Vacation Time!

Up earlier this morning and at the pool by 9:30 am.  The wind was down some and the temperatures were up.  Stayed by the pool until lunch, then ate at the hotel restaurant.  Awesome as usual.  Then to the beach for more sun, and according to Sandy, some naps and snoring on my part.  I did get a swim in at the beach today. The water was as high as we have seen it all week.  We had white caps that approached 10, maybe 12 inches total.  So yeah, the water is seriously calm down here. Another thing we did notice was the amount of people has quadrupled today.  We have gone from being the only ones in the restaurants to having like 4 or 5 other people in there with us.  We chatted a few of them up.  Seems like this is a great "long weekend" get away location.  At least that's what the ladies did who we talked to. Check-out is 10 am, but our flight is not until 3.  So, we have packed all our clothes.  We will check-out at 1...

The wind died down.  We hit the pool at 10.  Lunch was here at the hotel and it was good.  We hit the beach directly after lunch and stayed until sunset.  We took showers and then headed downtown for dinner at Sabor.  Our plan is to duplicate this tomorrow.  Weather permitting.  All is good.  I sent pictures today of a giant chess set to Nick.  Flashback to Mel Brooks' History of the World movie - Pawn jumps Queen... Eating lunch here at the hotel.  Life is good. Looks like a Corona commercial.  See how calm the sea is? It's been that way all week.  Just Lovely. Selfie on beach at sunset.  Sandy is grabbing my butt in this picture. That's why I am smiling so broadly.  She says, Prove it! Grandma walking down the beach at sunset looking for shells for kiddos.

Hey Mike, Mike, Mike...what day is it?  It's Wednesday on the island and time for an update on happenings here. We slept in again until 10 am.  It was fully overcast and windy and a bit cooler.  Not that we are complaining because it sure beats the weather in Indiana right now.  High today was 72F. For the third time, we drove over to Silver Beach and finally had lunch at the Manta Ray Beach Club.  You kids will remember this as it is the one we ate at when we were here last, just down the road from our old hotel. Looking off the deck into the ocean Oh, what Manly Shorts you have on Papaw! Painted conch shell on our table Selfie with jacket on and breezy hair, but still at the ocean! After lunch, we went back to the mall to try and finish up our shopping.  We came close, but not quite done.  We have noticed a total lack of people.  Then back to our hotel to sit by the pool for a couple of hours.  Sandy finishe...

It rained last night and into this morning.  No biggie.  We just slept in.  Got up at 10.  Went back out to Silver Beach to attempt to eat lunch.  Again, the restaurant was not open.  They will be tomorrow. We ate at Playa Lucaya mall, Rum Runners bar.  We ate there with the kids.  We had the double hamburgers.  It was pretty good.  Then we hit the pool.  Not to swim, mind you, to catch some rays.  I finished a book.  I finally got Sandy logged into her Kindle so she could read books. We took showers and then spent some time on FaceTime with the grandbabies.  They had just gotten up from naps.  Conversations were hilarious for us.  Will wanted to know if we were at our house.  Sadly for him, no.  We are in the land of No Snow.  For dinner, we went back to the mall and ate at La Parrilla Steak House.  It was fantastic.  Things we have noticed on this trip versus six months ...

We watched a little football last night before calling it an evening.  Did not see how the game ended, as we were asleep by 9.  Slept in until 9 this morning, until the phone rang.  It was Guest Services telling us of the welcome party tonight and asking if we wanted a tour.  No thanks. We slathered up with sunscreen and hit the pool until about 11:30.  The pool water is very cold, but not Cabo pool cold.  Just takes some getting used to.  We drove over to Silver Beach to eat lunch at the deck that overlooked the ocean.  Too bad, they are closed on Mondays.  We shall go there tomorrow. Instead we went to the mall and ate at Zorba's Greek restaurant.  It was good and they had the temperature set at a cool 68F.  It was warm today. We hit the beach after lunch.  The ocean is calm and warmer than the pool.  We got two calls today from the security company.  The US Mail and UPS delivered packages to the house....

