Better late than never!

So far we have gone to a different beach every day, which is kind of nice. Also Mom and Maria are both pretty flexible when the plan is to go to Browne's Beach today and all of the sudden I turn into another parking lot and say "this looks cool, why don't we try here?"  And they're ok with that. I just turned to Maria and said - when we changed the plan today and went to that beach, were you ok with that?  Oh yeah, I'm easy - and that was my favourite beach so far..mine too, and Moms too - so it worked out great.

We got to the beach and paid for our 3 chairs and an umbrella - 40 bajan, same as everywhere and went in the water.  This is the best beach for boogie boarding we have had so far, and there doesn't seem to be a rip tide anywhere so even though it's rough it's totally safe for the girls. 

 This is the first day the girls got burnt, just because they were in the water so much that no matter how many times I put on sunblock it just got wiped and washed away. Especially as they wiped the salt water off their faces after getting a wave in the face!  At one point I put the thick thick thick sunblock on their faces and they looked like mimes.  Mom put it on and she looked like an aboriginal in the Australian outback!

At lunch time Maria and I decided to walk up to the road and see what was around to eat and bring it back to the beach. The girls wanted Chefette's which is like a Caribbean McDonald's, they have roti and chicken sandwiches, pizza and burgers etc. and it was across the road from the beach, so no problem.  Across the street there was a little plaza and a Just Grillin' restaurant..awesome!  So we all got jerk chicken with various side dishes (a few places have been having problems with the gas, which we later googled and found out its a supply issue the the whole of the West coast is having so they have no gas for cooking, heating water etc.  We didn't have an issue when we were there last week, but this week a few times the gas issue has come up)  Jerk chicken was the only option for meat at Just Grillin' which was great, because it was what I wanted anyway!

As we were leaving the beach Paige pointed to two girls walking ahead of us to the parking lot and said "Mama, look at those girls bathing suits, they go right up their butts - why do they want swim suits that go up their butts?"  They want brown bums "Why do they want brown bums?  So they don't have white bums?".  Pretty much.

We decided to drop our stuff in the car and go over to the little plaza again.  Mom had lost her sunglasses in the waves at the beach and wanted to pick up another pair.  Also, there was an ice cream shop that looked good, so we got some ice cream and sat outside to finish it at a table.  I finished first so I decided to go  into one of the shops - Maria had inspired me to maybe get a bikini (don't visualize it if you don't want to, its not for you its for me! - haha).  I went in and the girl asked me if she could help me..I said "I'm looking for a two piece that would maybe fit me?"  She looked at me and said "We just have this style here"..moving away from the fun and funky patterns to the black..I said "So just the old lady style?"  "Yes"..."ok, its ok, I'll just go home and workout"  I haven't worked out in a month..its awful..at least all the parts of me you can see will be tanned!!

We had to stop at the grocery store for more tequila and limes (did I mention Maria likes the tequila sours?) and bread and toilet paper..just the essentials.  Mom and Maria went in while me and the girls stayed in the car.  Paige dictated the following text to Jay:

"Hi Daddy.  We love you and just got back from the beach.  What is it like there?  Is it cold or warm?  Haha sucker!"  She reminds me of me.

The plan was to go to Oistins to the fish fry tonight, which they do every Friday night and we've been talking about all week.  But this morning we had googled the fish fry and found out it didn't start until 7pm..that's almost bed time!  So we decided to have leftovers again and skip the fish fry because it would interfere with our drinking.  Also because we all got a bit of sun today at the beach, and I thought dragging the girls down to the fish fry for 7pm might be a disaster..so once I said I thought I would stay home with them both Mom and Maria said they didn't mind skipping it either and we made a pitcher of tequila sours.  

Then, because we now had a little bit extra tequila to manage, since we bought an extra bottle, I made tomorrow's pitcher today (uh oh), this way we can probably manage to finish off the tequila tomorrow.  This was prompted by Maria coming out to the gazebo and saying "I asked your Mom if she wanted a top up before I filled our glasses...I have to say I was a little relieved when she said no.."  When we bought the extra bottle of tequila I said "I'd rather leave a little bit of tequila on the island than not have enough" and Mom and Maria both said "I agree", it was unanimous.  But I am happy to report that we have left none of our tequila on the island (I'm two days behind on the blog again)!  In fact, I would wager there may be a tequila shortage in Barbados for a while.

So, we were sitting under the pergola enjoying our beverages and leftovers and I was getting a little warm, so I reached over and turned on the fan, which is awesome out there. Not even a minute later Maria says "You know, for having such a closed in back yard, there's always a nice breeze out here every night"...."well, I did just turn on the fan.."  She looked up "haha, I guess that would do it, yeah".  Too funny.  Mom is now hooked on Candy Crush. I deleted it - I can't handle it, it owned me. 

