MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Welcome to--or back to--our blog!  John and I wish you every blessing during this holiday season.  We wanted to fill you in on our family and show you some pictures too.  Here is our beach house, At Ease, and some "visitors" to the beach north of us.  There are more pictures on our rental site.

The Heslin Family in Naples, Florida:  Kelly reminds me of my earlier days because she has been teaching in a long term sub position for second grade and she drives people to swimming and everywhere else each afternoon.  Tim is Club Manager of Colliers Reserve Country Club.  Conner(15) is a high school freshman and a state qualifier on the school swim team.  Riley(13) plays tennis and sings in the Naples Philharmonic Youth Choir. She, also, sings the Psalm at church.  Molly(11)  plays soccer and is a Girl Scout. Both Riley and Molly swim.  Jack is 7 and continues to make great progress with speech and cognitive skills. He loves his horseback riding each Saturday.We are grateful that he is so loving and social.

The Heslins 6

Tennis, anyone?

Ready for a road trip

Halloween in Naples

Conner, Riley, Molly and Jack

The Cady Family moves to Springfield, Virginia:  Paul is Director of Digital Solutions for Westland Printers and is a rabid Redskin fan.  Leslie works for a mortgage banker and is training to be an underwriter.  Zack is a freshman at American University in the School of Public Affairs.  He is involved in election campaigns and political issues.  Alex is an 8th grader at the same Junior High that Paul attended.  Alex plays footballl, wrestles and is quite skilled on the guitar.  The Cady family lives ten minutes from us so we can enjoy Alex's sports and have dinner together.  Their house in Brevard, North Carolina, is available to buy!

Alex and Zack

Zack's  high school graduation

New Beginnings in Virginia

Alex Strummin' away

Zack at American University

Swiss hat group

The Cady Family moved to Geneva, Switzerland, in August:  Patrick is  Regional Sales Director of Beauty Care for Procter and Gamble.  His territory is Eastern Europe, Russia,  the Mid-East and Africa.
Mary is the chief cook and bottle washer and "minds the fort" when Patrick is away.  Mary is, also, studying French.  Griffin and Marley go to a British School.  Griffin(7) likes and plays the sport of the season with a jersey for every occasion.  Marley(4) enjoys all girly things especially dancing.  Piper is 9 months old and loving life!  The Cady's have had outings to festivals, castles, farms and lakes.  Halloween was celebrated by going through their own front door with many
costume changes!

Swiss Halloween

Precious Piper

Fall Festival Fun

Griffy and friend

And for good measure, here is another great hat on precious Piper!

Michael and Laura live in Charleston, South Carolina.  Michael is Director of Marketing, Orient-Express, North America.  Laura is VIP Coordinator for Charleston Place Hotel.  They love the sights and sounds of Charleston and enjoy the beach, biking and concerts.  All signs point to a beautiful wedding day on May 6, 2011.  Laura, Michael and Laura's mother seem to have thought of every detail. We look forward to the joining of our families.

Laura and Michael with their cat, Smush

Michael and Laura.......

.....in the Bahamas

Halloween in Charleston

Some of us were together for some family events so here is a sampling....

Laura and Michael at Conner's swim meet

Godfather, Zack and Godmother Kellymarie at Piper's Baptism

Grammie and Marley "tapping" at the beach

"Singing" Cousins

Thanksgiving in Charleston

As the sun rises on 2011, John and I wish our friends and family all of God's blessings in the year ahead.

Sunrise at the Outer Banks

BEAUTIFUL CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

LAST DAY OF THE CRUISE

Cape Town is said to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Its landmark icon, Table Mountain. is a spectacular 3500 foot backdrop right in town that overlooks the city and the water. The ocean is very cold all the time even though the monthly average temperature ranges from 64-81 degrees.

We said good-bye to our new friends and  the incredible staff and left the ship for a bus tour of Cape Town.  It was foggy when we drove up into the mountains but then it cleared up for our cameras, as you can see.  Our guide showed us some city sites too but nothing as memorable as these views.  We ended our tour at the beach with the hills called the "12 Apostles" in the background.  The bus dropped us all at the airport for what we  thought would be our flights home.  The volcano had other ideas!

Thanks for reading my blog.  Knowing I had readers gave me incentive to continue and finish.  As for the cruise..."We wouldn't have missed it for the world."

JUST A LITTLE MORE SAFARI!

John thought we should post a few more safari pictures . I will do my last blog, Cape Town, tomorrow.  Here are our able guides.  Besides finding a chameleon at night, they, also, served "sundowners" to us from the back of the jeep as we watched the sun go down.  The impala is a beautiful animal and the only one that is added to the bush--for the lions to catch!  Finally,  here is another bird to admire and John and I say "Bye from the bush."

THREE DAY SAFARI

SABI SABI PRIVATE GAME RESERVE


Before I write anything I must tell you that some of the pictures I am posting are not ours(up until now they have all been ours). We shared an open air jeep with three other couples and one girl had the most amazing camera(her husband won the European poker Championship twice)and was a talented photographer. My camera couldn’t compete but we did SEE everything she photographed!

We flew from Durban to Johannesburg and then took a small plane for an hour west. We then drove into the bush for 30 minutes to Sabi Sabi, a luxurious lodge in the middle of nowhere. We went on “game drives” twice a day--from 4PM til after dark and from 6-9AM. I will remember the cool, crisp morning rides, the silence of the bush when we turned off the jeep to listen and the night skies brilliantly blanketed by stars.

Our guide drove on bumpy dirt roads with a tracker sitting in front. We would leave the roads and drive into the bush when tracks were sighted. It was exciting to see the elephants tear down the trees to eat. We learned that the hippos kill more people in Africa than any other animal. Lions can go two weeks without eating. Their main source of food is the impala which they hunt at night. There are no tigers in Africa. We got as much of a thrill seeing the beautiful birds as we did the animals.

Our guide said that the animals do not see individual people in the jeep; they see the jeep as too big to tackle. Of course, a person outside the jeep would be in real trouble.

We flew to Cape Town and arrived just in time to watch the ship come into port. Our cabin is in the back of the ship on the 8th deck, right in the middle.

HOME SWEET HOME!

HOME SAFELY!

Dear blog followers,

We arrived home on Saturday . Our original flight was cancelled due to the volcano. It was a miracle that we got a flight a day later on South African Air which took us through Johannesburg with a refueling stop in Dakar(at 2:30 a.m!) and then into Dulles. As far as we know our fellow cruisers are still in Cape Town waiting for the air to clear!

I will be posting two more entries in the next few days, one of the safari we took at Sabi Sabi and one of Cape Town. In the meantime you may want to look back to "AT SEA AND MORE" where I have posted pictures of the animals on the game reserve at Richards Bay.

P.S.  Here is the leopard I wrote about.  More to come!