Johannesburg, S. Africa

Johannesburg is the largest city in South Africa, The city is the source of a large-scale gold and diamond trade, pop 4.5 million.

Johannesburg

We are staying two nights, February 5 and 6, 2015, at the OR Tambo Protea Hotel to meet the other 9 people in our Overseas Adventure Travel tour group, headed by our guide, Thompson Matumbi.  He has been emailing us, preparing us for our adventure.  We need to bring headlamps and warm clothes for the early mornings and evenings, which seems to be his main concern.

Johannesburg is the financial capital of the country.  Friday was a free day there so we hired a guide to take us to the Apartheid Museum and Soweto.  He also stopped by the constitutional court house, which is like our Supreme Court.  It was built on the site and with the bricks of an apartheid prison.  It is designed to have the feel of how traditional justice was done, by creating a space much like a clearing in the woods under trees.  

We visited a Mutihi shop that sells bones and horns and herbs for traditional healing.  We saw an old shop sign that said Non-whites only. Through the city we passed over the Mandela bridge, and saw the mirrored, diamond shaped DeBeers building.  Petrol was about 10 Rnd per liter, or about $4.00 a gallon.  Every sign is written in English.  We also passed by the modern soccer stadium used for the 2012 World Cup held in S. Africa.  Spain won that year.  

Soweto means South West Township.  There is a large population of black Africans living there.  Mandela's simple 4 room brick home was just like the others on the street except there were a couple bullet holes in the walls.  Desmond Tutu lives down the street.  There was a Soweto museum that concentrated on just the riots of 1976 that happened in that area, because the people protested against having to only use the Africaans language in school.  The protests resulted in children being killed.  The museum presented the information in photos, quotations, and film interviews from all sides of the confrontations.

After that we went to the Apartheid Museum.  1/3 of it was on Soweto, so we were able to concentrate on the history of apartheid in general.  It was presented in a similar fashion using large photos, commentary, interviews on TV screens, and a movie explaining the history and the eventual end of apartheid in S. Africa.

We were too tired to go to the other attractions that our Zulu guide Mthandeni Khumalo recommended.  At the Lion Park he assured us 120% that we would see lions and even touch the cubs.  The cultural village, presenting cultures from several African tribes and a traditional meal, was appealing to me, but we went to have a swim in the hotel pool instead.

OR Tambo Hotel

Here are his recommendations in case you are on your way to an African Safari:

My former travelers have recommended these items on “WHAT TO  BRING WITH YOU LIST”. Here are the suggested items.

> 1)a bandana or a small scarf or dusty musk for dusty roads 2)Sunscreen

> 3)mosquito repellents 4)Water Bottle.

> 5)Sun Hat with wide brim with ties as it might constantly be blown off

> by the wind in open safari vehicles 6)a good flash light as the lighting in camp rooms are not as bright as you are used to in the US.

> 7)A  head lamp is a MUST BRING.

> 8) Rechargeable batteries as you will be able to re charge in camps

> 9) a good pair of binoculars 8x40 , 10x42

> 10) if you have a tablet computer you many bring it ( you can use it

> as back up for your pictures and some camps will have internet .)

>

>                 IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON CLOTHING It will get cold in

> some areas in the mornings . I  recommend we come prepared with the following clothing

> 1)        Winter jackets which have good wind break we will be doing our safaris in open vehicles

> 2)        Pajama /night dress.

Summary of Florida

David Smith, Dorothy, and Larry Smith

Our first stop in Florida has ended.  We have many happy memories.

While at my brother David’s we visited Universal Studios, Walt Disney’s Epcot Center, Walt Disney’s Animal Kingdom where I got a taste of Safari.  We got to spend time with my other brother Larry and his wife Carol who flew down from Ohio and Kentucky.  That first week was very busy.  Did I mention that David took bridge lessons at the Central Florida Regional bridge tournament and played in the 0-20 game?  Did I mention that we both had a lesson on Law of Total Tricks from the bridge master, Larry

Cohen?