We were sitting chatting about tv shows we watch and Maria had a momentary memory lapse about what we were talking about, she was like "I can't remember what I was going to say...too much tequila..oh yeah!  The Good Wife...I think that deserves a reward" and her reward was another sip of tequila sour!

Shortly after that we went to bed...last day tomorrow, final beach day, final pitcher of tequila..oh Barbados/tequila how I'll miss you. 

We got up in the morning and discussed our favourite beach so far to go back to and everyone agreed Rockley Beach, from yesterday, would be our final beach day. And Maria took her final selfie of the week (she has been doing one with the girls each morning when we got in the car). 

When we drove over there Mom and Maria went to grab/rent our chairs and I took the girls over to the plaza to get them hats to try to avoid further burn on their faces. While there they saw these little stuffy monkey and turtle babies that have blankets that they kept going over to and asking for. Now Sophie, who had been hording her money, could buy one for herself..but wanted to surprise Paige and buy one for her, she is so sweet that way and it would never be reversed!  So I told Sophie if that's what she wanted then we would come back together later, we bought the hats and headed to the beach. Surprisingly the beach wasn't as busy as the day before. There were lots of people in the water, but not as many chairs rented. The waves were just as fun, and even Mom and I tried our hands at boogie boarding!

Just before lunch Maria went for a walk up the beach with the girls (and she did this for Jay and I)

While on the walk the girls reminded her, in a way that I'm told was not subtle but was polite, that she had said she would buy them something from her from Barbados. So when we went back up to grab lunch Maria and the girls disappeared into the store for so long that finally I realized she was buying them the babies..lucky Sophie, she still gets to keep her money AND both of them get their stuffy babies. Very nice of Maria.  We took our food back to the beach and stayed until we were done with the sun.  Before we left the girls and I walked down the beach with the boogie boards until we saw a group of kids, there were two women standing in the water beside them so I said "are these guys yours?"  The lady said "no, just because we're black and they're black doesn't make them our kids"...ok, she was laughing,  but it was weird..."No, I was just looking for parents to ask if we could give them our boogie boards, we're leaving tomorrow". "Oh, these are our kids". Pointing to some other kids on the beach. They happily took our boogie boards and promised that when they leave they will do the same thing and pass them on. We did the same thing with our sand toys before we left. 

On our way home we stopped at the grocery store just for ground beef and sour cream and limes..we have half our pitcher from last night (second pitcher, today's pitcher) and half a bottle of tequila left that we're going to tackle tonight...nachos again for dinner as they paired best with tequila sours!

Our last night..party party?  No. Bed by 8:30..late night tonight.  Last night Maria and I both had the spins from the extra glass of tequila we had from making our pitcher early.  Tonight was no problem, we're appropriately trained at this point. (There's a word here I'm looking for and can't quite get it, trained isn't what I want). 

We decide in the morning to have a pool day today instead of going to the beach. Our flight doesn't leave until 4:20pm and because there is no one checking into the house today the owner has said we can stay until we want to leave, which is around 2pm to go the 5 mins to the airport. So we spend the morning hanging out by the pool, reading and playing Candy Crush Soda (it's not the same as Candy Crush..I can handle it I'm sure), stupid game.   Get to the airport, return the rental car (full of sand, the guys who clean these cars must be so angry all the time), check into the flight, go to the lounge (because Maria travels so much for work she is a Super Elite flyer with Air Canada), then board and again Maria gets all of us priority boarding because of her Super Elite status..which is great, because the girls definitely did not want to say they're 5 so we could board with the passengers traveling with small children. Why do my kids have to be so tall?  No one will believe they are 5!  I told Mom I was going to make them carry their backpacks and each roll a suitcase over so they look laden down and the check in person wouldn't turn them away..but we didn't have to do that, Maria saved the day. 

The flight was good, uneventful. The girl beside me, across the aisle, looked so uncomfortable I asked her if she needed gravol, she said she took some. Then she leaned to her boyfriend and said something about "why did I go to the Oistins fish fry". Good thing we decided to skip it in favour of drinking tequila, now I don't feel so bad!

We landed in Toronto and I turned on my phone and Mary had texted me a link. Oh. My. God. It's an article titled "Your Dreams Have Come True: Tequila Is Actually Proven To Help Weight Loss". I laughed out loud. I showed Mom. She nearly wet herself...great welcome home!

