Tag: Adrian Bellamy

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Ready for spring!

The winter weather that brought snow on both sides of the bay also brought lots of wind and rain, and our house and garden have taken a severe beating the last couple of weeks. Last Monday, one of the city’s trees couldn’t take it anymore and fell, taking out a good chunk of our fence. Unfortunately, it also hit our new shed and damaged its roof and sides. From looking at the tree trunk, the tree was unhealthy, leaving the city to cover the repairs.

John and Olivia managed to get away for a weekend in Carmel while Adriana skied the slopes of Lake Tahoe. They had a great time, but it was cut short by the fallen tree and the risk of more coming down.

We have had a lot of activity around the pool and spa, and things are moving in the right direction but not without work and coordination from several parties, including us. We emptied the pool on the 23rd, and the sides were washed, cleaned, and treated with acid the day after. It took 24 hours and a lot of water to fill it again, but the ~72 hours were well spent, resulting in a pool that looks much better.

The spa also got some love. It’s been acting up several times, leaving us unable to heat it. Luckily the system set out while one of the pool technicians was there, so not only did we confirm that we were not crazy, it brought a good indication of which piece of hardware needed to replace. The pool company took care of that on Friday, and we’ll run tests in the coming week.

Last Sunday, most of the family – 16 of us – met at Kokkari in San Francisco to celebrate Adrian. Another corner turned. He came by for a birthday café latte the day before, but it was good to see everyone and give him that present – that’s what he treasures the most.

Downed tree that hit our new shed
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Summer is coming to an end…

Summer vacation is slowly coming to an end, and Adriana has been busy wrapping up the last two summer camps: cake baking, and tennis. She enjoyed both – especially tennis, where the got to play with the daughter of our former neighbors.  Now it’s time to start thinking about all the summer homework assignments incl. the dreaded book report.

Bella spent the week in Honolulu together with Andrew. She’s not back at Santa Clara college until mid-September. Pia, on the other hand, was first back. She moved up to Varsity cheerleading and lost her captain position – at least for this year. Not sure she’s missing it. 

As a Christmas present, Ella got a ticket for an outdoor music festival called Outside Lands. This year was their 10th anniversary. Seems to be a bit of an older crowd, so among the list are many “mature” bands. Still, good times and transportation luckily never got to be an issue. The week before, she spent the week in New York and on Long Island seeing two of her friends from school.

Olivia, John, and Adriana hosted the McGregors at Casa Bellamia in Carmel Valley. They are a British couple with three children that used to live in Burlingame. They were fellow St. Catherine’s parents, and it was good to catch up after they moved back to the UK in 2014. As usual, the kids spent almost the entire day in the pool and had no trouble falling asleep.

Before leaving for Carmel, Adriana, Pia, Olivia and John celebrated Penny’s 75th birthday together with Adrian  – and Penny, of course – at John Bentley in Menlo Park. It continues to be one of our favorite places to go to dinner. 

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Never a Dull Moment…

It’s been weeks since we got home. We’ve had more than 200 people read our travel diary from Africa, and we’ve taken a peak ourselves to remind us of what a great trip we had. 

It was sweltering the weekend we came back, and the girls mostly spent the first couple of days in and around Adrian and Penny’s pool. John had to return some rented camera equipment and continued south to Carmel and got back in the saddle riding the beautiful 17-miles drive. 

Once home John and Adriana got busy power washing the drive way, patios, and outdoor furniture. With what looked to be a terrible chore, the neighbor, Liz, had John suspected of being in the dog house, but it was quite therapeutic and very satisfying to see the moss and dirt disappear, and also to see the brown teak color come alive behind what was mostly gray chairs and couches. The free mud bath was a just a bonus that both Adriana and John enjoyed. Less so the ones who showered after us. 

As mentioned in a previous blog post, John was fortunate to get a couple of Hamilton tickets from Olivia. They went to the Orpheum Theater on July 14 and loved every minute of the show. It really is a great musical, and although had cast has changed several times over, every performance was to a tee. It’s a shame that the tickets are a small fortune – the music is perfect for a younger audience and was a great piece of history. 

