Our Coastal Drive around Cape Town

Today we went on a coastal drive stopping by the following:

Muizenberg, Kalk Bay, and Simons town.

Our first stop was a busy surfing town with colorful little huts called Muizenberg. We just stopped for a few minutes to take some pictures, but the place was bustling with surfers and pretty decent waves. After getting stuck in some road construction traffic, we arrived in Kalks Bay. Kalk's Bay is a quaint town with a big fishing pier. There were cool looking restaurants, tons of fishing, and a homeless man I will refer to as the seal whisperer. Every time he would stand along the steps by the pier he would yell something, raise his hand, and a seal would eagerly jump on to the steps (I think there was food involved too). Then he would parade around asking for money. Around this time we were getting hungry and started looking for a place to eat. It took a little while before settling on a place in Simons Town also along the water. There were two men singing and playing instruments on the pier outside and later they were replaced by some singing and dancing troupe. Once back in the car we got excited because we thought we saw a whale tail sticking out of the water. We quickly pulled over to take pictures and we were told by a local that it is a fake and gets people every day. Oh those silly South Africans! Later in the day we were fooled yet again by some cat statue on a rock- I really don't find this sort of thing funny. Who puts up fake statuesque things of wild animals to trick tourists. After the disappointment of not seeing a whale or large cat, Ulrich took us to see the penguins!! They were so cute and just sort of waddled. Next, we went to the Cape of Good Hope where we saw beautiful views and our first, of many, baboon sightings. These baboons are probably the scariest of any we saw because they are not afraid of cars or people, which made for an excellent photo opportunity. In the wild they run fast from approaching cars, so any attempt taking pictures resulted in blurs or nothing. From there we headed back to the flat stopping for a sunset, but I don't remember the name of the town (Ulrich, help me out). The sunset stop was also where the honeymooner's spent there wedding night.

Once we were back in Capetown we roamed the streets looking for something to eat. Our first 2-3 choices were closed and we settled for a place called Mr. Pickwicks. It was loud with drumming and singing, but had the most extensive menu and had a good crowd. We were sat upstairs on a balcony and just inside they were having drumming circles and spoken word performances. We placed our orders and were told they were just about to begin an african dance lesson, so Carisa and I joined (when in rome). It was fun and a great workout. Carisa and I vow to take african dance classes in atlanta one day.

The funniest part of the night was that Carisa ordered garlic bread, or rather requested it because it wasn't on the menu. First, she was told someone ran to the store to buy some (cool). Second, she was told she would not be able to get it after all. She asked why because they had all the ingredients and shortly after the server asked her to come with him in the kitchen. She returned telling us she had to sort of explain how they could make it. When the food finally came she had a dissected garlic bread (baguette/ chopped garlic to the side / and butter pats to the side).