Cape Town, South Africa - February 19, 2014

Beautiful! Breath-taking! Ocean! Mountains! City! Modern! Happy! Friendly! Clean! Breezy dry air!! Why would anyone born here ever leave this place?

This was a really nice day! We woke about 8 am. I spent the next few hours getting caught-up with photos and entries to the blog. I am completely up-to-date! Hallelujah!! It is the first time I have accomplshed that since leaving Atlanta! Finally, we have great Wi-Fi here!! It is an extra cost, but the cost is nominal, and the system works fantastically.

We got outside about 10 am and marched ourselves down and back along the Atlantic coast esplanade for a good hour of exercise. It was so beautiful. If I lived here, I'd do that walk every single day. How exhilarating! After the fast walk, we made ourselves a healthy breakfast of boiled eggs, fresh peach slices, and figs just found in a local deli on our way home, cheese and a bit of leftover Ostrich burger. I'm feeling better already. It is like repenting after our two weeks of over-the-top buttery, bready, creamy wonderful foods that layer on the pounds!!! I feel like a walrus.

Later we caught the 109 bus just down from our door and took it south to Hout Bay, the end of the line. By the time we arrived a cloud had settled in on the land squeezing out the warm air and filling the atmosphere with a cool misty fog. It was difficult to see the ocean and hard to see the top of Chapman's Peak. Still we sat on a bench on water's edge and simply shared a moment of quiet time.

We walked around the village of Hout Bay a few minutes and decided to grab a bus and head back to Cape Town to visit the Central Business District. It was a lovely, scenic ride, but when we arrived at the CBD, nothing was there. It is like being in downtown Atlanta or Little Rock, after 6 pm, not a place you really want to be. We hopped back on a bus and headed back to Green Point. There we had perhaps the best steak dinner we have ever had at The Hussar Grill, a bottle of wine and voila! The day is done!

We really like this place.

Before I close, I must say, I don't know property values or utility costs or taxes here, but I can say that food is cheap!!! Cheap, that is in comparison to prices in Atlanta. We had a 500 gram Rump Steak and a 500 gram T-bone steak, which is big, for the equivalent of $16 each. At the market, we bought four Ostrich burgers for $3.69, 6 ounces of Gruyere for $3.59, and a big peach for $.40, and to get around, we bought two open-ended bus tickets with a total value of $20 each. We road it all day today and have used only about $3.50. Prices seem pretty good for once.