The next week we moved to Susan Smith’s home where she lives with her significant other, Jim Albers in the Waterford Lakes area of Orlando which is all built up with shopping, wide roads and traffic due to its proximity to University of Central Florida’s main campus area.  This is the second largest University in the whole United States, so you can imagine a whole city of students, like maybe 30,000!  Jim lives on a lake with only a few homes with docks.  He basically has his own private lake for jet skiing, swimming, canoeing, paddle boarding, and there is even a party boat.  Lots of fun for family, grandchildren and adult parties and thankfully a separate apartment for homeless ex  inlaw relatives from Hawaii.

David quickly made friends at the local Starbucks including the area policemen who are there with their laptops in the mornings.  A Fedex store next door for making copies, a cleaners nearby where the owner is from Gujarat, India so David could practice his Gujarati.

We have had our clothes and suitcases spread out all over the two bedrooms and living room deciding what to pack.  Thankfully Florida has been cool.  The places we are visiting will also be cool in the mornings and evenings, so we are more in tune with how to pack.  So of course we did a lot of shopping.  I especially needed warmer clothes.  Jams World wasn't going to work.

Outside the Jupiter lighthouse

During our trip to Jupiter, FL where we visited Susan’s Mother, Phyllis Shafer, we shopped at Chico’s and Nordstrom at the Palm Beach mall.  David got $750 dress shoes for less than half the price.  Now he has more expensive shoes that I can step on while dancing on a cruise ship dance floor.

Down the stairs at Jupiter Lighthouse

In Jupiter we enjoyed visiting the local lighthouse  and climbed the 115 stairs!

We ate at some awesome restaurants and played bridge with Phyllis.  We also got to put our feet in the Atlantic Ocean to document our official world trip with important landmarks.

At the Atlantic Ocean

Add caption

We were able to spend some time with my nephew Rob Smith and his wife, Denise, and their three delightful children, Elliott, 5, Hayley who turned 3, and Emerson who is about 6 months.  We babysat with Grandpa, then went out to dinner together.  We had a birthday party where Susan gave Hayley a princess bike and had dinner at Olive Garden.  The official birthday party was at a park.  This past Sunday we had them over to Susan’s for brunch and fun on the lawn.  They invited us to see the manatees at Blue Spring State Park but we had other plans.

We visited my soon to be 90 year old Aunt Elaine, my mother’s younger sister.  We got to stay at Village on the Green in a guest room and participate in all of her fun activities and meet many of her friends, some of whom still remembered my Mother, Barbara Patry.  First we played duplicate bridge Friday with Herb whom we met at the Larry Cohen class.  We came in first place!  Then we played gin rummy Saturday morning.  Our team won.  Then we got to use our winnings to buy bingo cards Sunday night.  David won one of the Bingos.  We also went to a concert by Suzanne and Jim who play Civil War music.  Oh! Susanna is one of the popular songs that came from that era.  Sunday there was an interesting talk about bats.  We learned that bats are the largest group of mammals.  Most of them are super tiny.

Putting green at VOTG in honor of my Mother

We saw several movies:  Wild, the story of Cheryl Strayed, played by Reese Witherspoon, hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.  I had just finished the book so it was interesting to see.  The movie followed the book pretty well.

The Theory of Everything, about Steven Hawking.  Eddie Redmayne, who portrayed him was excellent and will probably win the academy award for his performance.

Night at the Museum, 2.  They went to the British museum this time. We enjoyed the first one, and this one was also a lot of fun.

Paddington, the popular children’s book about a bear who was adopted by an English family.  Cute.

MetOpera live in HD performances of Merry Widow by Lahar, and Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffman. 

We also saw a local Winter Park Playhouse production of Rat Pack The actors really looked like and sounded like the real thing, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra and played their characters to a T.

Atlantis

David Smith and David and I visited the Kennedy Space Center  last week.  At half the price of a Disney Park, it was much more interesting to us and more fun, maybe because we were adults; but there were plenty of kids there as well.  We went midweek and the weather was nippy so we had no lines or crowds.  The bus trip to see all the launch platforms was a big feature.  We also saw the real shuttle Atlantis.  It is huge!  It has its own building and video introduction.  The two IMAX movies, one on the Space Station, and one on the Hubble telescope were very interesting.  Of course there was the rocket “garden”.  We got home in plenty of time to go out to dinner with David and Marlene and Megan.

