A Tourist in Cape Town

Since I am no longer very familiar with driving myself around in Cape Town (it's changed a lot over the years) and since it is peak holiday season and extremely busy at the moment, a friend and I decided to be tourists and spend the day using the red, double decker, open top sightseeing busses.  What a great idea.  You buy a ticket and they have their routes and stops, and you just jump on and off whenever you feel like it all day long.  We took the blue route (the mini peninsula tour) and visited the Imizamo Yethu Township, Hout Bay, and the Victoria & Albert Waterfront.  We could have done much more, but we ran of time and came home sunburnt from riding the top of the bus and very tired.  Here are a few of the images.

Lunch at Babylonstoren

Yesterday it was lunch at La Motte and today it was an equally historic and extremely beautiful wine estate with world class gardens, farm shop and all kinds of animals in residence.  Babylonstoren is a Cape Dutch farm with vineyards and orchards surrounded by the mountains of the Drakenstein valley.  It was a hot day with not much of a breeze in the valley. The surrounding mountain ranges were a hazy blue, a classic Cape Summer day. Here are a few of the images.

Lunch at La Motte and fields of Lavender

After arriving in Cape Town, we traveled about 45 minutes via the NI towards Paarl and Franschhoek to stay with my sister and her family for a couple of nights.  Today we visited the nearby historic wine estate, La Motte (www.la-motte.com) for wine tasting and lunch. Sadly there were no wine tastings today, being Sunday, and the indoor restaurant was fully booked so we enjoyed a light lunch under the massive oaks.  We have already made a reservation for wine tasting and lunch in the main restaurant in a week or so, so stay tuned for more from La Motte (including their wonderful wine cellar) down the road.  On the way home, I couldn't resist stopping to photograph some fields of lavender.

Holidays - Time for Family Photos

Christmas time and the end of another year is a very appropriate time to update family records by taking photos.  This year we have a new addition, Torah, my third grandchild.  It is quite a challenge to photograph a family with three children aged four and under, and some of the results are pretty hilarious.  They do however give some insight into the different personalities; Gideon - big brother who tries to please and do the right thing; Euphrates - wild card, diva and Miss Personality; and Torah who usually is sleeping or feeding with brief timeouts to peer at her new world.

St. Helena Sound

This is a place that I have returned to time and again.  It is one of the most unspoiled, naturally beautiful places in the Carolinas.  Something was brewing with the weather this afternoon, so the skies were wild and the light was unpredictable, but I never leave without capturing something special, at least it's special to me.  Maybe because I saw and tasted the wildness and saltiness of it and something of that experience clings to the images. Thanks Eric Horan and Lowcountry Photo Safaris for another skillfully guided tour of St. Helena Sound.

Marion Square at Christmas

Here are a few images of Marion Square from this evening when I was downtown looking for more Christmas decorations.  I still feel like we could do better ...  Just don't feel like we've gone all out with this somehow, although I guess it is a large area to fill.

A Charleston Christmas

One of my hotel clients had asked for some images of Charleston Christmas decorations, and so this evening I was on a mission to find some.  I think we are a little tardy this year, since I found many houses and streets in the process of being decorated with ladders and other tell-tale signs of decorating activity in evidence, but not so many complete. The Christmas tree in Marion Square was scheduled to be lit this evening, but downtown was such a zoo that I gave up looking for parking and drove the quieter, more residential sections of downtown.  Here are a few that I found.  

Berlins, King Street

Beaufain Street

Broad Street

Broad Street

Broad and Meeting Streets