Market, Elephants, & Church: SA Trip Days 7 & 8

Saturday & Sunday were fun days, but very different. Saturday started by going to the Irene Market in the Pretoria, SA area. It's a very popular market and the thing to do twice a month on a Saturday morning. Thousands of people stroll the hundreds of vendors items. It's kind of like a flee market in the US. There is a large variety of new and used things. There is also a big food vendor section as well. Mom wanted us to try the South African pancake/ crepe which came with just cinnamon and sugar on them, they were tasty. I also got a muffin filled with chocolate, it was very yummy. As a side note my nine year old nephew Josh is very good at bartering! He bought a couple of things and got good prices on them, it was very funny to watch him do that.

After getting some food and most of us buying some stuff at the market, it was off to a town called Hartbeespoort, to the "Elephant Sanctuary."

Hartbeespoort is a beautiful lake town with a really cool dam. You drive over it, but it's only one lane at time. While you wait you are bombarded by locals trying to sell you stuff. They walk down the street with items in their hand yelling at you through your car windows. It's funny & annoying at the same time.

Once we got to the Elephant Sanctuary we did a three hour program in which we got to learn all about elephants, as well as touch, feed, get a kiss from, walk with, and ride the elephants. This sanctuary rescues Elephants from bad situations. It was such an incredible experience, to be so close to such an enormous and majestic creature, just surreal. Words fall short of how fun, incredible, and unforgettable this experience was. I am so grateful to Mom & Dad McCool for taking us to do that, what a gift!

After leaving the elephants we had dinner at a SA chain steak restaurant called "Dros." It was good. I had a steak in the Dros Sauce (a cheesy sauce with bacon & onion), which was tasty. Ask Sarah about ordering the peri, peri sauce (it was very hot and made her burger more spicy than she anticipated).

Sunday, we got up and went to Eastside Community Church. It was an enjoyable church service, and of course lots of people wanted to to meet us. After church we had the Pastor & his family over lunch. We made fajitas, which was new to them, because there is very little Mexican food in SA. We had a fun time eating & fellowshipping with them.

After that we just hung out at the house and got packed for our trip to Kruger National Park/ Game Reserve. There, we will be going on game drives/ safari. We are hoping to see lots of animals we would normally only ever see in a zoo. Should be a lot of fun!

Well more updates to come when we get back from Kruger, and as always thanks for reading.

FYI: "District 9/ Prawn" update, it's possible that some of the peddlers and/ or beggars we have seen the past couple of days are part prawn, further investigation is required before we can say either way.

Jet Lag: SA Trip Days 1,2, & 3

Sunday night Sarah & I embarked on our first international adventure together. Sarah's parents (Paul & Debbie) currently live in Pretoria, South Africa, and we are going to visit with them and see some of the country. We started our Sunday with church as usual. Some of our church family prayed for our journey before we left to get all of our last minute stuff taken care of.

After taking our dogs to my brother (Thanks Chris), and our two kids to my parents (Thanks Mom & Dad), we said our goodbyes to our kiddos and my parents, then drove to meet a friend in Denver who would take us to the Denver International Airport (Thanks Jordan).

As we checked in, Sarah & I were told we would not be sitting together, but in different rows. We got through security and had plenty of time to wait for our departure, so Sarah and I grabbed dinner. As we got on the Boeing 777 and found our seats, a kind lady offered to switch seats with me. It turned out there were a lot of empty seats around us, some people moved around and Sarah and I got a whole row to ourselves! That was nice as we spent 8 1/2 hours there flying to London's Heathrow International Airport. Once there you have to walk forever to clear security again and find what gate your connecting flight is leaving from.

We were able to meet up with Sarah's sister and her family (Jess, Ryan, & Josh), because we were on the same flight to Johannesburg. We grabbed some food, did some wandering, and a lot of waiting. After a 6 1/2 hour layover we flew on a Boeing 747 to Johannesburg, South Africa. That was an 11 hour flight, which was, well...long.

Once we got there it was though Passport Control and Customs to meet Sarah's parents. After a slight issue at the rental car place we were off to Pretoria.

Just an FYI: British Flight Attendants are much better than American ones. Shout out to British Airways staff!

We got to the McCool's house with no problems. After almost two days of travel, I took a much needed shower and nap before dinner. We spent the rest of Tuesday relaxing, eating, laughing, & catching up. We head out tomorrow morning for a couple days of adventure (I hope to blog about this), and it should be a lot of fun!

We are a little jet lagged, but doing fine, and very excited for this vacation/ international adventure/ time with Sarah's family. God takes great care of us! I will try to update this blog more through out the trip. Thanks for reading and be blessed.

One more FYI: We have not seen "District 9" or any "Prawns" yet, we will keep you updated of that as well!