Susan, Elliott, Emerson and Hayley

It is sad to be leaving Florida after renewing friendships with my relatives and the wonderful hospitality of David and Marlene, Aunt Elaine, Phyllis Shafer and Susan Smith and Jim Albers.  We also got to spend time with my brother Larry and Carol, and Rob and Denise Smith and Elliott, Hayley and Emerson.  As we all know, the time spent with family and friends are the best memories.

David, Rob and Jim comparing Solar output

Next in line for memories would be the splendid evening sunsets over the vast expanse of sky (there are no mountains), the thrill of the Atlantic Ocean, and the peaceful canoe rides around Jim’s private lake.

Florida sunset

Jupiter, florida, January 2015

David and I got to go visit Susan's Mother, Phyllis's in her beautiful home in Jupiter which is North of Palm Beach and Miami.  What a beautiful town, on the water,  and it was warm!  We had some nice meals in really nice restaurants nearby, like Jetty's and Guanobano's.

Susan took care of Phyllis because she had broken her foot in a fall.  Phyllis is herself a caretaker, so it never is easy to let others help you.  It was lovely to see her again.  We shared a room on the Norwegian cruise line's Hawaiian cruise.  We had a lovely time playing bridge on the cruise, and we all four also played bridge on this visit.

David and I were able to go to the Palm Beach Mall and shop at Chico's.  We stopped on the way back and checked out the Atlantic Ocean.  We had to dip our feet into this ocean because we will be missing it since the cruise doesn't start until Singapore.  Now we have officially seen and dipped our toes into the Atlantic Ocean.

Monday we got to spend the morning on the beach in the sun and read and walked on the sand.  then we had lunch at a restaurant in the beach park called Larry's Loggerhead cafe - who knew it had the best black bean soup.  They put fruit colis and yoghurt on the top.  Delicious.  After  our 3 hour drive home Susan's boyfriend Jim had cooked a roast lamb dinner for us.  He is a keeper.

Hayley Smith's 3rd birthday

Hayley Smith, the middle child of Rob and Denise, had her birthday last week, Jan 16.  We were invited to a pre-party Thursday night where we all went to Olive Garden for dinner because Hayley likes olives.  Older brother Elliott was busy filling the stickers in the play pictures they gave out.  7 month old Emerson slept and smiled as usual.  Rob is up and about supervising, making sure everyone is eating and happy.  This is the third night we went out to dinner with their family.  It is quite an experience watching this young family of five.  After dinner we went back to Rob's house.  He builds homes and his is a spectacular one.  He specializes in high end new construction or remodels or teardowns.  His E2Homes is growing so fast he is spending most of his time hiring people right now.

Denise made a star shaped birthday cake with chocolate and blue layers.  Hayley likes "Frozen" we were told.

Susan Smith brought her a princess bike/trike.  Hayley put her doll in it immediately and started riding around the large great room.  Great Aunt Dorothy got a try.

Hayley, 3 years old, with Dad Rob

Saturday was the big party at a local playground.  It was wonderful to see this fabulous jungle jim play area so filled with 2 to 5 year olds.  This is the perfect age for this kind of park.  Over a dozen kids played, had their face painted  and ate pizza and cake.

"Frozen" cake

Another "Frozen" cake was the dessert.  Hayley carried the cake decoration everywhere.  She and Elliott were experts on the swings.

Face painting

Walt Disney's Animal Kingdom

our safari vehicle

Saturday, I went with my brother Larry and his wife Carol to Walt Disney's Animal Kingdom.  Larry and Carol were on a whirlwind tour of Florida for they visited Universal Studios on Friday.  I am so grateful they took the time to visit.  My brothers and I rarely get to spend time together.

We arrived fairly early in time to make our way to the Kilimanjaro Safari ride which really was like a Safari.  It was well worth the 30 min wait.  Larry and I got our explorer booklet so we had a list of animals to find.  We saw many more on the list. Of the big 5, we only missed the leopard.   African lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, African leopard, and White/Black rhinoceros are the Big 5, which I learned are listed thus because they are the dangerous ones big game hunters got stuffed after your hunting safari before the late 1970s when people still did that.
Some animals we encountered during the tour include:

• Antelope
• Mandrill
• Black Rhino
• Cheetah
• Crocodile
• Elephant
• Flamingo
• Gazelle
• Giraffe
• Hippopotamus
• Lion
• Okapis
• Ostrich
• Warthog
• White Rhino
• Wildebeest
• Zebra

We tried to have lunch at a buffet restaurant, but the wait was 40 min.  After 35 min we checked again and were told the wait would be 40 minutes, so we went to a nearby fruit and vegetable cart. Crowds were everywhere in spite of the cold weather.  The Disney Marathon had happened that morning before the parks opened and every other family had someone with a participant medal around their neck.

