Table Mountain and odds and ends

Today was our official introduction to Table Mountain. There are apparently a ton of trails up and around the mountain, but they must be top secret because we could only find the main trail up. The hike was beautiful, but it was a tough one. About 75 percent of it is basically climbing switchbacks straight up the mountain. There were a lot of wildflowers, and this spring there are supposed to be gazillions more. So we are really excited for spring. The top of the mountain is a huge plateau; an interesting geological phenomenon. And you can seen around the entire city and cape peninsula. To save our knees, we took the cablecar back down. It really seems like the perfect hike, when you can wear yourself out and then not have to hike back down. The cablecar is similar to the tram in Portland, but a much steeper decline with much more treacherous terrain below.

We also signed our lease today for our new place. We are pretty excited. I think its a pretty incredible deal. Its this adorable cottage that is fully furnished and we get to share the owner of the main house's garden. Matt is already making plans for the grapevine that covers the arch off of our patio. And there is an adorable little pool in her garden. We won't move in until the first, so we won't be able to send out pictures until then.

Last night we went "out" for the first time. We found this coffee shop, and this adorable South African guy is the waiter. He's probably about 20 and his name is Rodney. Well, he and his friends were playing jazz last night at the coffee shop so we went. It was him in the guitar and a guy on the drums and then these 3 women got up and sang and were amazing. Then, they grabbed this little 10 year old kid from the crowd and he played the drums and he was incredible. It was a lot of fun. We talk to each other about Rodney like he is our friend, but in reality, he is just the one guy who's name we know. I think he probably thinks of us as the "two old Americans" who keep bothering him. But he's our new best friend until we meet someone else!