Travel

Claire and I both woke up at 2:30am. After breakfast, we headed out again with Hank at 9am for the Cape Peninsula Tour. It started as a very cloudy day. We drove by several beach towns such as as Kalk Bay, Fish Hoek, and arrived at Simon's Town. There was a navy base at Simon's Town, but we went there for the penguins. Boulders Beach We went to Boulders Beach to see African penguins. There were lots of them on the beach. We also saw lots of them with babies in their burrows under bushes. Cape of Good Hope Our next stop was Cape of Good Hope. It was beautiful and windy. There were landmark posts for people to take photos with. There were big waves at the ocean. There is a trail to Cape Point, but we will drive there. Cape Point We then went to Cape Point. This is the point where one side is the Indian Ocean and the other side is the Atlantic Ocean. We had lunch there and took the tram to the lighthouse. The view from the lighthouse was spectacular, but I did not take...

I woke up at 3am, but Claire slept through till 7am. Our hotel included free breakfast buffet, so we had a big breakfast at the hotel.  We headed out at 9am to go on a city orientation tour with Hank. He prepared bottled water for each of us. Camps Bay Our first stop was Camps Bay. This is the richest suburb in this country. Hank pointed out a house that was sold for 22 million dollars. Camps Bay was a beautiful place with beaches right under the mountain. Table Mountain Our next stop was Table Mountain. I bought the cable tickets (AM, return trip) the night before from  https://tablemountain.net/  . The tickets were good for a week so even if the weather was not good today we could still use it later. AM tickets can be used for PM but not the other way around. The cable ride was fun. The car rotates while traveling up, so you get to see mountains and beaches all around. It was very cloudy when we were on top of the mountain, so we just saw mists and I did not get any goo...

  Flight We first flew from San Francisco to Washington Dulles (5 hours). At Washington Dulles, we ate a bit, and met our friends from Texas. I caught a bouffalant pokemon right before boarding. We then flew to Cape Town. It was supposed to be a 16 hours but we arrived 1 hour early. Documents Before the trip, United Airline app did not allow me to check in Claire. It was because of an outdated rule that required the other parent’s consent and birth certificate for the minor, however, South African government changed it in 2019 and only required a passport. I printed out the updated rules, and also prepared the consent form and a copy of Claire birth certificate. It turned out that I was completely over prepared. At the San Francisco airport, the UA staff came over to the check-in kiosk, hit the override button several times, and got us checked in. I don’t think she even looked at the texts on the screen. At the Cape Town immigration, the officer just stamped a visa on our passports...