Well, it was quite the adventure to get here.  Flights canceled, delayed, rebooked, and canceled again.  We finally made it about 7 hours later than our original itinerary, but the good news is, we made it!  We are officially on vacation for the next six full days! We are alone this time, just mama and me.  The kids stayed home to care for the pets and watch over the property.  Besides, it will do them good to deal with highs of 30's and snow this week while we are lazing by the pool enjoying the sunshine. So it's Sunday on the island, and we have already taken an adventure.  We started to walk to the shopping center to buy shorts.  Why?  Well because I did not pack a single pair on this trip.  Zero.  Nada.  None.  Why not?  Wife says it's because I'm a dumbass.  I say it's because she made me switch suitcases in the middle of packing, and so I never got to finish.  Regardless, I am in the islands without sho...

Got up round abouts 10:30 am.  Huddled around here until we booked to Molly Malone's bar for lunch.  There were thunder claps all around for most of the afternoon, but the sun came out just long enough to fry us on our last day here. We laid by the pool until 3, for some of us, 4 for others.  Switched out taking showers.  Drove to the grocery store to stock up on supplies for tonight and tomorrow morning.  Then we went back to Agave for dinner at the shopping mall.  Great food and drinks, and that's why we went back for our last dinner. Most of the kids having before dinner drinks. And poor Alex, drinking by himself. We came back to our resort and played cards.  Nick and I beat Kathy & Shelby 3-0, and the last game was 59 to 1.  Nick did get a Moon Shooter in there.  Nice. We cleaned up a bit and packed what we could.  We are to check-out by 10 and our flight is at 1:30 to ATL.  Be home in our own beds tomo...

I got up at 10:15 this morning to an empty condo.  Everyone but me and Nick were at the pool already.  Good thing too as this was the first day of the week that the sun was up this early. Kathy, Shelby, and Alex in the pool early this morning. We loaded up and went to the shopping plaza for lunch at the Dive-In restaurant part of the Unexso complex.  Then we came back and got ready for our dive. Craig, Alex, Kathy, Nick, and Captain Fred solving the world's problems. We drove out to about the SE side of the shopping plaza and dove into 45' of H2O.  We dropped into a den of sharks (which we were expecting).  Most of them female and one male - as told by Cap't Fred.  The average was 6' in length, but we did see one 8 footer.  The sharks were Black Tips.  They were mighty ferocious.  We had to fight for our lives.  It was epic.  Kathy punched one in the nose - Stay Away!  You, dear reader, figure out where the tale...

We all slept in again until about ten, maybe 10:30.  We hung around the room until 11:45.  Then we drove to what we thought was Bernie's Tiki Hut, which had great reviews on Trip Advisor.  Well, we ended up at the Manta Ray Restaurant at the Manta Ray Village - which turned into a great win for us.  Good food and good setting.  We did walk the beach and find Bernie's afterwards.  They had just opened at 1, since they had a large bon fire last night for the locals / visitors.  Maybe on our next trip we can hit Bernie's. We came back and changed to pool attire and slathered on the sunscreen.  Nick, Kathy, and Alex all had to become pool certified so that we can take a diving trip tomorrow.  Shelby and Sandy have agreed to not go - their choice. The three divers getting instructions The three divers practicing their instructions. That's our swim up bar in the background! We came back to the room and everyone took showers.  W...

We all slept in this morning, at least until 10.  It rained this morning for a bit. We spent about an hour at the pool before eating lunch at the resort. We swam and laid by the pool for a couple of hours. Showers were taken.  Nick and I took on Shelby and Kathy in bid euchre.  We won 2 out of three, and Kathy shot the moon without the second right to win game three.  All of this was going on while it poured outside - cats & dogs - with thunder - which we said was Grandpa Robert Seager laughing at us about our poor card playing skills. We drove to the shopping mall to eat at Pisces restaurant.  We had curry, pizza, and mac & cheese.  All pretty darn good.   We came back to take sunset photos.  The rain has subsided.  We figure it was about 90 degrees today before the rain cooled things off.  It is about 75 now - Kathy has long-sleeved shirt on. We have made plans to train in the pool tomorrow for a sc...

