We spent a long 26 hours from leaving our home in the US until we arrived at our first stop, the Cape Grace Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa. The trip was uneventful. We got to JFK on time, our first flight to London left and arrived on time. We spent an hour and a half in the lounge at Heathrow, before boarding our flight to Cape Town. Enough time to use the bathrooms, eat a light meal, and stretch our legs.

Then back on the next flight. This was a much longer flight; about 11 hours overnight. At least, this gave some of us time for a good night’s sleep, unlike the quick, seven hour, NYC-London flight.

At the airport we were met by two handlers who did little more than escort us to the passport control sign, and then wait with us on the long-ish line. Sally likes this kind of extra service; I would have been happy to find our way there on our own. I must admit that they did save us a little time by getting an official to allow us to cut about 20% of the line, and they did wheel five of our seven carry-on bags from the passport line to the terminal exit, where we were met by our driver.

At the hotel we checked out our rooms, then had lunch at the hotel. We all realized that we would fall asleep if we went to the rooms, so we walked over the the V&A (1) harbor area and looked around at the shops and activities. The V&A is a very secure area in a not-so secure country. Then back to the Cape Grace Hotel to relax and clean up before dinner.

Let me introduce you to our crew for this trip. Starting, of course, with Sally and Me. We’ve been on a lot of trips together.

Joining us is Abs, our daughter, and her family.

Husband Trey, and her youngest daughter, Squeaks.

And their two other daughters, Bassgirl and Munchie.

This entire crew showered, in some cases put on makeup, and then went for a fun dinner back at the V&A.

We ended the day right after dinner, as we were all pretty exhausted. Tomorrow will be our first full day in CT (1), and we already have some morning activities planned.

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(1) Cape Town , not Connecticut.