Cape Town to Kruger

On Sunday evening, London time, we boarded another big Virgin Atlantic plane -- this one bound for Johannesburg. We were all so exhausted, but excited to get to South Africa. For the first couple hours of the flight, we slept. But then dinner rolled down the aisle on a cart, and we roused ourselves to eat. In truth, the Virgin airplane food was fairly decent. And we were hungry. And eating passes the time on long flights.  Hanging at our London gate. Get us to South Africa! After dinner, Taylor fell back asleep. The rest of us eventually did, too. But night #2 on the plane didn't go as smoothly as the first. We didn't sleep as much and it was harder to find a comfortable position. First world problems, I know.  We landed in Johannesburg about 10:15 in the morning. It took us about 25 minutes to get through customs, and then we grabbed our one checked bag -- a duffel. We made our way out of the international terminal and into the domestic terminal. We checked in for our 1:30pm ...

We landed in London about 1pm local time on Sunday, so 5am California time. All of us had slept some on the plane, so that was good, but we still staggered our way through Heathrow. We went through customs and then checked our bags into the Heathrow 'left baggage' area. It all went quickly. From there, we made our way to the Heathrow Express; 15 minutes later, we popped out at Paddington Station. Tim had booked us a longer layover in London to allow for time to see his sister, Tessa, and her husband, Dean. Tessa and Dean met us at Paddington and we had a WONDERFUL time together. The ultimate tour guides, Tessa and Dean took us to see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. We walked over to 10 Downing Street and then to Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square. Tess and Dean shared that this particular Sunday was the nicest summer day they'd had in a while, weather wise. Seems like the weather's been cool and gray in London -- except on the day we visited, it was hot-hot-hot and ...

Hello, dear blog readers! And welcome to our newest blog, Cape Town to Kruger. Our family is about to embark on a three-week trip through South Africa, where we will indeed be visiting Cape Town and Kruger National Park (plus a few other places). We're super excited to see South Africa. We're a little less excited about the travel ahead of us, but it's all part of the adventure. Later this evening, we'll fly from LAX to London. From London, we'll fly to Johannesburg. And from Jo'burg, we'll fly to Cape Town. In all, we'll be in transit about 40 hours (!), but who's counting? I just hope my chocolate snacks last me the whole way... Tim started planning this trip in March. He planned the whole entire thing. I did nada. Well, close to nada. I issued the USPS mail hold and registered this trip with the U.S. State Department, but otherwise I did nada. Taylor is most excited to see "horses" in South Africa. (Does that surprise anyone?) Wyatt is m...