Lookout! - 11/10/2012

Betty Crocker

BEN - Gabby woke up early to cover the reception desk as I slept in a nice long time.  When I got up and went to reception, I was greeted by a completely unexpected, and wonderful breakfast treat.  McDonalds Big Macs!  One random night we had been talking with Sarel about how we all secretly love, and crave McDonalds.  Sarel had been in Port Elizabeth early in the morning to drop off some guests, and very thoughtfully got us all a Big Mac for breakfast.  To top off our monging of American excess, Captain America was playing on TV.  We sat and watched, as Corinne rolled her eyes at the corny German accents the bad guys all had.  The afternoon got very hot, the hottest we have had yet; about 90 degrees F.   Summer is definately coming.  Gabby and I decided to get all our laundry done as this is our penultimate day in Addo.

After our chores we decided it was finally time to show everyone what they were missing the most here, chocolate chip cookies.  We whipped them up to the best of our abilities, substituting ingredients and cookware with whatever was lying around to get the job done.  The cookies turned out pretty well, although a bit different (I think because the South African brown sugar is much lighter than the US).  Everyone liked them and I of course ate more than my fill (of both dough and cookies).  The other big excitement of the evening was that I was able to talk with my extended family, who are all in Michigan for the annual autumn leaf rake.  Everyone seems to be doing well, especially Aunt Laurie and Jim who have gotten engaged!  Congratulations!!!

The lookout

The night was clear, so the crew decided it would be a good night to go to a lookout of the valley.  We drove down a bunch of dirt roads and climbed up a staircase to have a wonderful view of the entire Addo Valley.  We all hung out and took pictures as the sun set and turned from bright yellow to orange to pink as it disappeared behind the mountains.  When we returned, Gabby and I decided to go over the Hazel's for a final delicious appetizer.  We had fresh sweet potato bread with hummus  and warthog kabobs.  Warthog is interesting, kind of tough, but covered in a sweet pineapple sauce that was tasty.  We chatted with Hazel and Randy about their new restaurant location for awhile; they are getting very excited.  We got back to the backpackers and decided to go to bed.  Of course, Sarel was not about to let that happen calling us 'soft cocks,' an endearing new South African phrase.  We ended up staying up and watching a movie before going to bed.