March 22, 2025
We had hoped for pastries or bread from Oswald’s Bakery, but it wasn’t open today when we arrived despite Google saying they would be. Yesterday was a national holiday in SA, Human Rights Day, so we’re thinking maybe business hours are disrupted all weekend long in observance.
We instead breakfast at Arnold’s— Hi Uncle Arnie!! Only ~$30 USD including tip for lovely sit down breakfast. Len tripped on the sidewalk while swinging the umbrella around and got his first ever splinter in his palm. Once he calmed down, Kyle extracted it fairly easily.
Len keeps asking to go on the “oogie boogie”, what he calls the cable car that goes to the top of Table mountain. We’re not sure why, but he called the gondola in Breckenridge an “oogie boogie”, too. We’re waiting to ride this one on a clear day though.
We drove 25 minutes to Hout bay for the Bay Harbor Market. We hadn’t researched it and thought it’d be a produce market but it was more of an artisans’ market. We bought some specialty popcorn with rainbow sprinkles in it, a piece of art and then a few items from a bead/wire/metal maker. Lenny and Ollie lamented over which pieces to pick for themselves. Ollie liked to point at pieces and ask the merchant the price and then ask us to help him convert the price from SA Rand to USD. Len changed his mind a bunch but ended up with a wire and soda can bicycle. Ollie fell in love with the Jacob’s ladder demonstration and was psyched to bring that one home with him.
We strolled around Hout Bay and thought of stopping for lunch, but weren’t yet hungry. We have plans to return for fish & chips!
Cafe Paradiso came recommended by a few friends and colleagues so we headed there for dinner tonight. They invite kids into the kitchen to prepare their own pizza and dessert and we knew the kids would love this hands on aspect. When tasting each other’s pizzas, Ollie proclaimed to Lenny, “I can’t even tell what the theme of the taste is, Lenny! I give this a C-“. They each prepared identical cheese pizzas. Lenny then proceeded to give Ollie’s pizza a “zero minus” to which Ollie retorted, “then why are you eating so much of it fat boy??!!”. After being scolded for using that name with his brother, the boys went back to the kitchen to make dessert (ginger cookies) and Kyle and I chuckled at the exchange. While preparing cookies, Len made a friend called Maya who was meticulously decorating her cookies while the boys went wild with sprinkles and chocolate chip toppings.
We’ve had WAY more pizza than anticipated (or hoped) so far in the trip. We’re setting an intention to try more local cuisine in the coming days and are researching a cooking class or food tour.
We found the tiniest little gecko on our bedroom ceiling when we came home— maybe 2 inches long! Capturing him in a glass and setting him free added a bit of excitement to the boys’ bedtime routine.
