Durban Vacation, Day #2

Have you ever had a day that went EXACTLY as you planned it?? That was today! However, I do have family vacation tip #1 for you: Don’t schedule red-eye flights that require you to wake up at 4am on the first day of vacation! :) Our morning started early, but our taxi that was scheduled to pick us up at 5am was there at 5:03, which is very rare in Zambia and a huge success!! We made it to the Lusaka airport at 6am with an hour to spare before our flight! Checkin, immigration, boarding - it all went smoothly! We were pretty excited!

Ready to go!

6am at the checkout counter in Lusaka airport!

Caedmon looking like a stud :)

Cason loves his suitcase ;)

Here we go!

On the plane

When we arrived in Johannesburg, I kept checking my watch - we only had a 75 minute layover, and when we got to the immigration line, we knew we were in trouble. Long story short, we rushed from immigration, to baggage claim and recheck, to security, to our gate, and showed up just as they were boarding our flight to Durban - whew!

Cason was DONE.

So was Blu. :)

He looked like this for the rest of the flight!

After a quick 45 minute flight, we arrived! I was surprised by the humidity and the gorgeous hills in Durban. Our hotel sent a shuttle for us, so I was totally excited to see “Tidwell Family” on a placard as we came out of the airport! Suresh, a Hindu man, was our driver. (Did you know that Durban has the 2nd highest population of Indians in the world outside of India??? Fascinating!) Blu shared with Suresh, but he wasn’t too interested in the Gospel. It was neat to watch our kids listening about the different gods Suresh worships. During the ride, the kids were talking about who is strong enough to make the ocean. “Only God,” said Caedmon. “Nuh-uh! Jesus too. And Jesus is God!” yelled Cason. My little evangelists.. :) You can pray for Suresh - we will be using him several times this week.

It was a little windy!

Here is the Moses Mabhida soccer stadium - Durban hosted the 2010 World Cup and this was the stadium they built for it. (The airport was also built for it.)

We got to the Belaire Suites Hotel and got checked in easily. The view from our room is amazing!! So grateful for our British Air miles that enabled us to book this hotel!

I unpacked our luggage (we’re here 5 nights - that means unpacking!) and we threw our swimsuits on to head to the beach! It was overcast and cool, but the kids absolutely loved it, and I LOVED watching them!!

This is my whole heart right here!

Such a handsome boy!

I got so many priceless pics of them!

Me & my man

They were SOOOOO excited!!!

Blu & his little clone

Pretty girl

Cason probably enjoyed it more than anyone!

We are staying right on the Golden Mile in Durban - a cute little brick pathway full of restaurants, shops, etc. (basically a boardwalk) It was fun to walk and see all the people (lots digging in trash cans and begging), the amazing sand castle creations, and just the hodgepodge of different cultures!

I loved this sand sculpture of the 2 Malaysian Airlines flights

We finally reached “FunWorld,” a mini-amusement park. I had read reviews and knew not to expect much, so I wasn’t disappointed! The kids chose to ride the cars, the train, and we forced them to ride the cable cars. This is probably single-handedly the stupidest decision I have ever made. I was completely terrified. Cambree kept wiggling and I was just certain we were seconds from falling to our death. She was quite amused, but I was not, and Blu’s face when we finished was priceless - we both looked at each other like, “WHAT were we thinking?!”

Right before we started...

For real, this was terrifying!

The boys ahead of us

Thankfully, there were some calmer rides!

Probably my favorite part of the day happened right about now. We found this little slide, so the kids took turns going down. After Caedmon went down, Cason decided to go again and came FLYING down the slide, knocking Caedmon off and completely into the water. Blu & I watched the whole thing but couldn't say anything fast enough to warn Caedmon, and Caedmon came up out of the water SCREAMING at Cason - he was SOOO furious!!! It was priceless and I'm sure if we had videoed it, we'd have made a fortune with a youtube video!! ;)

By this time, we were pretty chilly, so we stopped at Milky Lane for some hot cocoa and coffee. It’s amazing how much cheaper things are here than in Lusaka! We have some of these same restaurants in Zambia, but they so much more expensive!

We ended our day with some Power Rangers tv in the hotel room - it’s hard to beat that!

Blu has run back out to the boardwalk to get a pizza for the kids and some “bunny chow” for us - Durban’s official traditional food! Pics to come tomorrow! :)