Banana Bread + Broken Platters

 Banana Bread Recipe

Made my first attempt at mastering banana bread today. It went… ok. I scoured through Pinterest to find the perfect recipe. Finally found one without walnuts to accommodate my inconvenient allergies and I got to work! I learned the key to a great banana bread needs ripe banana to keep the bread moist. I however was impatient and couldn't wait for them to ripen. The crumble was incredibly easy to make and tasted amazing. I'm considering putting crumble on every desert I make from now on!

The plate was one of the treasures I brought back with me from South Africa. Unfortunately it did not survive… In fact it did not even survive 3 hours after I purchased it thanks to my clumsiness. So now instead of using it to plate beautiful pasta dishes at the hypothetical dinner parties I throw, it will just have to be used as decoration.

Elbowing Tourists and Penguins

Walking up the undisclosed winding road to Boulder Beach lined with palm trees and quaint houses you could never imagine that just around the corner lived thousands of little penguins on a secluded beach. The South African Government has built this raised walkway along the beach and through the trees so that people can transform to being flies on the wall to this colony of tuxedo studded birds. I could have stayed there for hours watching them stand on the beach and watching the rebel penguins swim in and out of the arctic current water.

At any attraction there is always that one sweet spot that gives you the best view and everyone knows about it and elbows their way to the front in frustration. There are the tourists that fight their way through the crowds and then there are the tourists that will tap their feet and roll their eyes and look at their watches until they make you so uncomfortable you have to leave. Then there was me who waited methodically for a spot to open then slithered my way in and didn't look back… and it was completely worth it! 

Observing these animated, wild and exotic animals (exotic to me having growing up in Chicago)was such an amazing experience. I fully embraced and enjoyed my few minutes in the golden spot and was blown away by the contrast of penguins and this incredibly clear turquoise blue water and palm trees.

Baboons vs Sasha

On our way to Cape of Good Hope we were met by 15 or so wild baboons just going about their normal lives along the cape. It blew my mind that they were not afraid to be by the road and that they were almost a little daredevil about it all and were really ballsy and didn't care if a car was coming or not. They came within inches of the car and we discovered that like the shark watchman there were also men who watched the baboons and if they were in the road or were going to get hit it was their job to rescue them! 

We also saw wild ostriches along the same road, although we didn't spot anyone watching out for them, so either there is an over population or the ostrich meat here is realy tasty. 

We finally got to the bottom of Cape Hope and were met with a little 820ft climb to the top. It actually was really exciting and an adventure to climb all the way to the top. The "stairs", I use quatations because they consisted of rocks here and there and a few wooden edges, were inconsistent and jagged but it made it more exciting! I felt like Indians Jones navigating through the twists and turns of the mountain and being inches from the edge with nothing to hold me back was terrifying but totally worth it. My sister told us a tip for climbing is to have 3 pints of your body touching a rock or the ground at all times, my dad heard that as 3 quarters touching at all times and began joking that he was using minimal contact with the cliff and telling us he was climbing on his tippy toes.... welcome to my dads funny and interesting world! 

When we finally reached the top it was absolutely gorgeous, even though it was a bit overcast you could still see the outline of the mountains and hear the waves crashing into the side of the cliff. Well worth risking my life to see Capetown from that view!

Climbing the southern most tip of Africa

My first full day in Capetown was full of unexpected fun and adventure. We started out the day visting the neighborhood my sister has been living in then going to lunch at Mama Chochi. Then we headed to Boulders Beach to visit the penguins. On our way we stopped on the side of a cliff to watch for sharks and we met a man who sat in a little post and whose sole job was to watch for sharks coming into the harbor. If he saw one he would radio down to the beach and a siren would go off warning all the surfers to leg it back to the beach because a shark was near by. He told us he hadn't seen one in a bout to weeks but I kept holding out and hoping that today would be the day, but I thought it would be better not to see one because then it would be risking the lives of all the surfers in the water. Then I thought, the surfers know their risks when they get into the water so for 10 minutes I was rooting to see a shark... But we never did. 

Capetown Bound...

Starting my journey to Capetown with a 7 hour flight to Amsterdam. Waiting at the airport might be unjoyable for a lot of people but for me they are my playground. I've always enjoyed the buzzing energy of waiting at the gate and walking around the terminals. Maybe I'm a bit weird but I've always made the most out of being at the airport. The idea of having 7 uninterrupted hours on the plane to read books, listen to podcasts and eat the 10 lbs of snacks that I packed is bliss! 

Preparing for South Africa...

For the last 5 months my sister Ana has been living in Capetown and interning at the Red Cross Hospital. Based on her instagram, she has been living the life down there with weekend sailing trips, music festivals and wine tastings as well as persuing her passion to work with kids. I am so proud of her for following what makes her happy and for taking the opportunity to travel as much as I did during university. I am beyond excited to be reunited with her and have her show me South Africa through her eyes.  

Packing for this trip has been somewhat of a puzzle since on our way home we will be stopping off in Amsterdam for a few days and currently Capetown is entering their summer season and Amsterdam will be in their Fall season. Trying to pack as minimal as possible for 2 different climates is difficult but the challenge is exciting!

I’ve never been to South Africa and before my sister started living there I never imagined or desired to go there so soon. It was definitely not on the top of my travel list but the first time she came back with pictures and stories I was sold! So tomorrow my parents and I are traveling halfway across the world to visit her for 2 weeks and explore Capetown and Amsterdam.

Kidless at the Pumpkin Patch...

There was one thing that was very evident after we’d taken 5 steps into Sonny Acres, we had forgotten to bring a child with us to the pumpkin patch since apparently everyone else had made their sunday a family event there. None the less we had fun on what turned out to be a perfect Fall day where the sun warms you up as it hits you and the leaves are a perfect burnt orange hue as they make that wonderful crunching noise under your feet. Fall is without a doubt my favorite season. I am a very visual person so seeing the leaves change colors and the vibrant hues they transform into makes me appreciate Chicago and makes the cold weather a little more bearable.

Our mission was to find the perfect pumpkins for carving and after grabbing a quick bite to eat we stumbled upon a little patch of untouched pumpkins. As soon as we realized what we had found we turned into overprotective miners that had just hit gold and we were playing defense against little kids while we picked the best pumpkins. Once we had hunted and gathered 4 beautifully orange and round pumpkins to carve we scooped them up and started walking to pay. Unfortunately they were a bit too heavy for me so we stopped half way and as I slowly and carefully set them down to not bruise them… my very nice Vince jeans decided it was their day to rip right in the crotch. For anyone else this probably would have been terribly embarrassing and ruined their day, fortunately for me I was familiar with this situation as it had happened to me before and much worse, so we had a good laugh and continued on our pumpkin hike to pay for them. When we discovered they would cost nearly $50, we quickly jumped ship and instead settled for mini pumpkins to carve. Overall it was a perfect Fall experience rich in warm colors, ripped pants and pumpkins.