Welcome

I thought long and hard about how to make everyone jealous of my imminent awesome adventure and figured that writing about it and posting pictures would be the most efficient way.  And since I can't concentrate on ANYTHING else I thought I would get started.

For those of you who weren't there or received a phone call that night, Willie and I attended the annual Columbia Yacht Club Junior Program auction in May of 2011.  The event was amazing, particularly the food and delicious beverages.  As the auction was nearing the bid deadline, we decided to browse the tables one last time to see if there was anything we really wanted to bid on.   Our bidding process went something like this...

Me:  Wow honey, look at this!  It's for 6 nights in some place called Zulu Nyala in South Africa!!  Can you even imagine going to Africa?!

Willie:  Not really.  No one else has either - look, no one has bidded on it.

Me (half kidding):  We should bid on it.

Willie:  I don't know, you think so? 

Me (recognizing an open door when I see one):  Oh my gosh - YES we should DEFINITELY bid on it.

Willie:  I don't know.  I mean, maybe.

Me (getting excited):  Wait, what do you mean?  No or maybe or yes?  The auction closes in 2 minutes.

Willie:  I don't know, I mean it might be fun.  It is kind of expensive.

Me (now very excited):  Yeah but it is such a good deal AND it helps the junior program!!!  We should do it!!!  

Willie:  I don't know.  You think?

Me (blinded with excitement):  Yes!!! Let's do it!!  We only have 15 seconds left to put our name down!!!!!

What I THINK Willie says:  Ok, let's do it.

What Willie ACTUALLY says:  I don't know.  I mean, maybe. 

Well, it was too late at that point.  I had already furiously scribbled our auction number and an amount for $10 over the minimum bid.  The auction closed and we were going to South Africa!  Well, more specifically, after some marital discussions and a few big glasses of water the next morning, we really were going to South Africa!

So, here we are now 17 months later and getting ready to leave next Sunday for 16 days of travelling and visiting the coast of South Africa.  It has been a daunting challenge to plan the trip - there was a lot that I didn't know about Africa.  Like anything, to be more specific.  Did you know that there are huge ostrich farms outside of Cape Town?  Or that they are located in a town named Oudtshoorn?  Or that Oudtshoorn is pronounced 'oats-horn'?

After a lot of internet browsing, trip advisor reviews and some hard decisions on what thing we were going to cut out, we are pretty set with our itinerary.

Here it is!