City Tour and Bayworld Aquarium/Museum

Another day has come and gone here in South Africa! While I'd love to get comfortable and stay for a while, this update is going to be brief, as today was a full day and I am now finding that in the wee hours of the night my neck is really sore-the type that gives the feeling of a headache. But enough of that, that's time and space that I could be updating you on all the different aspects of our day.

This morning Grandpa, Grandma and myself were toured around Port Elizabeth my the manager (owner?) of the B&B, a lady named Alida. We saw a lot of beautiful historic architecture, as well as some fabulous scenic viewpoints of the city and the ocean. We visited the Donkin Reserve, a memorial site for Elizabeth Donkin. There, stands a pyramid and a lighthouse type tower. A gargantuan South Africa flag is flown there. This is the 4th largest flag in the world. We saw the oldest hotel in South Africa, the Phoenix. We visited the opera house, where Alida took photos of us bowing on stage. We saw the library and the World Cup stadium as well, and probably a few other things I am forgetting. The tour was very informative and very interesting as well!

Upon arriving back at the B&B from touring the city, we had lunch. We kept it light, knowing we needed to save our appetites for the South African buffet Admiral's that we would be having for dinner. For lunch we had salad, fresh fruit, butternut squash and homemade guacmole with salt and vingegar "crisps", more commonly known as Pringles. After lunch we went to the Bayworld Aquarium/Snake Park/Museum. Bayworld sure had an ecclectic variety of things to see. We started in the snake area and then took in some museum displays until the penguin/seal show started.

The penguin/seal show was outside at the outdoor pool ampitheater. The penguin sure was cute and put on a show. ***Interesting fact: An oil spot the size of a nickel on a penguin can kill it. Out came the seal next, her name was Gabby. Let me tell you, I do not think I have ever seen another animal as smart as this seal. I started to think maybe animals are smarter than we give them credit for and we could really be in for a shock if we started to work with the animals in the manner that the trainer was working with this seal. Gabby waved at the audience and smiled at the audience. Gabby, let me remind you is a seal, cued the audience by clapping her flippers together when she wanted applause. She did acrobatic type strength demonstrations, as well as demonstrating the importance of not littering trash. She swam in the pool and retrived the trash that the trainer had placed in the water. She swam it up onto the platform and placed it in the bucket, as the trainer explained the importance of picking up trash because seals can either ingest it or become tangled in it. I will definitely be posting video of Gabby the seal for you to see for yourself!

After the penguin/seal show, we finished up looking around at the displays in the museum. After we left Bayworld, we took a drive about a half an hour out of Port Elizabeth, along the coast. This was one of my first scenic tours/views that I saw when I arrived in Port Elizabeth in July, and I knew the views of the ocean were a must. We pulled off at a stop off point and took pictures and stood and took in the awesomeness of the ocean. On our way back to Summerstrand, we were lucky enough to spot monkeys playing up on the electrical wires! There had to be at least 6 up trapezing on the wires! They have such long tails as well. There will be video coming of them as well!

We stopped off at the Pick & Pay grocery store and got a few things before heading out to dinner at Admirals, in Walmer. Admirals has 110 different items, many being very exotic and interesting. There was kudu, kangaroo curry, fried worms-which look like caterpillars, and many other interesting delicacies. There are of course more common standard dishes as well. Grandpa and I both tried the worms, kudu and kangaroo, although I was unable to swallow my one bite of worm. Grandpa and I both thought the kudu and kangaroo were tough to chew. Some of the other dishes we had were: prawns, sweet potato, pumpkin, a variety of salads, mushroom soup, fried banana, samoosas and boerwors (sausage). There were quite the variety of desserts. We all enjoyed the bread pudding, and the creme brulee was good as well.

Again I find myself reporting that at the end of the day we sure were tired. It was another great day with new and interesting ventures. Tomorrow mornign will be here soon though, so it's time for me to go. I'll be joinging Grandpa and Grandma at the B&b tomorrow for breakfast, and then we will be heading to the church I attend, Oxygen Life. We are not quite sure what we will be doing after that, but am not worried because there is still of course plenty that we have not seen. You can really only scratch the surface in 2 days!