We all rolled out at different times today - trying to adjust to the travel schedule.  Breakfast was in the room.  Then we headed off to find the beach.  We have to drive to reach the beach as our hotel / aka Yacht Club sits on the canal / marina and not the ocean per se. We drove the mile or so around and found the beach.  Pretty empty.  Not pristine like Cancun for sure.  If you want anything, you need to bring it.  We walked up and down about 2 properties each way and then headed off to lunch. We made our way to the local market and ate at a Greek restaurant that one of Sandy's coworkers had suggested.  We walked around a few shops but did not find anything we had to buy yet. We came back to the room and lazed around.  Some took naps, others played cards - and for the record, Kathy & I won against Nick & Shelby 2-1.  So now you know who the nappers were. The boys loaded up and went back to the beach, this time to swim ...

We had hit the local grocery store for supplies so we can have snacks and drinks in the room.  Thus, when we got up this morning, we had some items to eat for breakfast. We slept in a bit and lazed around the room.  We had booked an "update" for our RCI vacation club that was supposed to be 15 minutes and included lunch.  Lies.  We headed over at 11:30, filled out some paperwork, waited until Noon, and then were told we were going to received a 60-90 minute presentation.  Nope.  We stopped right there.  We don't need or want your sales pitch.  Sure they are pleased that Windham and RCI have partnered with them - only two on the island.  Big whoop.  We got here through RCI.  Why another timeshare waste of our vacation?  We walked out. We spent the rest of the day at the pool.  And I can confirm that iPhones do NOT like to be taken in the pool.  My intent was to take pictures by the pool.  I neglected to take s...

We left on a Saturday, which we normally do not do to avoid the crowds.  We left at 7:30 am, which we normally do not do to avoid the crowds.  But, it's early June, what kind of crowds are there going to be?  More than our normal routine if we left at 5 am on a Friday.  No worries, though, we're on vacation. We flew through Charlotte, and had to load the plane twice.  We are all boarded and almost seated when it is announced that the paperwork needed to authorize the plane to fly was not signed by the mechanic - basically nullifying the job he/she had performed.  Now we needed a second inspection to verify the work.  So an hour later, we reboard and fly to Grand Bahama island. Landing here was like landing in Cancun 20 years ago.  We walked down a ladder to the tarmac, across the open air to the Customs Building - but this building was air-conditioned.  Much nicer than Cancun 20 years ago.  We were the only plane in line, so it did n...

We rolled this morning at about ten to full clouds and the threat of rain.  Didn't bother us as it was snowing in Indiana. We hit the sun deck until 12:30 and then ate our last lunch here at the Royal Carribean.  This hotel gets sold in November and will no longer be part of the Royal Resorts.  No more coming back here. We returned to the sun deck and the clouds broke.  It reached 81F with mostly sun.  We stayed until about 4.  Same old, same old.  Showers and then out to eat again at Puerto Mudero.  Excellent steaks. Came back and checked out.  Took some sunset pics.  Our flight leaves tomorrow morning at 0600.  Bright and early.  Hopefully, the snow will be cleared by the time we arrive in Indy at 4 pm. We've had a great, relaxing trip.  Unplugged and recharged for 9 days.  But, Grandma is missing her babies and is ready to get back - not to work, but to them. Our next trip is taking the Kids to Hawaii in ...

I only know it's Friday because my pill box said so... Look out!  Cold snap in Cancun.  It was only 72F when we got up today.  Sorry to all you back in Indiana who are expecting snow tomorrow.  We feel for you (snicker, snicker).  Fortunately, it did warm up to 79F today with the wind back. We were both up before 9 and hit the sun deck.  Lunch was here at the hotel.  Then back to the sun deck.  I had been wearing my sunglasses all week - and had raccoon eyes and lines.  So I went without them today and did not get enough sunscreen on my eyelids.  They are tender. We hit the showers and then off to Casa Rolandi again for dinner.  Sandy had  goat cheese salad and then the gnocchi for dinner.  I had duck tacos as an appetizer and then rack of lamb for dinner.  Best lamb I have ever eaten!  So we tallied up all the "out of the comfort zone" foods Sandy has had this week.  It goes like this:  ground be...