Change In Plans

ZOLA READING ON LLANDUDNO BEACH

Greetings from Cape Town.  This short post describes what we have been doing over the last several days. We have moved into a beach house in Llandudno where we will be staying for nearly four weeks.   As we hoped, our family is falling into an idyllic daily rhythm which is familiar from our previous December holidays.  

The specifics vary a little from day to day, but basically here is what the daily routine looks like:

• Everyone awake at about 7:30 am.  The sun comes up at about 5 this time of year, but only spills down over the mountain and into this house at about 7.
• India goes out for a run a little after 8, and the kids and I eat breakfast and play.  Zola does home schooling for about 90 minutes (including daily on-line math sessions through Stanford, which have been a huge boost to the home schooling program).  
• Kids and I pile into the car, and pick up India along the coast road between 10:00-10:30.  She is a running maniac when we are in Cape Town, averaging 15-25 kilometers a day on the road.
• About 50% of the time, we drive down to Muizenberg and go surfing in the warm water and gentle waves there.  Usually, Zola takes a lesson, I rent a long board and surf on my own, and Tallulah and India play on the beach.  This week, India mixed it up by buying a wetsuit and getting out in the waves with Casper, the handsome surf instructor.

MAMA-SAN SHREDDING IN MUIZENBERG

• If we don’t go surfing, we usually run errands instead.  We have done all of our Christmas and grocery shopping over the last few days at the huge V&A Waterfront mall.  I like when Tallulah calls it “the waterfight.”  I generally hate shopping and hate malls, but from some reason the Waterfront is a carve out, and we all seem to like going there.
• In the late afternoons we have been hanging around at our house, going down to the beach, and/or going on a walk together.  One of our family favorites is the path down to Sandy Bay.  This is traditionally a nude beach, but we have been able to shield Zola and Tallulah from any psyche-scarring visual images (though Zola has high hopes)

DON'T LOOK NOW, ETHEL!

• Most evenings we have been meeting friends for early, kid-friendly dinners.  Last night we had a Cape Town classic, outdoors at a beachfront restaurant in Camps Bay.  When we all met at 6:15, the glare from the sun was blinding, and half of the party went off to buy baseball hats.  When the sun set at 7:45, the temperature dropped and the wind really picked up.  Suddenly our table cloth was getting blown off, and all of the drinks were knocked over.  From sunburn risk to survival situation in 30 minutes.  It was a great dinner, but we had to retreat before dessert.
• Both kids have been pretty much staying awake for dinner, but definitely falling asleep in the car on the way home.  We are all usually asleep before 11.  Party, party.

This simple rhythm will change once we get into Christmas and Boxing Day, and once my sister and her family arrive.  With our eagerly anticipated guests, we will go and see all of the beloved sights: penguins at Boulders Beach, climbing Table Mountain and Lion’s Head, the Aquarium, Cape Point.  

In the meantime, it is great to feel temporarily settled on familiar ground, and for the kids to have some sense of daily routine.  In the midst of a trip which is basically a super long, work-free vacation, this is the first time in a while that we have felt like we are on vacation.  Cape Town is just an awesome place.