Daycation: Hannibal, MO

How is this almost a week late already? We are struggling to catch up with life outside of the necessities of laundry, sending out souvenirs, etc.

Last weekend, we were somewhat caught up, but I felt so blah with the scorching heat. I was tired of being cooped up inside. I had the itch to go somewhere close by, and then when I woke up to the news of the Orlando shooting Sunday morning, we made a last minute decision to get out of town. I had looked forward to going to church after such a long break, but I honestly just wanted to process out and about and outside of church.

We scratched another local place off our list: Hannibal, Missouri.

Hannibal is about 100 miles away from our place and is located on the Mississippi River. It is most known as the home of Samuel Clemens (pen name: Mark Twain). Don't tell anyone but I've never read the Adventures of Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn. I wish I had so I would have appreciated this quaint little town so much more.

We arrived and the town was so quiet. Like, ghost town quiet.

 

 

 

We walked to the square that had museums. It was hot as blazes outside.

We first went to the boyhood home museum of Mark Twain. Also included here is the home of Huck Finn.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Huckleberry Finn house

 

 

 

 

Next, we went to the home of Becky Thatcher.

 

 

 



 

This is a fun spot with the camera so you can have your friends log in and see you - it would be great if we had reception in this area.... #fail



 

Interracial Tom Sawyer & Becky Thatcher

We walked up the road to see the statue of Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn. I had noticed the lighthouse when we first arrived. I saw that there were steps leading up to it. It seemed like a few so we went up only to realize there were just a few more. After a few rounds of "few mores," we made it to the top. We were drenched in sweat. It was so hot out there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After this escapade, we went into the Mark Twain brewing company to have lunch.

 

 

 

 

On the way out, I really wanted to stop by the haunted house because I had seen the wax figures on Roadside America. The older I get, the more easily spooked I get. We were the only people in here aside from the receptionist. The wax figures were amazing - so real, so intricate. It's worth the stop to see these ($4 admission pp). We rounded the corner until the haunted house part and my stomach dropped. Luba said, "you aren't going to like this!" followed by "Why did we buy tickets for something you knew you'd be scared of?" He didn't know I wouldn't make it through. One can always hope, right? My legs would not move as I stared at this dark room with a toilet and a neon hand sticking out of it moving in a circling motion. I sent him along first with his flashlight to see what happens around the next corner, and a smoke machine went off. It was loud and sudden, and "someone" might have come high-tailing it back to where I waited. I turned around and exited through the entrance. Nope. No way. Not one chance in hell. I sent Luba back in solo so he could get his $4 worth (we wouldn't want to flush that $8 right, at least we could recoup the $4), and he returned through the entrance doors less than 1 minute later. So, we can't tell you how this place is.....

All of the figures (characters) are marked on the floor so you know who they are. It reminds me of a Criminal Minds episode.

 

 nope, this girl in the front has no body...

 

 

 

 this is why we don't have family reunions -- I'm scared the family picture would look like this

just kidding, sort of

 

 

 

 

check out the look the girl in the middle is giving....

We took a few more photo opportunities on the way out and headed back home.

 on Roadside America list

 

 

 this is a photo opp outside of the square: take a pic of your friends on the bridge

 

 

 

 

 how perfect was this on this day of the Orlando massacre

 

 

I'd recommend this close, "easy to do everything within a day" spot if you want to get out of town on a Saturday or Sunday. I'm glad we didn't spend the night -- there would not have been that much to do.

To do next visit: haunted tour in the evening! Seems a pretty spookalicious (or creepy) town!

Danielle

7th South Africa trip in the books....

Hello from this side!

I wanted to send a final update on the rest of the trip as I was unable to finish while on that side. I left off on Friday when I blogged at a local coffee shop in Paarl while Luba visited his former work colleagues. I blogged at Bean in Love. I wish I could have transported that place to St. Louis. I visited so many great coffee shops that they may need their own post!

