March 26, 2025
We started the day with the typical routine; breakfast, kids play or watch one show while Kyle and I exercise, homeschool, playing in the yard, lunch, leave the house. Ollie wrote an animal themed letter to Papa, read a few small books and took a math quiz. Len was slow to warm to homeschool today but after a few minutes of friction, he got into it. He’s been doing math by “stealing money” from Kyle and that seems like a good angle to keep him interested.
Our first stop was the Table Mountain cable car. We’ve been wanting to ride the “oogie boogie” (as Len calls it, for unknown reasons) but were waiting for a clear day. There was an hour wait to get to the cable car but even the view while waiting was stunning. The boys were entertained briefly by ice cream bars and being on the lookout for snakes in the bushes. Thankfully we saw zero snakes. Each cable car can hold ~65 people and the floor rotates 360 degrees while riding. Though the line to get the car was fairly long, the ride was just 5 minutes to the top.
At the top, we had a snack, took some pictures, hunted for gems and then got back in line to go down. It was in the ~50s at the top and we could have been better prepared for that. Staying warm actually gave the boys an objective while we were waiting which was a welcome distraction despite the discomfort. When they weren’t huddling or searching for gems, there was incessant bickering. “Boom my shield is up!”, “Nah I took it down!”, “Laser beams pointed at you!”, “I deflect laserssssss!” Our line mates at least put on like they were entertained.
Next we went to the Oranjezicht night market. This market had all of our favorite things- prepared foods, produce, all kinds of bevs, local art, etc. We don’t have many (any?) spaces like this where we live that cater to adults but kids and young people welcome, live music, seating everywhere and good stuff to buy and eat. The giant bean bags we sat on at the market were one of the highlights of Ollie’s day. We had a mish mash of foods including strawberry and mango spritzes, Cape Malay samosas, biltong, a chicken rooti, soft pretzels and a grilled cheese. We picked up our food before realizing there was an entire additional restaurant tent so we might return next week. There was also a hut that Len referred to as “the beaver house” and this was a favorite of his.
Most of us wanted to go home at this point but Len pushed us to ride the Ferris Wheel. It was just about sunset when we got on and, kudos to Len, it was a nice ride.
We bought the touristy picture lol
