Safari at Addo Elephant Park

For the past couple of days we have been in Addo Elephant park-about 4 hours from Knysna in the Eastern Cape near Port Elizabeth (by no means will this blog be in chronological order). Addo was so awesome! We got to drive around on our own and look for animals. We had a checklist of sorts to mark off once we saw stuff. Here are some things we saw:

Warthogs. Yes, the Lion King soundtrack was playing in my head the whole time. Too bad they're cuter on the cartoon.

We saw lots of elephants (obviously since it's an elephant park). They were great. We also saw a ton of kudu, which is kind of a deer lookin' thing. At first, we thought we were all cool and then as time pressed on, they got boring. This is a female-she doesn't have any horns but some huge ears!

I mostly loved the safari. We rode in our jeeps around to find more animals and our guide really knew his stuff. Here I am holding M&Ms for sustanence (really, this picture is for Brenda-to show her I'm livin' it up in Africa with peanut M&Ms).

By the way, I don't know if you can read my shirt, but it's from bungy jumping the day before. It says, "Fear is temporary, regret is forever." I love it!

Here my Aunt Betti and I stop for drinks and treats while we watch the sun set on a herd of elephants.

We also saw ostrich, hyena, jackal, buffalo, meerkats, hartebeest, leopard tortoise, yellow mongoose, jackal buzzard, etc. I'm too lazy to load ALL the pics on here. I was disappointed I didn't get to see a dungbeetle or a lion.

The safari really made me feel like I was "in Africa" for the first time. Where Betti lives, it's like a normal town and it's very lush and green-not like the savannah I was expecting.

Bungy Jumping

Sorry I haven't blogged sooner, we were on safari and we just got back today. Lots has been happening...

OK people-I didn't get to shark cage dive because it's too cold here and it was too far away. But on our way to our safari, we stopped at Bloukrans Bridge, the world's highest bungy jump and I took the plunge! I was SOOOO freaking scared!

I was pretty confident at first, but then once we got out to the bridge, I was getting more and more nervous. Once it was my turn I could feel my stomach turn...what was I thinking?!? Once they checked and double checked my cords, they hopped me out to the ledge (your feet are all tied up). My toes touched the edge and I thought, "Nooooo....this is NOT a good plan...I don't want to go." Ha ha, can you tell by the picture? This is where I was crapping my pants!

Finally they all started counting down..."Five-Four-Three-Two-One!" and they pushed me off the side. It was a light push and I doubt I would have been able to do it without their push.

This is the part where I start screaming like a little girl. I could feel myself shaking on the way down and I thought, "I'm going to die....I wonder where I will be landing." I decided on a nice bank next to the river below when I finally felt the bungy. I was so relieved, I cheered! I'm such a dork.

Going head first, all the blood rushes to your head. It kinda hurt. But that's the only thing that did. I was shaking until I finally got brought back up.

Obviously I was relieved. I made it!!! My mom will freak!

Hello from South Africa!

I'm finally here! After 2 days, 4 plane rides, 1 delayed bag and enough grease in my hair to fry a Twinkie, I'm here! I absolutely love it here. Thesen Islands is so beautiful! There are white picket fences around each house and there are boardwalks that connect each home's backyard deck. It's so picturesque (but almost Stepford-like). I can't wait to post some pics. My bag got delayed in Johannesburg so we went to pick it up today in George (about 1 hour away). On the way we saw the beaches and the Indian Ocean. It was gorgeous! We also saw some townships on the way, proof of the apartheid (segregation) that took place here and unfortunately those folks still live there. The houses are made of tin and cardboard. I hope to get some pics to put up. The time difference is 10 hours earlier than PST, so it's night here. We had McDonald's for lunch and are watching the West Wing, so you can probably tell it's not THAT much different from home...just enough to make you aware of yourself. I'll check out more of Knysna tomorrow.

Book Report on Knysna!

What the heck is Knysna you might ask? Well, let me tell you...

So some of you may have heard about my trip to South Africa on September 15th. I'm going to visit my Aunt Betti who lives there and I'm so excited! She lives in a town called Knysna (pronounced nice-na), which is on the Garden Route. Here's where it is on the map:

Knysna is a small town nestled around a lagoon on the Indian Ocean. Knysna is famous for the Knysna Heads-large cliffs that loom over the entrance to the lagoon. In the lagoon are two "islands" and my aunt lives on Thesen Island.



Knysna has a diverse ecosystem, with the Knysna Forest to the North...
...and the Knysna Lagoon to the South.
Some things that I want to do while I'm there is check out the Addo Wildlife Park. There are all kinds of animals in the reserve:

















But it is very famous for it's elephants.



















I'll be there for about 10 days. Some other things I want to do are go shark cave diving (not for a lack of want, but may not be able to do if it's too far away) and get a tattoo! No, I don't have any currently but I really want a small one to commemorate my trip. I might be too scared to get it in a foreign country so it may have to wait until I get back to the states...we'll see. It takes about 24.5 flight hours to get there! Anyway, that's it for now. I'm sure as my excitement grows, so will my blog.

Shakespeare Festival

This past weekend, we joined my Dad and Patty to go see Fiddler on the Roof at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. Fiddler was the best play we have seen so far-it was fabulous! I know, I know, it's not a Shakespeare play...but sometimes they can get really boring! We also saw the Greenshow (which doesn't seem to change every year but now it's sort of tradition).

















Patty and I have a tradition of getting a tart that the hussies go around selling.






It was so nice to get out of the heat-we had dinner on the lawn at the Garden House and the weather was perfect...it seems like Vegas weather is either hot or cold. Anyway, it was a great weekend!

BFF

I was going through some of my pictures and I ran across some of these pictures of me and Amanda (previously Jones, now Johnson).
We've been friends since I was 2 and she was 3. They just made me giggle so I thought I'd post them. She and I have been through a lot so this is my homage to Manda. By the way, this picture of us dancing cracks me up...why aren't we together??? Hot mess. And speaking of hot messes...what's with that yellow outfit of mine? I think I'm hot snot with my side ponytail. Why did my mother let me run around lookin' like a raggamuffin?

Raggedy Duck

My dad cracks me up. If any of you know him, he's very modest (well, let's face it-he seems to prefer raggedy things-visiting the dump used to mean a good time). This past spring my Dad and Patty went on a road trip to visit Nauvoo and all that. They went to Mt. Rushmore, went on a steamboat down the Mississippi River, saw Mark Twain's house, and even visited Marceline, MO (the home of Walt Disney). Of all these cool places they went to, you'd think he'd pick up a souvenir or two. No-no, no. Patty had no trouble finding keepsakes from their trip, but the only thing Paco (my dad) wanted to keep was this. This mangy, rotted duck decoy he plucked out of the Mississippi. As you can tell, it's disgusting...but he is very proud of his raggedy duck.