On Friday, we spent some time driving around Mbekweni taking photos so I could show my family Luba's neighborhood while we washed some clothes at his parents' house. Here are a few, including this oh-so-fantastic market/home.

 school kids at lunch 

 on the weekends, the streets will be full of people socializing, walking to work, etc. 

 you see this a lot on the weekends with meat being cooked 

We stopped in at a couple favorite wineries in the afternoon to buy some bottles to bring home. One of them produces our all time favorite Pinotage, Diemersfontein. We also love the goat cheese tasting at Nederburg. I love that they greet you at the door with a glass of bubbly.

Diemersfontein:

Nederburg:

We dropped by Sit Cafe for a final stop and had a cappuccino with Sarina.

After resting a very short time, we headed to Spice Route Winery to meet up with friends who used to work for Monte Christo, the ministry I originally served when I first visited South Africa. We had a great time catching up over pizzas at La Grapperia on the grounds, and some of them had not even seen each other in quite a while. This particular winery has a fabulous view at Sunset.

Saturday, Luba got up early and had breakfast with his mom while I slept in. I walked to a nearby restaurant and had breakfast while he ran errands with her. I knew they needed some quality time together. He had been dying for a braai, one major item on the "must do" list. We drove over to Franschhoek to braai at Blom's. He got his braai fix and his karoo lamb chop fix. We came back and had dinner with the family (although we were both full). We Luba packed when we got back.

 Seriously, this view?

 a man and the grill braai 

video of Luba fanning the flames

 braai broodjies - toasted sandwiches on the grill

I'll post a recipe at the bottom of the post so you can make these at your next BBQ!

Trust me, you want to.

 hoping for drops 

On the way home, Luba stopped by Drakenstein prison to show me where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned (other than Robbin Island). He spent 14 months of his 27 years here. He was released from this prison. The statue in the front was powerful with the sun setting in the background.

Sunday, we got up early to check out and headed to his parent's house. His mom made vetkoeks for him.

vetkoeks

After having a few, we headed off to Cape Town. We planned to spend the last few days there before taking off from Cape Town International Airport. We dropped off the rental car and cabbed it to the hotel, much earlier than the check in time but with fingers crossed. They let us check in early! We booked at the Grand Daddy on Long Street, which is where I stayed last time I was in Cape Town. This time, the airstream trailer was available. This hotel has a whole trailer park air stream trailer neighborhood on the rooftop. Each is decorated with a different theme from South Africa. We had "safari." It was the coolest little thing, which "little" being the operative word here. We had much heavier, stuffed more, huge suitcases going back so the place was so small that we could only open one at a time, and when one was open, then the other person couldn't walk past. At any rate, I loved it and was so happy I booked it. It has been on my list for a long time. Because it was low season, there were only a couple trailers occupied. I imagine how fun it is in high season when you can sit around the common area with other guests. We walked around and perused Greenmarket Square (an area with tents set up by artisans selling goods). We also got lunch there. I got a chicken mayo (we had to search for a place that had chicken mayos).

Our safari themed airstream:

 the hotel from the street 

 at night, they showed movies here 

 so apparently we had an outside shower too but didn't realize this until we checked out 

 I also realized (by embarassing accident) that while on the toilet, I could still have conversations with Luba WITH eye contact

#married

#moremarriednow

#iceisbroken

Greenmarket Square:

 

 is this guy crazy?! 

video of kids dancing for tips

We also walked around a bit more and heard so many horns (I'm always alarmed). Cars were "hooting" (hooting=honking). We were standing in front of a sidewalk flower shop and we saw a truck go by with a photographer and then saw the car with the newlyweds. The flower shop owner started running toward the car and threw petals. The video shows the car procession but stops before the best moment when the woman runs after the car and throws the petals.

Sunday night, we met up with friends from California at a favorite restaurant, Bukhara. On the way to Bukhara, we took window seats at a nice bar/restaurant at the end of the block called Tiger's Milk. It was such a romantic ambiance to sit and have bubbly at the window. There were stools on both sides. Then some gal came and sat directly across from me, seated on the stool outside, and smoked. She blew her smoke right into my face. Party & daydreams over. Paul & Suzzette were travelling to Cape Town and surrounding towns and our trips overlapped in Cape Town for a few days so I was excited to hear what they thought already and what their next plans were. How cool is that?!? We closed the place down without realizing it. 

