Fun in South Africa

Jeanne-Mari, Melissa and I left for South Africa on Tuesday, Feb. 1, right as the cold weather was hitting the Central Texas area. Fortunately, there was no precipitation with the initial front, so we were able to fly out of Austin...and then Washington, DC, without any delays.

It was a pretty uneventful flight. However, the new (new to me, at least) in-flight entertainment systems were great. For each seat, you have your own screen and about 20 movies to choose from (only about 6 good ones, but still...) and some TV shows. Nothing great there unless you like "Bones"...then they had about 15 episodes. So you could watch whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted. I saw "Red" (loved it), "Secretariat" (I love redemption/feel good movies), "Social Network" (strangely, I really, really liked this movie), and "Coach Carter" (not the greatest movie ever, but an awesome message about how to connect with teens). That 8 hours--combined with about 6 hours of sleeping--really made the flight fly by (pun intended). 

It was great to see JM's family. One of her brothers (Pierre and his wife, Diana) met us in Johannesburg. We got to spend a complete day with them and a niece (Samantha) and nephew (Ryan) just recovering and adjusting to this new time zone. Now we're with JM's other brother (Paul and his wife, Jodi) and her dad (Peter) and are about to head to Durban, a city on the eastern coast of South Africa.

The sun feels fantastic. It hasn't been hot, just warm. But the summer sun is so much brighter and nicer than in Wintertime. I'm fired up that we get to come back to almost-Spring when we return in a few weeks. 

Obviously, not really saying a lot...just recapping...but this has been a nice time to spend together already. I really didn't realize how attached I was to my cell phone until yesterday. I'm not even using it for a clock. After we return, I think I'll have to have a somewhat-regular media-fast just so I can stay somewhat healthy with it!