Our Life Across the Pond

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

A February Filled With Visitors

We were very very lucky that 4 guests decided to brave the UK weather and visit us during the worst time of year! There were a few flight delays and cancellations, but that didn't stop us from having a great time once everyone arrived.

First came Mom Sieger...the greatest and longest visitor! We kicked off her trip with tapas at the Rock Garden and one too many glasses of free champagne.

We visited the Little Chapel...which the locals are VERY proud of

Josh didn't take it quite as seriously

We went to a Valentines Day afternoon tea at the Farmhouse...

...and cooked Josh a special dinner of scallops and sea bass picked up from the Fresh Sea Market that morning (a refreshing change from never ending chicken)

Side note- I am wearing shorts under this extremely tacky V-day outfit

Then the next set of guests arrived- good friends Mark & Mallory, all the way from Austin. We did one night of wining and dining at a French favorite, Petite Bistro...

...and then taught them everything RUGBY with a day long PWC event that kicked off at 11am and ended at 11pm.

The golf ball did make an appearance, sorry Mark!

After their departure, we got to spend time with Jackie, one of my parents good friends who flew in for a long weekend.

We did an island tour on Sunday of Jerbourg point, the Guernsey coasts and back to the Little Chapel.

And the month ended with a mother/daughter trip to Jersey. The start was very comical- This is the airport at 9am. A few hours of this fog...

...led to this

...and this.

7 hours later, 1 trip up and back to refuel, and a lot of circling to find a 3 minute fog opening to "drop down" - we arrived. We concluded we could have swam their quicker.

View from our balcony in St. Brelade Bay

We quickly headed to St. Helier to visit the market, shop, have a late lunch and -of course- stop for a glass of wine.

And what a fun treat it was to have our dessert delivered to our room after dinner.

We did a little more exploring Sunday

Stopped off at one of the oldest churches in Europe.

Enjoyed some time relaxing in the spa with a facial and hot stone massage

Had a quick lunch with a view

and climbed some cliffs.

Thanks so much to everyone who visited. You made the long, gloomy, cold month of February fly by! Next time visit in the summer ;)

Thursday, February 16, 2012

The Only Way to Get Me Outside in January...

I stumbled upon one of the greatest finds in Guernsey and surprised Josh with an afternoon on the adult trampolines at Oatlands. Onlookers may have thought we were 8 years old again.

We have a hysterical video of Josh mastering the one jump between all 8 trampolines...but it is too big to upload to the blog. So this picture sums up his exhaustion after perfecting this skill.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

South Africa

I think it is safe to say that South Africa beat every expectation that we had set for it. It absolutely blew us away with its beauty, its history, its culture and its cuisine. Within a two hour driving distance, we experienced a major city, a huge marina and port, sandy beaches, steep cliffs, unbelievable hiking trails, botanical gardens, gorgeous vineyards and a private game reserve.

Not a bad sunset for our first night in Sea Point.

Tapas at La Boheme

Sea Point sun deck

An afternoon at the V&A Waterfront

Green market in the City Bowl.

Long Street

New Years Eve at Beluga included a 5 course meal, plenty of drinks and dancing.

New Years Day we ventured back into the city and had a drink at the One & Only Hotel

Dinner at La Perla

Spa day at the Winchester mansion...

with a glass of wine on the patio to follow.

Jazz dinner at Pigalle

The hike up Table Mountain begins...

The easy way up...

Our way up!

Two hours later...
so bizarre to hike up a mountain and get to a completely flat surface on the top.

Looking south towards Cape Point

Looking over the City Bowl and V&A Waterfront

After all that hard work, we treated ourselves to a well deserved dinner and wine.

Arrival at Aquila Private Game Reserve- 2 hours outside of Cape Town

Some pool time before our first game drive

Welcome drinks included

Our chalet

As you can see, the animals are very close, and very real...baboons playing on the roof of the chalets!

First game drive - 5:30pm

Buffalo- first sighting of the Big 5

Springbok - these are all over the place, "as common as flies."

Annie posing with the zebras

A ton of pretty zebra along the way...some babies as well.

Annie's favorite of the Big 5 - elephants!

Pretty ugly animals, but kind of cool to watch and crazy to think how fast they run.

I think I like the Rhino's the most

The elephants were coming right at our jeep..if the driver didn't back up, they would have stomped right over us

Hippo on the move...the most dangerous animal that we saw. Very aggressive and very territorial

Stop for a sparkling wine break, right in the middle of the wildlife.

The lion's playing

This was the scariest part of the safari...this lioness did not want us to get any closer and essentially escorted us away...she looked like she was going to pounce.