Starting a New Year in Cape Town

The New Year in Cape Town started off with a bang!

I went with Mom and Fiona on the most incredible adventure! Mom had learned about a hike between two quaint little villages - McGregor and Grayton. Since the hike takes about 5-6 hours, and it gets quite hot during the day, the best way to do it is to stay overnight at one end of the trail, start early in the morning, and have a pick up at the other end. Thus developed the idea of a girls hiking getaway with the boys picking us up at the end. As if that wasn't fabulous enough, Mom had also discovered the most incredible little lodge, high on a mountain at the beginning of the trail. It was really funky, very hippie, totally basic, no electricity, and had some of the most breathtaking views of the sunset through the mountain pass we ever could have imagined. We loved it!

 

Above is the view spot in front of the lodge where we ate our sandwiches for dinner. Incredible! Below is us sipping our Rooibos that we borrowed from another family at the lodge...can't be up in the mountains without tea and McVities!

 

And, here's starting out on the hike!

 

There was a beautiful waterfall halfway through the hike - a nice spot for a break!

 

 

Now, the only blip in this heavenly, glorious experience was what Mike and Dad were dealing with back at home...Beau had a stomach bug. Oh my dearest was it awful! That poor little boy was sleeping in a crib-tent, as we call them - literally a mini-crib for a kid. He threw up all over the tent and himself multiple times. Mike was a saint! Thankfully it was a 24-hour thing, and Beau was stable enough to come with to pick us up in Grayton.

Mom and Dad had again scouted out a fabulous little cafe with a great playground. We had a nice lunch and well-deserved milkshakes there.

Afterwards the family went on another little hike on the other side of Grayton. I stayed in the car with Beau. He was doing much better, but we didn't want him running around in the sun after being so sick and somewhat dehydrated. But, Lewis loved every minute! We have a proper little hiker on our hands! He loves everything about the adventure of running up the mountain and exploring the trails.

 

 

On the way home, we stopped by an old Moravian Mission village. 

 

We had another couple days in Franschhoek to relax, enjoy, browse some shops, and say goodbye to Fo. Then we headed to Betty's Bay to stay in a fabulous beach home that Mom had found for us. The whole trip had been so lovely and such a treat, but this was really the icing on the cake. The boys just LOVED being at the beach. It was a lovely beach with lots of rock pools at low tide - perfect for little boys imaginations.

We visited the penguin colony on the way into town.

 

 

The boys loved trying to catch fish in the rock pools. 

 

 

 

There was always LOTS of sand to clean off afterwards!

We had Mom's UCT friends for dinner one evening. That always make for a rather riotous gathering and we enjoyed it immensely!

 

We did another hike, this time with the boys, up to Leopard's Kloof. The trail head is within the botanical gardens in Betty's Bay, and the hike was such fun. Lots and lots of ladders, 3 different waterfalls. Lewis, again, loved it! Beau loved riding in Daddy's arms the whole time!

 

 

 

 

Beau was eager to help with Daddy's tradition of foot rubs for Gogo!

We seemed to have missed pictures of our birthday dinner for Gogo, but we had a lovely evening with Uncle Brian and Auntie Joan and "Big Margie" over to celebrate Mom's birthday. At the end of the night, we stood outside and gazed at the stars all together. I've never seen the sky so brilliant. 

There was a terrific storm our last night there, so the waves on our final morning were incredible!

 

On our way home from the beach, we stopped by Mom's cousin Shirley. It was lovely to see Shirley again and visit together. We also met Lewis and Beau's third cousin, Ollie. These two really hit it off! (We had actually just cut Lewis's hair the day before, otherwise he would have had curls to match!)

After we were back from the beach, we just had another day or so to unpack, repack, browse for some last things in the Franschhoek shops, enjoy a fabulous dinner out on the town for me and Mike, and get ready to say goodbye. We took the boys to play at one of our favorite playgrounds at a winery again and visited Melissa's for lunch (one of our favorite's)

  

 

And, last but most definitely not least, we visited La Motte for lunch. It was our favorite winery when we visited last year, but it was all booked up for lunch. We had settled for tea and milkshakes on the lawn, but we wanted to go back! Then, we unfortunately had to cancel our first reservation here because everyone had the stomach flu. So, we feel dreadful that Fobo missed it. But, we can report that it was divine!

 

 

 

 

 And with that, we were off! 

We survived the trip home, this time with a shorter layover in London. The boys did pretty well with sleeping on the way to London and pretty well with watching a million episodes of Mickey Mouse on the leg home.

We felt so lucky to have been able to take the boys to beautiful Cape Town again and to spend so much time with Gogo and Baba. It's so hard to say goodbye!

But, Lewis did inform me just this week that "We always go to Gogo and Baba's house for Christmas, so when it's Christmas, we'll go there!" We'll see, kiddo! We'd love to! They're definitely special memories.