I took this shot at Cape Point in South Africa while I was there in November. It’s just a cool place.

This is a shot during our stage remodel in October. We tore out the ceiling and all the HVAC. Then we hung a black curtain, painted and hung new projection screens. This makes for a good “before” shot.

A few months back, one of our pastors, Eric Brown, had a little git together at his house for Labor Day. Eric is from Virginia and wanted us all to have a southern, cultural experience, so he prepared country ham.

A few days before the shin-dig I was over at his house and he told me the ham was hanging in the basement seasoning. He packed the ham in salt and then hung them up in pillow cases. The gross thing was the mold growing on the bottom of the pillow cases…. but he said it was supposed to do that.

On Fridays I usually cook dinner for Joanna when she comes home from work. I love to cook and I spend part of the day deciding what to fix and then going to the grocery store.

This particular night happened to be Filet Mignon wrapped in bacon with green beans and twice-baked, mashed potatoes.

It didn’t turn out too bad.

I was waiting on dinner last night and realized I have a lot of pictures on my phone from the past few months. I thought I might post some. Also, I realized that my Treo doesn’t take good photos for anything. So I apologize up front.

I shot this picture the day after New Years. In case you didn’t know, Vanilla Coke was discontinued in 2005. I couldn’t believe they tried to replace it with Black Cherry Vanilla Coke… Anyway…. it still bothers me. My brother-in-law, Seth was so disappointed that he bought a case and stuck it in his garage for over a year. He hosted a party at his house on New Year’s Day for the Rose Bowl and decided to bust it out.

I have to say, it lived up to the anticipation. Vanilla Coke ages well. Seth sent me home with another can that night and I couldn’t wait to get out of bed the next morning to crack it open.

Jo and I just returned from our week-long vacation in Florida. We stayed at a condo just south of Clearwater, which is outside of Tampa Bay. It was definitely the most secluded beach I have stayed on. It was a good week… and a good change of pace.

Here’s the view of the Gulf from our balcony.

This is awesome. They use it to haul kayaks and rafts.

My Dad took my brother and I on a white water rafting trip down the Youghoigheny River in Pennsylvania.

This was my first time white water rafting and the part of the Youghiogheny we were on had class 3 and 4 rapids.

We had a good time… Well, I had a good time. But my idea of a good time is getting tossed out of the boat a few times. I don’t think my dad and brother shared that same definition.

Here’s the spot where we got tossed out the first time. It was called Railroad Rapids or something like that. It was the first set of class 4 rapids on the river. We hit a rock and it tossed 3 of us out.

Here’s my dad (left) and Mike (right). Mike had never met us before this trip. Mike ended up pulling us all back in the boat a few times. We’re glad Mike was there.

Here’s my brother after successfully making through a set of rapids.

We are getting ready to go into the Double Hydraulics. They had pretty much guaranteed that you would loose 2 people in this. We all made it out.

I love this picture from a parking garage in downtown Cleveland. It currently is my desktop. Click on it for the full res.

Here a few shots from Cape Point. Now technically, it’s not the southernmost point in Africa, but when you’re down this far, who’s really keeping track of that anyway? There is nothing between you and Antarctica from here.

You can view the complete photo gallery from my recent trip to South Africa on my photo gallery page. Just look to the left at the toolbar or click here.

We drove back from Cape Point around False Bay (southern side). Our tour guide for the day, Pastor Sean, lives in Fish Hoek, which is close to Boulder Beach. Sean was extremely knowledgeable about the area and was a great guide for the day.

Fish Hoek

Boulder Beach

We spent the last day in Cape Town taking a scenic drive down the Cape Peninsula and out to Cape Point. I didn’t think there was anything that could top Table Mountain, but I was wrong. I know I keep saying, “this was the most amazing view,” or “this was the most spectacular….” It just kept getting better and better. Casey and I both decided that there is no where in the United States that you can experience everything like what we have in Cape Town. We both agreed that this was the most scenic drive in probably the whole world.

Here’s a shot of Huat Bay from Chapman’s Peak. This is the first bay past Table Mountain.

Long Beach was next. Known as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. And notice there are no high rise hotels or resorts. Just blue water and white sand.

The Cape of Good Hope is right next to Cape Point. Check out those secluded beaches.

Sorry for the overload of pictures. I don’t think I have been any where else with such spectacular scenery.

Here’s a few shots of the Big 5 out on safari. There’s me, Casey, Mario, Dirk Jobert from Johannesburg and Christo Lues (pronounced Lewis) from Cape Town.

Casey and Mario and I just landed in Amsterdam. It is 5.38 am Ohio time. We still have another 8 hour flight to Detroit, 3 hours layover there and then a 1 hour flight home. Casey got us into the Northwest Airlines Lounge. He’s a gold member or something. So we have kicked back and pulled the laptops out.

Man I ready to be back home.

Here’s a cool shot I took from Cape Point yesterday. I wish there was a direct route from there to Columbus.

Cape Town has an amazing mountain right in the middle of the city called Table Mountain. It’s about 1000 meters high or 3300 feet up. We took a ride to the top this morning in a cable car. The view was spectacular. Definitely one of the most breath-taking sights I have ever seen.

Downtown Cape Town and Table Bay - the main harbor of the city.

The cable car station we rode up to, Lion’s Head is the peak on the right and the Atlantic Ocean in the back.

Looking off to the right into the mountain range that runs down into Cape Town.

Giraffes and zebras are not part of the Big 5, but we saw a lot of them. We even had 4 giraffes wander up on us when we stopped to have coffee.

The morning we arrived, the lions had attacked and killed a baby giraffe. There was a couple that was staying at the lodge with us and they video taped the whole thing… up close. He copied it to a DVD for us, so I’ll have to put some screen shots up for you. It was awesome.

We spent the last few days on an African safari at a reserve called Shumbalala. We had four game drives while we were there and these are some pictures I took from our Land Rover. The Big 5 is the elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion and lepord. They’re called the Big 5 because they are the 5 most hunted animals in Africa.