Green Family Reunion - First There Were Five

Words cannot describe how much I had looked forward to July 19th at 8:55 pm! That is when Dad, Shannon and Hunter stepped foot in South Africa - and after 7 months, it made my heart so happy to see these smiling (and tired) faces come walking towards us there in the airport!

We started out the next day by showing them around our town of Stellenbosch. Our morning started at the Stellenbosch Slow Food Market for lunch and sampling many of the local treats. We gave them a quick tour of our apartment and then visited a few of our favorite wine farms before heading to eat dinner at De Volkskombuis, a restaurant specializing in traditional, home cooked, Cape cuisine.

David and Hunter started early the next morning with a hike up Table Mountain. The other three of us met with them up top a little later on. We later toured around Camps Bay before heading in for a laid back afternoon.

On Monday, we took a drive to Franschhoek and had breakfast at the Famous Franschhoek Pancake House. We then visited Babylonstoren, an old Cape Dutch Farm with great food and wine, a beautiful fruit and vegetable garden and many animals such as ducks, turkeys, chickens and donkeys. We finished off the day with a wonderful dinner at The Big Easy restaurant in Stellenbosch.

The next day we started with a yummy breakfast (thinking of Nonna with our Nutella toast and coffee) at The Handle Bar Cafe in Seapoint. Next up was a tour of Cape Town Stadium, home to some of the games in the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup and as close to a soccer game we could get for Hunter as the season just ended. We then shopped around at The Old Biscuit Mill and walked through Bo-Kaap, a lively suburb of Cape Town filled with brightly colored houses.

We came across the "Before I die...." wall on Kloof Street and each had to write out an item on our bucket list.

That evening we ate dinner at a hip, driveway-turned-burger-joint  place called "The Yard" - serving "limited edition" (only 50 made per night) delicious burgers with a head of lettuce on each! We got their early to get our name on the board and had a great time playing poker and other card games before having to figure out how to eat these monstrous burgers!

On Wednesday we shopped for animal rugs at the V&A Waterfront and then drove up to Signal Hill to watch the sun set over the Atlantic Ocean. Not too long after we arrived, Dad decided to go paragliding over Sea Point and around Lion's Head. After he made it back safely, we played on the beach and went to dinner in Camps Bay while patiently awaiting the arrival of the remaining part of our family!

Check back for more on the rest of our Green Family Reunion! There is just too much to put in to one post!!