We were able to get last minute seats at a show featuring birds which was entertaining.  I was amazed that they trained chickens to cross the stage - twice!

The next part I remember was going to the Dinoland bone yard to get one of our passport stickers.  Hundreds of children climbing ropes, ladders, slides, etc.  Larry went down the tallest slide.  I hope he is okay.

We made it back to town to Susan Smith's house where we had a lovely dinner of salmon with us and their

friends, two of whom have been on the safari with OAT that we will be experiencing Feb 5th.  They showed their 30 minute movie of their trip.  It looks like the accommodations will be very nice and we will see lots of animals and have lots of experiences.  I can't wait!

Epcot Center

Spaceship Earth with brother Larry

Thursday, Jan 15, 2015 Larry Smith, David Case, David Smith, Marlene Smith, and our guide, Marlene's daughter Megan enjoyed a day at the Disney Epcot Center.  We first took a ride on the LAND and viewed the hydroponic growing methods, revolutionary when Epcot was first opened in 1982, but accepted today.  Next stop was the coffee shop!  Starbucks no less, Disney style has two long lines and serving areas.  Our goal was to have lunch at Mexico, but the World Showcase wasn't open until noon, so everyone saw Future World first.  Here is a map of Disney
As I remember our day, clouded by over a week of other activities, it was COLD.
We saw lots of beer steins in Germany.
Went on the boat ride in Mexico and then had lunch there where everyone agreed was the best place to eat.
Epcot is mainly a smorgasbord of international restaurants and snacks at exorbitant prices.  Then we were off to China to see the 360 degree movie of its wonders.  I always enjoy that and hope we will see some of these sites on our cruise.  I am scheduled to see the Terra Cotta Warriors in Xian, and I am sure we will see some of Shanghai and the Great Wall.
Canada had a nice walk through tour of its beauty called O Canada.  Then we saw the Journey Into Imagination with Figment which was  a little cutesy ride.
We also took a boat ride to follow this little fish Nemo from a movie.  You end up in a big area with displays of coral, seahorses and a big aquarium with large beautiful fish.

Close encounter with a shark

.  We also saw manatees.  We also got eaten by a shark, but were able to have our picture taken just before he swallowed.

Universal Studios

Tuesday was the anticipated theme park adventure at Universal Studios, Orlando with the Wizarding World of Diagon Alley.  Universal Islands of Adventure has The Wizarding World of Harry Potter- Hogsmeade.  Of course since they are in two different theme parks, you have to buy a combined ticket for $140.  The Hogwarts Express train connects the two parks. We went to HARRY POTTER AND THE FORBIDDEN JOURNEY ride, which was only a 30 minute wait time.  The line wandered through lush gardens and wasn't too long of a wait and you got to visit with each other,  David Case met us half way in line because we had to put our backpacks in a locker.  When we got out, the locker area was totally packed with people.  David found our locker, but the finger print mechanism wouldn't work for him.  He had to push through the shoulder to shoulder people to find someone to help.  This took almost as long as waiting in line for the ride.  My brother David, his wife Marlene, and David and I were the adventurers. The ride was as promised, an exciting  journey following Harry through the valleys, buildings and forests to escape something, I forget what.  The cars turned, twisted, bumped and swirled, leaving David and I queasy and not excited about taking any more rides that day.   We then went to The Lost Continent and rode Poseidon's Fury.  It was actually a walk through with an explorer as our guide.  Poseidon won.  Then we took the Hogwarts train to Diagon Alley which was fun. The window had a passing scene just like you might see on the train with people walking outside the compartment.  At Diagon Alley, lots of preteens had their special wands and instructions and were waving them at various signs and windows to see if they could master the spells.  If you waved your wand in a W, something weird would happen in the window.  If we had had more time, I would have like to try.  We had our photo taken with the conductor of the Hogwarts train. 

