Ryan and I went to Cape Town South Africa the last week of June. It was beyond amazing. For real, I cried when we were getting on the plane to come back to Nigeria. I told Ryan “I can get a job here!! Cape Town has Goldwell Color! They speak ENGLISH!! It’s cheap here!” He was like, okay, do it. #supportivehusband If only I could get a work visa in 5 minutes, not 5 months… How typical would that be of us, to find our way halfway across the world and still manage to not live together because we are both work-aholics! Well. That did not happen. I just cried my way back to Lagos. It’s not that it’s THAT terrible here (I mean close, but it’s not some club med by any means either) it’s just that Cape Town was a NORMAL city (coming from Lagos I would even classify it as a luxurious city) with normal civilization, laws that were abided by, it was NOT 500 degrees, no humidity and I could understand when people spoke English. The South African accent is beautiful! I had crushes on everybody. Whereas everybody there felt bad for us! Whenever somebody asked where we were visiting from (because of course we were obvious tourists the second we spoke in our American accent) I would proudly blurt Seattle but Ryan would say Lagos. Every reaction was first stone cold silence with a horrified facial expression followed by a ‘for real?! I am so sorry.’ Most bartenders during that week gave each of us a free drink or two out of pity. #nocomplaints They would be like, isn’t that place a total shit hole? Yes. Yes it is. Ok enough about Lagos for now, back to Cape Town. We rented a flat through Airbnb.com—highly recommend this btw—it was a beautiful one bedroom with a cute patio, about a mile walk from the waterfront and it was actually a part of the Rockwell Hotel which is a combo of hotel rooms and privately owned apartments. So we got the amenities of a hotel without the cost. Gym, pool, concierge, bar, restaurant etc.

Rockwell Apartment

We basically ate and drank our way through the city AND the wine country. Cape Town is like if Seattle had a baby. That was bred with a little bit of southern CA. #doesntgetbetter  I would seriously live there full time. It’s on the coast, you’ve got the Ferris  Wheel, ship yards, sky rises, beautiful housing, shopping, markets and with a 45 min drive you’ve got wine country. Boom. Ya’ll go ahead and book your tickets now. Oh and this is nothing to everyone who is reading this but it is a DELIGHTFUL 60-67 degrees and no humidity!! (granted we were there in June which is the start of winter, but still) I have been so sick of hot sticky muggy ass heat that Ryan had to physically restrain me from kissing the ground the second we stepped off the airplane into the sweet crisp air. My heat rash that has covered 50% of my body since I’ve been here went away within 3 days! Not having shower water that is HEAVILY chlorinated helped too.. but I felt such a sense of physical relief being there. Let me tell you, I am not made out to be in heat, THAT is for sure. It’s so funny, growing up in Seattle it’s like you can’t wait to get the hell out and move to California or something but we all know, after a tiny bit of time away from home you truly start to miss the cool crisp FRESH air, the trees, the rain—that brings all that green… I could go on. Now on a quick tangent, our next rotation is going to be Houston and the only reason I’m not freaking out is that I’ve had a 6 month warm up to similar weather. AND we will be there October-April, so missing the majority of the horrific heat. Hopefully I’ll survive. #prayforme

Stellenbosch Wine Country

We hiked Lions Head one day and that was beyond gorgeous. Decently challenging with breath taking views.  The next day, we rode the gondola up to Tabletop Mountain. Hiking it up would have been way too ambitious. And we were on vacation, yo. Now that is one scenic place to be, but windy as hell! I was like borderline about to get blown away and almost lost my scarf!! We tried to take a few pics of each other but hair and scarves were just everywhere. My hair was even in Ryan’s mouth at once point whilst trying to smile. Gross. So that didn’t work out. So here are pictures that are non wind obstructed..

View of Camps Bay from Lions Head

View of Clifton Beach form Lions Head

View of inland Cape Town

View of Lions Head from Table Mountain

Top of Table Mountain. It is truly quite flat..

who pooped?

Camps Bay is another place we spent some time at. It is an ocean front neighborhood that is lined with restaurants, bars, shops, insanely gorgeous homes and pristine beaches that were littered with surfers even in their winter. #wetsuitsrequired  So we just prowled the strip and had bites and drinks at multiple places. Then decided to hop on the super touristy red top bi-level bus that charters people all along the coast and into downtown. I’ve never been more embarrassed/had so much fun on a bus before.  We hopped off on random stops and just putzed around (and by that I mean had more drinks at other random bars with a view) then hopped back on the next one and so on until we came to the last stop before downtown and whilst sitting on a patio enjoying a beverage looking out onto the big green park lining the beach when multiple sky divers just started landing one by one! I was so jealous! I’ve been sky diving once and so instantly wanted to do it again right then and right now. Ryan was not supportive of THIS idea. #raincheck

One day we went to a Spa. That was glorious!! We each had a massage and a facial (I had a body scrub as well, my skin has been STRUGGLIN!) and then I had a shellac mani/pedi! Not gonna lie, the mani/pedi was the best part! As you all know, my nails are ALWAYS lookin’ fine. I have the best nail technician out there #jesshoel #luvnailz   and I love to rock WiLd colors and such. So it’s been really hard for me to have bare naked nubs. The mani/pedi was not even close to the skill that I’m used to receiving but just to have them cleaned up was wonderful. I think I kissed the girl when I skipped out of there. So Jess, beware when I come see you in October!