Monday, June 12, 2006 - Day 2

We've made it.  Plane rides were fine.  First class wasn't all that.  Big, roomy seats; drinks on demand; but no movie or anything else special.  The plush seats were almost worth it, though.  Plus, the attendants seemed nicer and more accomodating than what we're used to - cattle class.

We slept a lot yesterday.  Angie and Big D went grocery shopping.  I grilled out.

Our place is nice.  Smaller and not as upscale as Tamarind, the villa we stayed at last year.  But, this villa has its advantages, too.  It has an awesome view of the Atlantic from the pool and entire first floor.  We're on the side of a cliff, and the breeze here has got to be steadily between 10-20 mph.  We're actually cool in the house in the middle of the day without using A/C by keeping the windows and doors open.

The boys are enjoying snorkeling and swimming.  Jaqueline swam with the boys yesterday around the tip of our peninsula, into Taylor Bay.  They all were exhausted.  While Angie and I woke up around 9am, the boys woke up around 12:30pm, Jaqueline around 1pm, and Big D around 2pm.

While everyone was asleep, Angie and I took some photos.  Here's some of the less-private ones ;)

Monday Evening

Angie thought I was being my typical self, so she made sure to capture the moment.

As if that wasn't bad enough, she had to go around to the other side and photograph the actual activty, not to mention my big, soft, computer-playing belly!

It's not like we were doing anything.  Plus, I had an excellent view from where I was:

So, when I caught her doing the same thing later on Monday night,

She made a big deal in that she was doing something much more productive than I was - reading the dirt on the celebrities from MSN.

Meanwhile, the others were just hanging out for the rest of they day, Monday.

I set up the camera to not use a flash, kept it still by setting it on the railing, and got this pretty amazing night moon shot (if I do say so, myself :)

  Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - Day 3

Tuesday Morning - Rest & Relaxation

Tuesday started out very relaxed, just like Monday.   Dave and the boys slept in till I woke them up mid-afternoon.  Jacqueline, Angie and even I were up fairly early enjoying the peaceful and beautiful atmosphere.

Then, it appeared we settled in to another day of lounging around, snorkeling off our dock, and goofing off in the pool.  Jacqueline did a lot of her favorite pasttime, reading, so she really was enjoying the morning.

Tuesday Afternoon - Let the Activities Begin!

Even though lounging around in paradise was nice, I was beginning to get a little antsy.  The only plans on the books were Weds afternoon scuba diving lessons and Thursday scuba diving.

I took it upon myself to fill in the gaps.  I called around and got us grown-ups booked for massages at the Palms resort's spa center.  Then, I signed us up for a 4:30 ParaSailing adventure.

Here's the way the plan worked:

• First, Dave and Jacqueline enjoyed an hour-long deep-tissue couple's massage at the Palms while Angie and I had lunch and went shopping with Nate and Josh.
• Then, Angie and I had a 90-minute hot-stone couple's massage after dropping off Nate and Josh with Dave and Jacqueline.
• We all met after that at the Palms beach where we hopped aboard the parasailing boat with Captain Conrad and his first mate.

Shopping with Nate and Josh

The Spa at The Palms ... Ahhhhh

Parasailing

Getting dunked was a blast! ...

Angie got in on the fun, after she saw that we had a landing platform on the back of the boat, and you didn't have to land in the water and swim for the boat, dragging the parachute.  This is her coming in for a landing:

 I had on a new bathing suit that was a little big.  When they dunked me, it picked up a bucket-full of water and held it in the backside of my trunks.  The captain noticed it and got a kick out of it, so he dunked me again and used the wind direction and the boat's velocity to drag me backwards in the water to pick up enough water so Angie could say, "Baby got back!" :-)

 

After parasailing, we stopped by Turtle Bay and the bar Sharkbites for some Conch Fingers and a few drinks.  We reminisced about last year, staying at the Tamarind and how much fun we had with Charles and Marty making up silly songs.

Then, we went back to the villa, where Angie made a delicious meal for us all - a hamburger meat pasta dish that was out of this world.

Weds - Scuba lessons

The main activity for Weds was the afternoon scuba lessons at Flamingo Divers.

Thurs - Scuba Diving, the Real Deal

Some of us couldn't sleep thinking about the upcoming dive.  Nate was up at 7am! 

Angie and Jacqueline saw that we had a great breakfast before the dive, with bacon, eggs, and toast, coffee and OJ.

 

We did a two-tank dive, with a small lunch in between.  The trip was awesome!  Check out this link http://www.flamingodivers.com/logs.php and look for their log entry for 6/16/2006 to read the highlights of our dive.

To me, one of the biggest highlights was to see Angie actually swimming around with us 25, then 40 feet below the surface.  She overcame a personal challenge to make the dive - her newly aquired fear of the water.  She had some great help - Jane from Flamingo Divers was very patient with her and took her one step at a time.  Jane gave Angie enough time to get comfortable with each little milestone until she'd take her to the next step.  Once Angie had been under water for a few minutes, something clicked, and she was fine.  She started looking around and taking in the beautiful underwater habitat.  I'm so proud of her.

Pictures will be coming soon.  Dave and Jacqueline have a CD that the dive shop provided us with that contains a ton of photos capturing our experience.  I hope to add those here as soon as I can.

 Thurs night - Hemingways

 We figured we'd all be too tired from our day's adventure at sea, so we made reservations for Hemingway's, a great restaurant at one of the older resorts. 

 Friday - Leisure at its Best

Friday was full of swimming, snorkeling, strolling, sunbathing, and for me the occassional computer game.  Nate and Josh discovered that they could do cliff diving from our place into Sapodilla Bay. 

Turtle Bay is an easy swim from our deck, around the end of the peninsula.  It is gorgeous, with this sand that's best described as Big-D put it - cake mix.  It's only about knee-deep for most of the bay.  Angie laid down in the water and was tempted to sleep there.

 

Josh broke in his new skimmer board in Turtle Bay.

 As you can tell, the beach was really crowded.  There must've been at least 7 people there at one point.