Hogsmeade next to butter beer cask

Hogwarts train & conductor

We did not sample butter beer or pumpkin juice, having heard it was mostly syrup.  My brother Larry and Carol, who visited together on Thursday did have some, and said it was very different, sweet, but like nothing they had had before and was what they would imagine butter beer tasted like. We did not wait in any lines to go on a ride.  But the Men in Black, Alien Attack ride had a line for "singles".  David and Marlene held our backpacks and we went there, getting to the front of the line in no time.  We had to shoot at monsters that appeared at every turn.  At the end you got your score.  I'm sure I hit most of them, but my score was only 22,800.  We went to the Beetlejuice monster revue show.  I am surprised that people still remember Beetlejuice, but the show was about dancing and singing monsters and walking dead people.  

We decided to see the attraction Disaster, the movie.  

Dorothy in her film debut

We were told that we would be part of the final movie.  When we walked in the Producer picked audience members as actors.  He wanted a Grandmother.  Well, I am a Grandmother now, so I raised my hand.  I had on my yellow flowered hat and was picked.  I was told I would be doing gardening.  We all went to the stage area and I sat on a stool with a scene in the background.  Others did their shots.  I was last.  I was given a hoe and was told to pretend to rake the earth looking down.  Then suddenly I had to look up and shield my head to protect me from the rain. Then we all went on a train which encountered various obstacles. Our reactions were being recorded for the movie.  Then we saw the final movie.  What an adventure of disastrous proportions!  In the end, the Grandmother was seen suddenly reaching up to something which evaporated her in a puff of smoke!  

Blues Brothers

We passed by the Blues Brothers concert just in time, since it was all of 15 minutes.  On the way out we went to the Lucille Ball tribute museum which was very interesting.  I forgot they also had a daughter.  We were home before 5:00pm to take Dobie for his walk and give him love.  I forgot to say that the weather turned very cold.  Marlene gave me her green hat and gloves to wear.  I am realizing I have no warm clothes.  What I considered cold weather clothing was for weather in Hawaii at around 70 degrees.

Florida

Here we are at my brother David's house in Winter Park, FL with not a care in the world. Christmas in Florida seems out of place, just like Hawaii.  My sister in law, Marlene, however has tastefully brought the spirit of the holiday into and outside of their beautiful home.  

Richmond Rd., Winter Park, FL

Now my tension headaches are gone, there is nothing pressing to do.  We went to the Morse museum in downtown Winter Park today. David and Marlene had never visited it. Another example of how people don't go to their local tourist attractions.  We are guilty as well.   It was full of Tiffany glass windows and lamps and other art from his workshop.  They restored what remained of his beautiful chapel. 

Tiffany Chapel at Morse Museum

The next day we walked in Winter Park Village and found a movie theater where we saw WILD.  I am currently listening to this book on my iPhone!  It is on our bookclub book list.  The 38 year old candybar named actress Reese Witherspoon played Cheryl Strayed, who at 26, hiked the Pacific Crest Trail the year Jerry Garcia died.  For the second night in a row I slept 10 hours.  

We're off!

David finished his mandatory ethics CLE at the same time my computer finished backing up before we got into the car and Roger drove us to the airport with about 350 to 400 lbs of luggage.  Lewis helped us get boarding passes and luggage tickets and took the bags away.  He told me "Miss Dorothy, you don't need to do anything, you've worked hard enough already".

                                               

David took his usually 15 to 30 minutes to get through the Pre check security line because of his artificial knee.  He sat down to put the luggage tag receipts of the back of the boarding passes     and noticed they were going to Ft. Lauderdale!  No bathroom for Dorothy.  No opportunity to buy Hawaiian luggage tags.  David hurried out of the security area to try to change our bags and our selves to go to Orlando, not Ft.  Lauderdale.  I looked into the travel book and sure enough, our boarding passes said Orlando.  But Lewis had put David's credit card into the machine and evidently it came up with our Oceania itinerary instead which was to go to Ft.  Lauderdale.  David saw at least 3 bags with the new correct bag claims before he was escorted to security once again, where the same TSA agent once again patted him down completely before letting him back into the gate area.  Lewis did save us $150 in extra luggage fees, however.  

I am writing this on my iPad at the Seattle airport.   Here is the photo of our landing on a clear morning with Mt. Ranier in the background.