Tiger's Milk:

 look at these great bar lights! I've seen mason jars or wine bottles before but this was new

Bukhara:

During this day too, we saw the USA and UK issued heightened terror alert due to credible threats to areas with large numbers of tourists. That never makes you feel good, but we continued on. We weren't in those areas anyway. [On the way back though, there was additional security screenings at the gate departing for USA and I'm always surprised when Americans are surprised. So many were standing in line wondering why we needed to take our shoes off and have them check bags and discard large bottles of liquids. It's almost as amusing as marveling over the fact that people still can't figure out how to line up at Southwest gates when it's clearly marked with numbers and an alphabetical system for groups A-B-C]

Monday morning, we got up and had breakfast in the hotel's restaurant, Thiry Ate. We didn't realize we got vouchers for free breakfast so that was a win-win. We sat at the window so we could watch the street buzz.

 making use of the free wifi

We then met up with another friend of Luba's who is now living in Johannesburg, and her trip overlapped with ours. Now, this includes 3 friends we were able to see just due to coincidence!

Danica & Luba

We met at the coffee shop on the corner and then guess who walked in! Paul & Suzzette. It's such a weird feeling to look up and recognize someone on the street! They were on their way to a tour so we were able to chat briefly over coffee.

Walter (remember him from the previous post? Luba's best friend visiting from Scotland) met us at noon and we walked to Bo Kaap and around the city.

 Table Mountain in the background

For lunch, I searched for a chicken mayo. When I'm in South Africa, I eat these almost every day.

After spending a few good hours walking around, Walter met us back at our hotel for a last cocktail before he headed out of town.

That night, we decided to eat at Mama Africa because it held some good memories, and I craved a particular dish (Zimbabwean dovi) there that I wouldn't get anywhere else.

dovi (chicken, peanut & spinach stew)

Tuesday came. How did that happen? It was our departure date. We got up and ate at Thiry Ate again and secured our same window spot.

We went back and showered, knowing it would be the last shower for a looooooong time. We checked out and had the hotel keep our bags since our flight was not until the late afternoon. We walked around, and we found our way to Bean There coffee shop. One of our favorite South Africans in St. Louis, Irene, messaged us to let us know that her cousin works there. That's when I love social media -when it connect us, not divides.It was right around the corner from where we were staying so we popped in to say hello.  What a fun visit with fantastic coffee!

 with Nicole 

 cute idea with the lampshades

We headed out to walk around more (and shop) and to grab lunch before the airport. One guess what I got for lunch? Yep, chicken mayo.

We flew out of CPT at 4:45 Tuesday. His family came to see us off.

The trip home included:

• 2 hours to Johannesburg (JHB)
• 16 hours JHB to JFK, NY
• .5-.75 hour taxi in traffic from JFK to La Guardia
• 7  hours waiting in the airport (delayed flight for 1 hour)
• 2 hours flying to Atlanta for layover
• 2 hours flying to St. Louis 

What sucks? When the flight is 15 hours and 45 minutes. You wake up to see your progress and then see this time remaining!

Finally, home to a shower. Well, I'll admit that I fell asleep without the shower.

And, work the next day! We made it!

Now, I'll be posting some more with more pictures of specific places or activities because it's hard to cram it all in one long post. You can't miss some of these sites. It's such an amazing country.

This blog was brought to you at 4am because.....jetlag. So, why not rooibos tea and blog?

Grateful for safe travels and the ability to be able to fly across the world,
Danielle

Recipe for braai broodjies for your next BBQ:

Ingredients:

• slices bread (white or brown)
• softened butter to spread on bread
• white onion, raw and finely sliced or fried until caramelized
• sliced tomatoes
• grated cheese (spend the few minutes to grate your own cheddar)
• chutney if available 
• salt & pepper for seasoning 

Directions:

1. Spread butter on both sides of the bread slices. if using chutney, you can spread that on the inside of the slice.
2. Placing tomato and onion slices on half of the slices, season with salt and pepper, and top with cheese.
3. Cover with the remaining slices of bread.
4. Coat a clean grid lightly with Spray and Cook or cooking oil, place the sandwiches inside a BBQ grid, and slowly toast them until they are golden brown. You can also tie the sandwiches to keep them together. Or be super gentle? You want them to stay together

BBQ grid: