My dad. He loved South Africa when he first visited in the 1990s and went back as often as he could.
He and my mom took my sons and me in 2005, then my daughter and me in 2008. In 2014, I accompanied them by myself. In 2015 and 2018, my husband and I went with them. Each time, we would go on a safari and then fly down to Cape Town and spend time in the vicinity.
My dad expresses love by giving financially. He rarely expresses love verbally. But as we left SA in 2018, he said, “I can’t imagine coming here without you.” He definitely expected to return - at 81, he looked about 70, seriously. His health nightmare started the next year so we never went back. Now at 87, his prognosis is not good and he looks every bit of his age.
Those trips were without a doubt the biggest gift anyone will ever give me. I would live in a game preserve for a couple of years if I could swing it.
True story - SFO is a bit insane. I followed signage to the area I believed to be the check in for my flight to Athens. The counters were closed. No worries. Lots of comfy places to sit & WiFi. After 45 minutes I decided I’m a grown up and not afraid to ask intelligent questions like “is this the area to check in my luggage?” I actually couldn’t have been further away if I wanted to be - go allllll the way down to the very end, go left, find the up escalator, go up 2 flights. That will take you to corridor 1. You want corridor 8. Just follow the signs. (This was the actual directions) luckily I have a nice chunk of layover time! All checked in and happy now. I was “invited” to China Airlines lounge. Had some veggie stir fry and a coffee. Now I’m going to wander around and people watch. Best part of wearing a mask at the airport is I can gasp at things I see, and no one’s the wiser - unless they look at my eyes which are often doing this
If I thought SFO was crazy, try Frankfurt - craziest signage, and everyone I asked said they didn’t know where my airline was. Finally found someone willing to look it up! Because I was unable to check in online I needed to go to a ticketing window first, but take a train 2 stops to get there! Ticket
in hand, I am racing as I have 12 minutes to boarding! 1.8 miles on foot later…and I’m boarding. Literally just in the amount of time it took to write this!
But wait! It just got better! Taking a bus to the plane! Which is sitting right next to the plane I just got off! Yes, really.
Now I’m just chilling out and unwinding. It’s been a day!
ETA: I put this here because I included a photo of the Acropolis from my room, but it’s not showing up
The nighttime shot from my room. If this were my place I’d never tire of looking at it!
Walked around the neighborhood, found a little grocer bought some feta, red pepper hummus and homemade multigrain pumpernickel and ate that with an orange. Yum! Up at sunrise and will do a walking tour of the Acropolis after breakfast. It’s 4:15 am now. I’ve slept, woke up, slept again, and now will sleep another couple hours. It’s not jet lag, it’s pure excitement for being here!
For the benefit of the Yanks, Man Utd refers to the Manchester United Football Club (aka soccer). Fergie, in this case, is Alex Ferguson, their long-time manager and arguably the GOAT.
Sarah, Duchess of York and the former vocalist for the Black Eyed Peas should be self-explanatory
luckily I have a nice chunk of layover time! All checked in and happy now. I was “invited” to China Airlines lounge. Had some veggie stir fry and a coffee. Now I’m going to wander around and people watch. Best part of wearing a mask at the airport is I can gasp at things I see, and no one’s the wiser - unless they look at my eyes which are often doing this 
