A business trip can always be something more, if you have a little bit of wiggle room. That's where we found ourselves at the end of October, and South Africa became the destination. It was my first time, Ryder hadn't been there since Mandela was still at the helm, and Ginger had been a number of times to Johannesburg, but only once to Cape Town.
Cape Town is one of those places where you look around and just think to yourself..."um, why is it that I don't live here?" Then, if you head up to one of the towns of the wine country (Stellenbosch), literally at the edge of town, the same question finds itself on repeat in your brain.
We began in a quiet yet wonderfully chic little guest house near The University of Cape Town, nestled on the back side of Table Mountain, the signature peak/plateau that most pictures show off. Although denied a trip up the cable car to the top of TM, there were plenty of other things to get into, so we wasted no time.
Up just after 6 on our first morning in Cape Town (the sun rises much earlier this far south of the equator, it turns out), I caught a gorgeous sunrise over our neighborhood:
...what a difference 3 minutes can make...
Time to wake up! (For those of you counting, we have the first official nose freckle.) Ryder was loving his new book for the trip, not surprisingly titled "My Big Truck Book." This kid loves his big rigs. Now we just gotta teach him about air brakes and how to say "shepherd to lost sheep, shepherd to lost sheep, you got yer ears on?, come back. 10-4."
Cape Town, being on the coast, has a terrific aquarium, so we took a trip on our first morning. Fantastic exhibits, puppet shows for kids, touching starfish, feeding penguins, what else can you ask for?
My personal favorite was the clownfish tank. Yes, not only a great band name, but a singular joy for little people and big people alike. After crawling into the 'ring' and either sit (me) or stand (Ryder) on the stools provided, you're right in the mix with hundreds of clownfish. Awesome.
Yes, they call them 'nappy's here. Not sure why, but at least they recognize how much dads love to do the changing!
Ryder got a chance to talk to the local ladies and try out his new line "so, do you feed penguins around here often?" Now we just need to work on his skills at being non-chalant when judging women's shoes...
...those Croc's make your diaper look too big, girl.
If you have some time on your hands, and a few thousand coke crates...
Below, you can see how anxious Ryder was for the next puppet show to start.
One thing I was hell-bent on doing in Cape Town was finding some sort of studio to get in some drum practice after a 3 month hiatus. I found Nut House Recording Studios online, and let's just say upon walking into the drum studio booth, I was dead to the world for 2 hours straight. Happy Matt.
Back in the room, before heading out in the morning.
At the Cape Town Botanical Gardens, we found lots of space to climb around and plenty of gorgeous plants, lawns and colors.
Part of the space included a large sculpture garden, with a local artist making a bunch of small sculptures on the grass. Ryder became an apprentice quite quickly.
Next stop: Stellenbosch - a.k.a. the Wine Country
After 3 days in Cape Town, we got a rental car and schlepped it up to the mountains and wine country. Only about 30 miles away, it was a quick drive to our hotel. Getting used to driving the opposite way was fun - right hand drive car, everyone on the left side, English style:
We needed to check out early, so we made it to the hotel before the room was ready. To kill some time, we drove up the road to see the countryside and MAYBE stop into a vineyard for a tasting. Well, four hours, a great lunch and a few bottles of wine in the trunk later, we made it to our room and settled in for the night. However, our time at the Zorgvliet vineyard was something akin to a dream sequence. We discovered that Sunday afternoon lunches at the vineyards are exactly where the local families go, so there were lots of kids for Ryder to play with and an easy time for us. It's beyond gorgeous up there. Just imagine if they squished Yosemite into Napa Valley and kept the palm trees. Oh, and the wine is pretty great, too.
We needed to check out early, so we made it to the hotel before the room was ready. To kill some time, we drove up the road to see the countryside and MAYBE stop into a vineyard for a tasting. Well, four hours, a great lunch and a few bottles of wine in the trunk later, we made it to our room and settled in for the night. However, our time at the Zorgvliet vineyard was something akin to a dream sequence. We discovered that Sunday afternoon lunches at the vineyards are exactly where the local families go, so there were lots of kids for Ryder to play with and an easy time for us. It's beyond gorgeous up there. Just imagine if they squished Yosemite into Napa Valley and kept the palm trees. Oh, and the wine is pretty great, too.
More, please.
Even Ryder was getting tipsy from his milk somehow.
Well, of course they had a handmade see-saw. Duh.
Ryder calls for more playtime, Ginger takes it all in. Not a bad way to wait for a hotel room.
At the hotel, we were surprised not just by the gorgeous grounds and space, but they had an extensive collection of paintings, prints and sculpture from South African artists on display.
Did I mention that this hotel has a preservation project that rescues and rehabilitates cheetahs and you can pay admission to have a 'cheetah experience' - feeding and petting them. Well, yes, they had one of those. Ryder didn't make the cut for the age limit, but he did did make his friendly presence known:
Just next to cheetah-experience-land, they also have a birds of prey exhibit/zoo, where Ryder got to pet the barn owls and let them peck at his fingers. He loved it!
The next day, I took a small detour on the road between our hotel and Zorgvliet to visit the 166 yr. old Van Ryn brandy distillery. When in Rome, right? It turns out they've won all kinds of medals and awards and brandy-trophy belts for their mash, so I decided to do a tasting and Ryder sampled all of their sweet plush couches and leather chairs.
He was right. The 12 year was smoother than the 10 year. This kid knows his stuff.
A day later, we visited another vineyard called Tokara, which had been recommended by a few families we talked to at Zorgvliet. More than simply a winery, it was a kids wonderland - home to the single coolest slide-swing-jungle-gym combo I've ever seen:
And there was also a life-sized elephant sculpture made of tire pieces, and many other interesting pieces, strewn around their mid-century modern designed cafe. Someone give the people at Dwell a call, stat.
Eventually, Ryder gave me a look that said "Dad, I just.. gimme a moment. I need to take this all in. I'll be back in a few minutes. I'll be in the parking lot, just bring the car over."
On one of the nights before we left, I got these pictures around 9pm or so. The sun had set hours earlier, but there was still a glow coming from the horizon - I'll just guess and say it has something to do with being so far south of the equator (my answer for everything, obviously). Anyway, out comes the mini-tripod and I took these long exposure shots (20 seconds or so). On the last one, a plane was flying through the sky, which ended up looking like a shooting star or something.
After about a week in the Cape Town area, we hopped a plane back to Johannesburg. On the bus to the plane out, we met one of the South African rugby players (the Springboks, for the non-rugby folks out there - a reeeeally big deal in S.A.), who gave Ryder a little logo pin for his shirt. The first thing this guy said to him was "you'll have to eat for a long time to be like me." It was hard to argue this, since he was probably 340 lbs. and 6'3" or so.
Near the new hotel was a mall, which had its fair share of awesome ramps, which of course, we spent many hours traversing. Ahh, simplicity.
We also hit the Johannesburg Zoo, which was pretty close by. The lions and rhinos and giraffe were cool, but the prize went to the pygmy goats. A big hit!
Yes, Ryder knows how to speak pygmy goat.
They truly bonded, though, when he showed them that he, too, loved to eat the grass.
Just across from the Zoo was the Zoo Park, a great place for wandering and book reading.
In the end, the dirt was the most interesting of all.
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