Dinner was eaten at 54Mint. Great food but the basement turned out to be very dark and very loud. Luckily the staff could help get a couple of seats at the bar. 

Bella’s been busy working at a pair of event planning businesses. Long hours and much planning, but rewarding when the event is successful and both the hosts and guests are happy. Pia has been enjoying her new license and is always (and still) glad to run errands around town. Late last week she blew a tire but managed to drive back to the house. AAA replaced it within the hour. AAA is also where we have an auto insurance policy and the bill, for now, four cars – with two young drivers – is something we don’t care to think about a whole lot. 

Adriana’s summer camp schedule has been tight, and so far she’s enjoyed volleyball camp, a camp focused on producing YouTube videos and finally an art camp. So far we have not seen anything posted on YouTube, but it won’t be long – she reviews several products each day and is often recording her slime making skills.

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Singita – Place of Miracles

Our scheduled departure time was at noon, so we managed to get in one last morning drive. We didn’t see a whole lot of game, but it was a good time to sit in the open-air vehicles and reflect on the past two and a half weeks and what an incredible trip it has been.

As for our last camp: Singitia Lebombo was wonderful. The word ‘Singitia’ means “Place of Miracles” and while Singita owns several lodges, we selfishly feel that our lodge should be the one the saying refers to. The staff – from housekeepers to rangers and everything in between, all made sure that our visit was something we will treasure for years, but also a place we look forward to revisit.

Now we’re back on Federal Air, who so often have transported us within smaller airports in Africa. They are flying us from Singita Lebombo’s airport to Johannesburg. From here Adrian and Penny will fly to Durban to spend a few days with Penny’s sister Patty and her husband Bernard. The rest of the group is leaving Johannesburg for Dubai and later San Francisco at seven o’clock tonight.

Our trip has been fantastic, and it’s always with a combination of happiness and sadness that we leave Africa. We are very lucky to have seen such extraordinary places and that we as a family can travel so well together. 

Good dish!

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In Search of the White Lion

The Singita vehicles held only six people, so before we left camp at 6:30 a.m., our group got split into four Land Rovers.  We had been warned that it would be quite cold on our drives, but we all felt warmer – or maybe less cold – than on previous drives. There was a bit of a cloud cover to hold on to the heat – maybe that helped. The warm water bottle and the blankets certainly did.

We had hardly left the Lebombo Lodge before we saw what seemed like an endless stream of quelea. Little known to many of us, this is the most prolific bird in the world – they even outnumber chickens. They flew by us in numbers surely in the 100’s of thousands and sometimes so close that we could feel the movement they made in the air. We saw them on three occasions and were at times certain it was the same birds just flying around us in the circle.

Singita recently posted a picture on Instagram of a white lion, and we were initially sad to hear that it had likely been chased out of the concession by other lions. We continued to look for it for two days, but couldn’t help feel a bit sad that so many people incl. day visitors to Kruger National Park were chasing a glimpse of the poor lion. Some of the rangers were worried that the color of its fur would make it a target for illegal hunting and so, while we were disappointed not seeing it, we also felt good about giving it a bit of rest and focused on something else.

There was plenty more to see. The elephants all seemed very calm compared to Matetsi, and couldn’t be bothered when we stopped to watch them eat or drink. The giraffes were also calm and even the zebras seemed less eager to run away than usual.

The morning drive included a walk on the river bank from where we watched both crocodiles and hippo. Later, we were lucky to stumble across three very well-fed lions and got some great pictures as they started to slowly move across the yellow grass.

Back at camp, most decided to skip breakfast and instead meet for lunch. We were served a legendary tapas-style lunch with eight different types of food and some soon felt like the three lions mentioned earlier…  David and Sandy decided to walk it off with a guided bush walk.

