South Africa

Millie woke up super excited to play with her new buddy Bertus, the kid of our Airbnb hosts next door. She waited patiently at our window until she saw him and then darted out to play. After just a few minutes their giant Great Dane puppy ran at her and sent her into a horror…

We had a hectic morning today. Nick and Millie’s Chinese visa applications got approved yesterday but mine was stuck in the ether. We woke up unsure what to do – do we drop off their passports at the visa office and mine later? Luckily at 8:30 this morning, my approval came through. But then the…

Millie woke me up this morning by crawling into our bed, getting fully on top of me, and whispering into my ear “Mom, are you going to die of old age?” The most optimistic answer I could muster at 7AM was “I hope so”. After that we had a typical lazy morning. We snuggle in…

Huge win for me this morning: I am now the only member of the family who has not pooped their pants on the trip. The last man standing. Watch this space. I didn’t get off scot-free though. I woke up itching from head to toe and covered in hives. I also have a cramp-y stomach…

We didn’t have much hope as we headed towards the Chinese consulate at 9AM this morning. We discussed some likely failure states we imagined we’d run into: not possible to get visas as US citizens, lines too long, etc. The one we actually hit was not one of our predictions. We were at the wrong…

I’m afraid these Cape Town updates are going to be quite boring. No big hikes, no lion hunts, and no 9000-year-old ruins. Just lots of hanging out and getting shit done. This first shit to do today was to apply for our China visas. We probably sound like the least organized travelers ever, and we…

The last few weeks in Kenya and Tanzania have been wonderful, but not exactly relaxing. Driving is stressful and walking is stressful. We haven’t had a washing machine. We’ve had to stagger showers to make the most of the hot water. And we’ve had to rely on guides for a lot of activities. Our plan…

Our flight out of Zanzibar this morning was at 4:20AM. The bad 4:20. Working backwards to allow time for getting ready, a short taxi ride, and getting there 2 hours early meant our alarms went off at 1:45AM. At this point is it an early flight or a very late flight? Either way it was…