Living it up in 'Merica...

Well...its been a while...

In my two and a half month blogging hiatus I found much to occupy my time with - exams, work, shopping for African souvenirs ( I swear I kept the vendors in business for December, I don't know who else locally would buy that stuff...certainly not us Africans!) etc etc etc.

And then mid December we ditched our regular life for a more glamorous one, boarded a massive plane and 22 hours later found ourselves 9 hours younger, jet lagged, but more importantly IN AMERICA!

It had been 4 years since my last voyage to the "land of the free and home of the brave" (although our land is free too so I think our gov'ment should learn a thing or two and come up with a cool slogan), and for J it had been 6 looooong years.  Our whole marriage,Up to the 17th of December, we've only been able to share our individual experiences of America, but now, oh brother, NOW we've got a whole shebang more memories that we BOTH have of the same place, same time, same people, same food...

Speaking of food, we were 'smart' and brought most of our souvenirs home on our bodies...Excuse me whilst I go snack on a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup...

We spent 3 glorious care free weeks soaking in all things 'Merican that we craved and missed and spent much needed quality time with my family that I have seen only a handful of times since J and I wed 4 years ago. We loved every.single.second. of every.single.day. Even the days it never reached above freezing!

So whilst it's impossible to share all the details of our brilliant American adventure, here's just a few pics of hundreds for a sneak peak of our holiday:

Saturday

So it rained, and pretty much foiled the plans of watching the bike race at the Grand Prix Circuit. But we went anyway with our awesome friend Annaline to hand out her photography business cards. 

We decided then and there that come next month, WE WILL return to watch the race. The adrenaline rushes through our veins as we watch those bikes race at top speed. 

We might just be hooked.

G-Town...

Stands for Grahamstown. And that's exactly where we went this past weekend to check out the highly raved about Arts Festival. We went with these awesome friends whom we've learnt so much from  (Mark & Annaline):

As posted about here, G-Town is one of my favourite little spots in Safrica, simply for its old English architecture, peaceful surroundings, and student vibe.

We awoke at the crack of dawn feeling ready for an adventure! Dressed in warm leggings, coats, scarves, and furry socks we piled into Mark's trusty and fast bakkie and made a dash for G-Town. Little did we know it was blowing gale force winds and F-ER-EEEEZING! It couldn't damper our spirits though as we meandered about all the stalls checking out artsy doodats and creative inventions (like those comfy triangular wood and rubber chairs).

We tried on hats and purchased hats, ate d-lish chicken and beef schwarmas, snacked on sugary Greek desserts, pancakes, roasted nuts, biltong and chocolate and even made a pit stop at the Execu-Loo. What a pleasure.

On the way home we stopped in Port Alfred (another even smaller town) to check out its mall, and ended the trip off with a cup of Horlicks and Forrero Rocher's chatting about the day's memories.

And that is how to explore the G-Town festival.

Katberg!

On Thursday and Friday we had the opportunity to spend some time in Katberg, a tiny town about 2 hours away from E.L. Despite the name, I only saw one cat...and a peacock. J attended the Quacks golf day where he socialized with clients on a more personal level, whilst I spent some time with J's dear mother, and relaxing. It was about 37 degrees Celsius = COOKING!! The gardens were out-of this-world-beautiful, with assorted flowers in the brightest shade of colours. Have you ever seen a peach and yellow rose? On Thursday evening we had a tasty buffet dinner with J's parents. Friday morning we slept in of course, and after watching our President Jacob Zuma address his cabinet, we delighted in the buffet breakfast where amongst other things were flapjacks and whipped cream! Hello heaven! At this point it felt like the end of the world was about to happen it was so hot, we did what any sane people do, and played lawn bowls! HAHA! Whilst this may be seen as an 'old person's' sport, we thoroughly enjoyed it! L beat J! We highly recommend lawn bowls! After sweating enough to fill a 2l milk bottle we jumped in the pool to cool off and tan! Sadly our little mini vacation came to an end midday when we had to check out and head back to the city all South Africans dream of retiring in. What can we say...we live in paradise. :)

The room we stayed in was called 'Eaton Place'

Nothing like a game of bowls!