Last Full Day - Botanical Gardens

I can’t believe it’s today! Today is my last full day in South Africa with my McInerney friends. It is a sad day but I’m actually really missing all you people in the States (as they say here) if you can believe it. These are some of the questions going through my mind: How is Miss Sarah and Mr. Jackson Haynes? Have they learned any new tricks? Are they driving mommy crazy? And how was the first day of school for my mother? Did the students show up or what? And what about the library? Are things going fine without me? And what about the CYPD meeting? Was it hilarious as usual or are we really buckling down with the conference just weeks away? And how are those doctors doing? And what about dad? Is he working his tail off? And how is Collins? Is he ready for a night of dancing on Saturday? And speaking of dancing, how the heck is Dance Arts? And what about Doug and Alexa? Are they doing well?

See how much I miss all you people!

Anyway, today Jess and I took Conor to the Botanical Gardens here in Cape Town and I cannot begin to tell you of the beauty of that place. I’ve been to LOTS of gardens and I’ve never EVER seen one on this scale with such a wonderful a balance of manicured gardens and wild watery fairy-land. First of all it is at the foot of a mountain, but not just that…it actually climbs up the mountain and the garden is VAST and every inch of it is tastefully labeled, beautifully maintained and full of gorgeous plants, trees, and flowers. We had a lovely picnic lunch among the guinea fowl (those bold guinea fowl!). I loved the botanical gardens. They were just absolutely beautiful and we didn’t even see an eighth of them!

After the botanical gardens we were driving home minding our own business when we saw a guy hawking a newspaper at an intersection who was wearing an Indiana sweatshirt. We had seen him earlier in the day and were kicking ourselves that we didn’t get his picture and now we were given this second chance. I took his picture from afar, but that was not good enough for Jess who waved at the guy like crazy, spun the car around, hopped a curb and shooed me out of the car to get my picture taken with him. He was not actually a Hoosier. He said he got the sweatshirt at Port Elizabeth, a town in South Africa that is pretty far from here. Jess said she’s never seen one of the locals with an Indiana shirt on before this.

We came home and laid Conor down for his nap and I decided to have some Sue reading and swimming time out by Jess’s pool so I borrowed one of her suits and dove in only to get right out and not get in again. It was so cold! It’s been in the 70’s during the day but it gets really cold at night so the pool does not get much of a chance to heat up, at least during the winter. But I laid out in the sun and read for a while and that was really nice.

Brian got home and brought a surprise with him…Button Cat! I was SO glad to have him back before I start my journey home because, for you bright ones at home, do you see what he sort of resembles? He is a great double for a pillow on the plane! So I’m really excited I get to bring my friend the Button Cat home with me. Thanks Fanie and Amanda! Well, I’m down to my last R 79.40. (This is about $11.00.) But my budget has been perfect and tomorrow the only plan is to have breakfast which is easily accomplished on that sum and to go to the beach to get more seashells which is free. Oh, and that picture with all the great African stuff? That is NOT a picture from a market. That’s actually all the stuff I’m bringing home!

Botanical Gardens