Day 2 - Lions and Tigers and - oh wait, no just lions...

The next day, Sunday morning, we went with my Aunt and Uncle to their church that they pastor. Since my dad and brother are so musically talented and since I sing, they both alternated playing electric guitar and bass, and I sang with some of the other women in a little choir. We had had a quick practice the night before to learn the songs, but were able to pick up on most of them pretty quickly, even some of the ones in Zulu. After church we all went out to an old classic little restaurant in Benoni, called Peoples. On the back wall of the restaurant, they have a mural of all the famous people that came from Benoni. If you look closely in the picture below, you can see the actress, Charlize Theron (second from the left on the bottom row in the mural). After lunch, we drove just a little ways out of town to the Lion Park. I had remembered going there many years ago and holding baby lion cubs, so I was excited to bring David this time and do that again. This time, the cubs were a little larger so we couldn't really hold them, but we did get a chance to go in and pet them. This one, that Jessica and I are petting, was so sweet! It just purred loudly and kept licking my hand.
One quick funny story about going into the lion cub cage...While we were waiting in line a bratty little Indian boy (about 4 years old maybe) was pitching a fit, screaming and trying to get in the gate where the lion cubs were. His little sister (probably about 12 years old) was nicely trying to restrain him. But he was just getting madder and louder and was starting to annoy the people (including us) standing in line - to the point where we were all muttering under our breath, "Just let him in if he wants to get in that badly". Finally it was our turn and we didn't pay that little boy any more attention until afterwards. As we were leaving, they were just getting a chance to go in. As soon as the little boy walked up to one of the lion cubs, it jumped on him and knocked him down. You could almost hear the quiet cheering of everyone who had been subject to his little temper tantrum earlier saying, "Yeah! Serves you right! You got what you deserved for being such a brat!" It was actually quite funny that everyone was happy he got "attacked" by the lion.

Anyway, moving on, we got in our car drove slowly around the rest of the lion park, taking pictures out the windows frequently. Here are a few of the best ones we got.On our way home from the Lion park we went to a "Vegas Style" casino with shops and restaurants etc... to meet my cousin, Michelle, and her husband, Richard, and 2 kids (who I had never met before) Rebecca and Noah. Unfortunately none of the pictures I took in there came out well, so I don't have any to show. But the place was really cool. Inside, the ceiling was painted like the sky and lit up. Plus the front of the shops looked like the outside of shops and streets in old world Italy. There were also live trees, lamp posts, fountains, and a stream that ran through the inside of this place. We ate at a nice italian restaurant there and had a wonderful time catching up with family. My dad also had arranged to meet an old friend of his who he hadn't seen in over 40 years, so he enjoyed catching up over dinner as well.
We went to bed that night knowing we would have one last day in Johannesburg before heading over to Swaziland for a week.