Once the syrup is made, it can be boiled longer to make taffy.  For two dollars, you can buy a stick, and eat all you want.  They pour it on the snow, and you collect it with your stick, then enjoy.  Yummy and warm.

Then as a bonus, we saw "Joshua" and his parents, along with some other neighbors.  The kids had a blast!

Here are a couple more fun pics - 

and some facts for your gee-wiz file -

A maple tree lasts at least 30 years and is 12 inches in diameter before it is tapped.

As a tree increases in diameter more taps can be added, up to a maximum of four.

Tapping does no permanent damage to the tree.
Only 10% of the sap is collected each year.

Each tap yields an average of 10 gallons of sap per season,
yielding about one quart of syrup.

Warm sunny days (above 40º F) and frosty nights are ideal for sap flow.

The maple season may last 4 to 6 weeks, but sap flow is heaviest for 10 to 20 days.

Sap flowing in high volumes is called a "run".

The harvest season ends with the arrival of warm spring nights and early bud development in the trees.

30-50 gallons of sap are evaporated to make one gallon of syrup.

Maple Syrup is boiled even further to produce Maple Cream, Sugar and Candy.

It takes one gallon of syrup to produce eight pounds of candy or sugar.

A gallon of pure Maple Syrup weighs 11 pounds.

The sugar content of sap averages 2.5%

The sugar content of syrup averages 66.5%

Week 13

Week 12

Week 11