Cape Town, South Africa - Day One

And now what you've all been waiting for...Africa pictures!  It's taken me such a long time to get around to posting about this amazing trip, so I will try to do these posts quickly!  For Christmas, my parents surprised us by deciding to take my whole family to South Africa to pick up my brother Alex who was serving a mission for our Church there for the past two years.  We were thrilled, although we were a little nervous and sad about having to leave our sweet Max for that long.  Luckily, he was in good hands with my aunts and I don't think he really even knew we were gone (although I won't admit how many times I cried because I missed him!).

Our fortune cookie proved prophetic!

We drove to San Diego and flew out with my family.  We had a layover in New York and then began the interminable plane ride to Johannesburg.  Seriously, you feel like you will never get off the plane.  We passed the time by watching a lot of movies and trying to sleep.  We arrived in JoBurg just as the South African Olympic team got there.  All of the customs agents stood up to cheer, clap, and sing them a welcome.  It was so fun to see the huge crowd that was waiting to greet these athletes.  We grabbed our luggage and hopped on another plane to Cape Town.

Our hotel lobby in Cape Town

Colorful South African money

We got to the hotel and slept for a few hours before enjoying a nice dinner buffet at the hotel.  It was the first of what was to be many delicious buffets on our trip!  Our first full day was spent visiting the beautiful wine country.  We raised some eyebrows by declining to taste any wine, but enjoyed the spectacular views.  It was winter in Africa and so it was colder than we expected but we didn't let that stop us.  We were blown away by the greenery and the sheer beauty of the land.  We kept looking at each other in disbelief and excitement saying, "Remember how we're in Africa?"