Stephen's Birthday Celebration

Stephen’s 27th birthday was quite an adventure for us. His birthday fell on a Tuesday but because we have our study with Cedric and Pauline on that day we celebrated on Monday instead. I surprised Stephen, when we woke up, Monday morning with what we were going to do. We slept in late, I made him pancakes, we got a few things done around the house and then we headed for Knysna for the day. It’s a tourist town about 45 minutes from where we live. I had heard great things about it and thought it would be a great place for us to spend the day. The drive there was truly beautiful. We arrived around noon or so and just enjoyed one another while we meandered around the harbor.


Stephen and his love for maps


Animal hide is very popular here and very expensive




Ostrich feathers are also a big seller.


Sail boats in the harbor.


Can you find Stephen?


How cute is this!?!


To the left is where we stopped for a very long and relaxing lunch at the…





The Birthday Boy!



We forgot to take pictures of our meal. They were master pieces and so delicious. Stephen ordered Caribbean Chicken and I had the most wonderful cod. Since we have no pictures of our delightful lunch here is a picture of Stephen’s birthday dessert. We were also very surprised at the cost of our lunch. It was half the cost of what we would have paid for the same meal in the States. Yay, for saving money!
Originally, I had planned for us to go to an Elephant reserve after lunch. I had heard that you can walk up to the elephants and pet them, but since we had such a long and relaxing lunch it will have to wait for another day.
We decided to spend the rest of our afternoon exploring the area. Most shops were closed due to it being a national holiday…Women’s Day.






We found this cool boat along the shops.


See this bird. It’s an Ibis. We strongly dislike this bird. They are everywhere and they make this horrible calling noise that sounds like a crying baby.


We thought this duck was just funny looking. We’ve never seen it before.


Stephen deep in thought about his last 27 years ;)







The architecturally prone in me.
















Some of the landscape along the backside of the harbor.




The view on our drive home

Tuesday, the day of Stephen’s birthday we had meetings for the majority of the day. So, to celebrate we had a guys night and invited three of the students over for a big dinner and a movie.