November 18, 2007

We allowed ourselves to sleep in a bit this morning and time to relax and read in bed. Around 10:00 we got Big Red from the garage and went grocery shopping to buy food for two at home dinners and lunches. We came back to the Happy Hippo and made lunch. After lunch we changed and found the beach! We went to the North Beaches at Suncoast (a hotel, mall, movie theater, and restaurant complex with a private beach). We paid R5 to park in their gated and secured parking lot and then R5 to use their private beach. The area where we laid our towels to tan was on finely cut grass with umbrellas and beach chairs available. This was the secured part, and then there were stairs that led down to the ocean and the sandy beach. We found a nice area and hung out in the sun soaking in the rays and reading our books. As I was sitting there I looked around and couldn’t help but feel like I was in Florida, and not South Africa. The buildings, landscaping, palm trees, and live music brought me back to Florida when Alison and I went there this last March. We stayed at the beach for three hours and decided to go back to the backpackers for dinner and a shower. We made pizzas and got dressed to go back to Suncoast for a movie. We paid R20 for our ticket and Kasy and I shared a popcorn and a pop for R16…so for a night at the movie with treats came to a grand total of R36 (which is about $5.25…less than what it costs for just a ticket at home!). We saw Heartbreak Kid with Ben Stiller and it was a little disappointing! After the movie we came back to the Happy Hippo and called it a night!