The kids stayed behind when it was time for the afternoon game drive. They instead had fun in the pool and later played monopoly. The rest of the group met for sundowners at a beautiful waterhole where the hippos were slowly gathering before making it up on land to feed on the grass during the night.

We got back to camp around 6:30 and listened as one of the rangers, Blaine, who took us through the history of South Africa and some of the neighboring countries. It remains very hard to understand just how much unrest the area has seen over the years, but Blaine remained optimistic for the future of the country. Adrian joined in at the end and talked and entertained us with memories of the country as it had been experienced by him, Penny and their four children.

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Last Night in Zimbabwe – for Now…

With the fairly sparse number of sightings we had the previous mornings, it was time for a different approach. Thinking was that the cold winter temperatures made the animals sleep in, so a later start should – in theory at least – let us see more game. 

As such, we met for breakfast at 8:30, and left at 9:30. One vehicle left for the south of the park in hope to see the dark sable antelope. (Spoiler alert – at time of writing it remains unseen by us.) The other vehicle stayed around camp looking for lion and and leopard. None of these got found, but there were nice sightings of elephants, giraffe, zebra and kudo.

The second vehicle came back to camp 1:30. John decided to drive back to the falls, now that he knew which spots were safe to use with a regular camera. There was still a lot of rain and mist in the air, but some great shots were capture at a destination we may never revisit. Not because we don’t want to, but the bucket list is still long.

The first vehicle came back at 2:30. With a bit of lunch or quick siesta it was time to leave for the afternoon game drive. John and the (other) kids joined them at 5:00 for sundowners in front of a waterhole that provided liquid to a couple of elephants as we watched.

It was – sadly – our last night at Matetsi. The staff had prepared a beautiful dinner at the boma, and entertained the family with some history of Zimbabwe. Adrian filled in the blanks as it related to the family, and it was great to sit under the stars and learn about the place we had called home these past five days. The dinner buffet of local dishes was great but the real highlight was the continued infectious dancing that soon had most circling the large fire pit. Drums helped make sure the beat was never lost, and many family members danced until they were almost out of breath. 

As often we grow close with the staff and personal friendships are formed. Sure, it’s easy to stay connected via the cloud these days, but time and time again we have found that nothing beats the original and real social interactivity. Although no-one wanted to think about it, there were sad goodbyes waiting around the corner.

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Game Drives in Zimbabwe

Hoping to see a bit more game in the morning, one vehicle set out for the southern part of the AndBeyond concession. No joy – the animals hid well and the favorite sighting ending up being that of a baby zebra and having morning coffee on a hill overlook the area that previously were the grounds of the AndBeyond lodge. 

After breakfast John, Olivia, Chris, Kara, Sandy, David, Sarah, Robert, Adriana and Penny went on the Zambezi river in what’s is known as Canadian canoes. Two-seaters with an extra seat for the guy paddling. Such a nice way to experience the natural border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. They spotted a few crocodiles and a water monitor lizard that decided to jump from its branch and back in the water only a few feet away from Sarah’s canoe. 

The afternoon was spent relaxing. We met at 3:30 to enjoy tea and left at 4:00 for the pontoon boats that would take us all up and down the river. We split into two groups – 10 on each boat – and started slowly drifting. Luckily away from the Victoria Falls. We were very lucky that a heard of elephants got thirsty and came down to the river bank to consume about a 100 liter of water each. A tiny baby elephant stole the highlight but any elephant is worth watching in its natural habitat. Even the skittish ones that sometimes made sure we knew who was the rightful habitant of the area. The river cruise ended with the sighting of one – maybe two – hippos, although they left most of their good looks under water.

Dinner was served in the wine cellar at the lodge. A perfect combination of wine, comfortable seating and even exhibits of old toys. The kids were entertained in the upstairs TV room and watched Disney Channel while consuming burgers.

