24 June 2017 - Colorado

I took a long weekend vacation to Denver to visit my brother. I've not been in Denver since 2015 and really wanted to go back to some of the mountain towns I discovered during my move. Denver rivals California for great weather averaging 300 plus days of sunshine a year. I'll let the photos speak for themselves...

I also visited the Denver Aquarium....

13 June 2017 - Cape Town, South Africa - Part 3

The main goal for today was to enjoy the Two Oceans Aquarium. I've lost count of all the ones I've visited around the world. I love aquariums.


Then, I enjoyed the penguins. They have Rock-hopper and African Black Footed penguins. In addition to my usual enjoyment of an aquarium I was able to secure a behind-the-scenes tour with the Penguins! The male was named "Hopper" and the female (molting) was called "Henry" (they don't know the gender without a blood test- guessed wrong on this one and the name just stuck).


I had a nice seafood dinner at the Cape Town Fish Market. Watching the penguins gobble down fish made me hungry for some myself.

Finally, I walked back to my hotel, enjoying a rare bit of winter sun light. It's been a good few days off work.

12 June 2017 - Cape Town, South Africa - Part 2

Today I took a wine tour in the Stellenbosch region. I never knew that there was a wine culture in South Africa. According to history, the Dutch and the French had a large influence on bringing wine making to this area in the late 1600s.

Honestly, I've never been all that interested in Wine. During my years of bicycling around the Lake Erie region I usually skipped out on visiting the wineries. Having lived in California for almost two years, I've not really considered visiting the many wine regions. Some of my friends have recommended I give it a go.

Our first stop was Fairview. Here we focused on some lighter wines to get us into the spirit of the day. This stop included some cheese tasting. I wish we could have enjoyed cheese at every stop.


Next, we visited Backsberg ("back of the mountain"). Here, in addition to testing out the wine, we had a go at some Brandy and Chocolate.


After that we went to Verde en Lust. This farm was unique in that the master winemaker was female. Nice to see the ladies representing!


Finally, we ended the day at Anura ("frog"). At this farm we got to view the wine celler. It was interesting to see a combination of both high tech chemistry as well as traditional oak barrels being used.

It was a good day : )

11 June 2017 - Cape Town, South Africa - Part 1

This journey marks my 3rd trip to South Africa. All of my trips have been to Johannesburg for 1-2 weeks of work. My first trip gave me a bad impression of the country primarily because of a painfully long flight and and the culture shock. On my second trip, I found an easier way to travel and had some friends along. For this trip, I decided I need to see somewhere other than Joberg. I decided to take a long weekend vacation to Cape Town.

It's winter here so the weather is mostly cold with a chance of rain. Reminds me of home in California back in January. I'm happy to be near the water and mountains, so I will make the most of this time. I started my exploration by taking a walk along the oceanfront.


Next, I jumped on a hop-on-hop-off bus to get a closer look at the city, table mountain, and camps bay beach. For about 15$ the bus performed an hourly loop of many parts of the city. I wish I could have gone to the top of Table Mountain, but due to weather the cable lift was closed for the day. I'll have to come back someday to hike it!


I ended my day wandering around the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. There were lots of fun little restaurants, gift shops, and random bits of live music.