Day 9- Second Day in Cape Town

April 7, 2012

Today was a “good day for ducks” as my dear neighbor, Edna, used to say when we lived in New Orleans.  The forecast was a 90 percent chance of rain, and we were so happy that we decided to go up to Table Mountain yesterday.:)  So after we were dressed and our bellies were full from our great breakfast…

we headed over to the Two Oceans Aqaurium.

The cold wet weather couldn’t keep us inside our hotel room, though.  The Aquarium is named "Two Oceans" for the Atlantic and Indian Oceans which meet up together at the Cape of Good Hope.

This aquarium in Cape Town has tons of aquatic life which is abundant off all the shores of South Africa… the kids had a ball!

They LOVED the clown fish exhibit…it was like they were swimming in the middle of all the fish.:)

Then, we were off to explore the other creatures…

x-ray fish

I can’t remember their names…

huge star fish!!!

she was all dressed and ready to see the sea horses!!:)

Then, it was off the touch some sea creatures….

hermit crabs…

kelp , sea weed , and sponges….

Posing for pics!!!

Then, we were off to see the penguins…

The ocean predator exhibit was next, complete with a Jagged tooth shark which is native to the South African coasts…

Jeremy LOVES sharks so he was pretty excited to see them up close!!:)

Huge rays!!!!

And then, we were off for play time!:)

we had a very “American “afternoon of walking around the local mall and having McDonald’s for lunch ( the kids loved the nuggets and the play area there, too!!!) 

We tried to venture out for a walk this afternoon, and I only managed to get this one picture of the beach before it started raining again…

We went back to our hotel room, and Guy went out to get some Thai food!!!! Yeah!!:)  The kids had a bath and we all enjoyed watching Rio for the 5^th time!!:)  It was a very fun evening of all of us together.  Is it possible to wrap the kids up and keep them these ages forever???? I so wish it was!!!:)  The icing on the cake for them today was when housekeeping came in tonight to “turndown” the beds and left them cookies and milk.:)  They LOVE that here!:)

While Guy was brushing their teeth, I was looking at one of the coffee table books in our room….

It is a really interesting photo book about the people living in the shanty towns I was talking about in my earlier posts.  These “suburbs” started popping up in the 1930’s and started out as places where labor workers would live.  Now, they have turned into communities where people have come from rural areas to try and find jobs near the urban centers.  The lady who took the pictures, Mary Miyata, worked with HIV –positive orphans (HIV and AIDS is rampant across South Africa) and severely disabled children.  She also set up an arts program in Cape Town and extended it to the outside townships or shanty towns.  I found the pictures and the explanation of the people living there very eye opening.  There is always so much more to something than just what you see on the surface.:)