South Africa -- Days 1 & 2

Well, we made it! We left yesterday and arrived safely today. Got up pretty early yesterday, got the car loaded, Cyn made me an awesome snack bag with sandwiches (in case we didn't like the airline food) and we were on our way. We had time to stop for breakfast and then got on the road to Harrisburg. We actually ended up beating Jess to the house, as she was out running last minute errands. Minor things around the house and we were on our way. Cyn headed back up the road to Collegeville and Jess and I got on the road to Dulles Airport. We made good time, not encountering any traffic. One glitch, our shuttle was to pick us up at my Aunt's house, where we were leaving the car, at 1:30. At 12:45, he calls to say he is there!!!! We call the shuttle place and they call him and tell him he just has to wait till the appointed time. We got there by 1:15, got our luggage loaded and were on our way.

The ride to the airport was uneventful. We got checked in and headed to our gate to wait. We had lunch and settled in to wait. Finally, our flight was called to board. We got in and seated and took off for our 17-hour flight. They fed us almost immediately. Well, first we got drinks, which of course i requested a Diet Coke. Instead, I got Coca-Cola Light. It was just a cute difference. Dinner was a choice of Irish Stew or Chicken Masala. Poor Jess, she got excited and thought they said Chicken Marsala. She was very depressed when I explained it was an Indian dish. She also didn't want the Irish Stew as it was made with lamb. She is not an adventerous eater. So instead she had one of the sandwiches from our snack bag and some crackers, poor thing. We watched The King's Speech (excellent movie!) and settled in for bedtime. That lasted for about 3 hours before we had landed in Dakar, Senegal to switch flight crews and presumably refuel.

Once that crew came aboard and we got back in the air, they served a breakfast. It was pretty generic and Mom didn't fare much better with her pancakes. We went back to sleep after that, waking up after about 4 more hours. Watched the movie Burlesque (pretty good) and read for a bit, listened to some music. We were getting pretty close at this point, but they insisted on feeding us one more time. I should have opted for the chicken, the "beef" was pretty bad. I cracked Mom up, saying that I knew monkey meat when I tasted it!

We finally landed, got our luggage and WE WERE IN SOUTH AFRICA! So excited! Got through the Passport check area, got our luggage and found my brother all very easily. We drove back to his condo and dropped off all our stuff, and just rested for a minute. We finally took a walk over to the connected mall-type place that's a part of this gated community and went to a place called Rich's for dinner. Chatted it up, laughed, had amazing food (I tried ostrich steak!). Finally came back to the condo and unpacked and now we're all crashing. I am the last one up, but I am fading fast! It is after 1:00 AM here, so I think I'd better settle in for the night. We have a big first day tomorrow!