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Seeing the Coastline From a Sidecar

It’s Sunday mid-day and we’re (finally) on our way to Namibia. Changes to our original flight schedule unfortunately meant a later departure, later arrival to Windhoek and what looks to be a rather late arrival at Camp. As such we we will spend the entire day traveling what is a fairly short distance. That the airport computer systems broke down did not help the situation and the Air Namibia employee checking us in had to hand write 20 boarding passes. Seating was on a first come first serve basis, but all managed to get good seating. 

Yesterday started with the arrival of 18 motorcycles with sidecars – one for each as Penny and Adrian decided to follow behind us in one of two buses picking the wanna-be motorcycle riders up at Kirstenbosch Gardens. It was quite something to seem them all arrive at the hotel. Tim, the owner, arrived first with his dog proudly sitting in the sidecar. 

We spent almost two hours on the winding roads around Cape Town and many were ready to continue for the rest of the day, but it’s going to have to wait until next time we come back here. 

As already mentioned the motorcycle ride ended at the Kirstenbosch Gardens where we had planned a walk through the new open air Boomslang overlooking the lush vegetation. The structure is designed to mimic the skeleton of a tree snake turned upside down and is very beautifully done. As with many other places of Cape Town, Table Mountain is never far away, and one could hike all the way to the top in approximately five ours from where we were standing. 

We quickly found ourselves in the two busses heading for the penguins at Simons Town. Beautiful drive that made up for what has turned into an extremely touristy spot. It’s always fun to see penguins, but the boardwalk is packed with people flocking to whatever penguin that comes a little bit close to the fence. 

Lunch was booked for 2:00 and we left the jackass penguins shortly after arriving. Yes, that’s actually their real name. Olivia had scheduled a beautiful private room at the Steenberg Winery, and we all enjoyed a delicious three-course meal before heading back to Cape Town. Many felt they had “sufficient” and we cancelled the planned dinner at Nobu. It instead became an early night for some, while a few others met at the hotel bar to wish each other a pleasant last night and good night’s sleep. 

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Enjoying Cape Town at a Leisurely Pace

Looking at the weather forecast the day before it was clear to see the weather could prevent the planned Robben Island tour from happening, and shortly after 7:30 – in the middle of breakfast – word got to us that boat rides wouldn’t take place the entire day. Robben Island still remains unvisited by the Bellamys.

On a whim One&Only helped organize a couple of busses and most left for a couple of hours to see some of the typical tourist spots around town. The group came back at noon as David and his family had planned to tour University Cape Town in the afternoon. David spent three years there getting his bachelor’s degree so it was fun for him to show Sandy and the kids what he once called home.

The afternoon was spent casually exploring the waterfront while some went to the spa. At 7:00 we all went for dinner at the Old Biscuit Mill. Delicious pizza and full glasses that brought about  some good stories from Penny and Adrian’s early days in London.

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Wrapping up another school year

Bella graduated from Burlingame High School on May 28. The ceremony at the on the football field was followed by a small dinner for the family. Nice event with good speeches and even of couple of performances of the school band and choir.

Pia had a to wait a few more days before she wrapped up he final exam with a two-mile run. There was no end in sight for Adriana and as we write this, she’s still go on strong at Saint Catherine’s. She just wrapped up the last book report of the year, and got to pretend to be Ella Enchanted in front of the camera. She’s quite enjoying those type of assignments.

Bella had invited 75 people to Adrian and Penny’s home for a reception in her honor. The place looked beautiful and Pia record effort from handing 100 rice paper lamps paid off.

Across the country Isabella was starting to her final exams and it all kicked off on Memorial Day (May 30). Five days later and she was done for the year. John went out to help help pack up the room and freight laundry from Connecticut to California. They spent the day hiking Kent Falls but also completed a rather long drive to Collin’s Creamery – surely some of the best ice cream in CT.

John flew back Sunday evening while Isabella stayed behind. She’s on a small team representing Kent School at the Independent School Gender Project. The conference starts June 16 so until then she’s staying with a very good friend – Hannah – from school. She’s back home June 18.

http://www.isgpsummerconference.org
http://thecollinscreamery.com