We got our luggage and got a cab from the taxi stand for a flat rate back to the hotel. Mom said to the driver "so how much is the flat rate?"  He mumbled "$21 plus $13 is.." And she said "I beg your pardon?"  He said "well, with luggage like that..I guess I can do $21". I think he was referring to the 40lb booster bag, because everything else is carry-on. Anyway we got to the car and I said "good for you for calling him on the cab fare..he was totally trying to rip you off"  Mom said "what do you mean?  I just couldn't hear him so I said I beg your pardon". So funny. 

Finally home, Jay left today for San Diego so we won't see him until Thursday. School tomorrow, I hate making lunches..maybe I'll go away again. 

Lone Star beach

I slept so much better without the plastic sheet!  I got up at 7am and had a quick shower, but it was a good sleep...

This morning I called the Harrison's Caves because the girls wanted to do the Jr. Explorers Tour.  I knew that I had to make a reservation for it, but wasn't sure how early I had to do it.  Today is Thursday - so I called just about 9am and said:
"Good morning, my name is Dana, how are you?"
"Good Ma'am, how are you?"
"Good, I'd like to make a reservation for my two girls to do the Jr Explorer Tour?  I know I have to make a reservation, I'm not sure if we could do it today at all..maybe around 11?"
"Ma'am you have to make a reservation for that tour"
"That's why I'm calling..."
"We can't do that today"
"Ok, when can we do it?"
"Probably Saturday, or Monday"
"Well, I'm gone Monday, but we can do Saturday - what time Saturday?"
"Can you hold on one minute?"
"Sure"............................................
"Hi, Ma'am...can you do today for the tour?"
"Yes, we can do today..what time?"
"Can you do 11am?"
"Uh, yeah, that's what I originally asked for so I'm pretty sure I can do it"...

So we went to the caves for 11:00am.  And spent an hour with Peter, who taught the girls all sorts of interesting things about rocks and loved teaching them because he has twin boys who are 2 yrs old and wild things, so he just loved the 6 year old twins and I think hopes that his 2 year olds turn into 6 year olds that are normal...good luck with age 3..it sucks.  After that its pretty much golden.

While the girls were doing the Junior Explorers Mom and Maria did the tram tour. It worked out well, we were all done at the same time. 

After the caves we decided to go near Holetown, where we stayed last week, and go to the Lone Star Restaurant because someone had told me that if you went out to the beach outside the restaurant that they feed the turtles for the catamaran tours and you could swim off the beach to see the sea turtles. So we went to lunch at the Lone Star, only their gas was off so they had a limited menu, which still seemed delicous (though over priced) and we sat on the beach and enjoyed lunch. 

The girls played in the waves while we waited for the food to come out and then ate with us.  

Once we were done we walked just down the beach and I asked a couple of guys if we could rent chairs and rented 3 chairs and an umbrella off of him and had our own little slice of heaven.

A little while later, while Maria was playing with the girls in the sand making a sand castle, Sophie said to her "I bet my Mom is glad that you came so that she can have some relaxing time!"..it was funny  - and I'm glad Maria is here! 

We saw a couple of times a sea turtle poke his head up in the water, so once I went out and couldn't see him, but the second time I went out after I saw him I poked my head out of the water and looked back to shore and my Mom was pointing to me (I couldn't tell what she was doing, I was looking for some direction, should I go out further to the right, to the left, had he poked his head out again?).  I put my head in the water and he was right there in front of me, facing me maybe 4 ft away - so I made a sound and a shocked movement and he turned and  moved a little bit away from me and then for the next 10-15 mins I just floated and swam above him..and of course, because I had just seen him from the beach and grabbed the snorkel and mask I didn't have my underwater camera!

I went back in, Maria was on a walk down the beach with the kids, (did I say how much I like that she is here so I can have some relaxing time?) and sat down on the lounger.  Maria came back and it was about 4pm..late for cocktail hour today - and she said:

"Do you still have everything to make pina coladas?"
"Yeah"
"Maybe I'll have a pina colada and then wine when we get back today"
"Ok, yeah I have enough to make a couple of blenders of pina coladas"
"Oh, I'll just have one, then wine - I just feel like we should really end the vacation on tequila sours"
(We are a day shy on supplies for tequila sours)
So I say:
"I don't feel like we should feel like we have to conserve our tequila...if we want tequila sours every day why don't we just buy more tequila?"
"Oh! Ok! If you're ok with that!" 
Um, yeah (we got an email today from Dad that said "Tell Dana and Maria that there are meetings for people like them anytime, anywhere" - - tequila anonymous?)

For anyone interested this is how you make the perfect Tequila Sour:

1 - buy a pack of Mott's snack size apple sauce, any flavour.  Eat the apple sauce and keep the plastic cup for a measuring implement.

2 - make a simple syrup.  Take the biggest cup out of your cupboard and fill it with sugar - pour it in a pot and then add 2 full cups of water..let the sugar dissolve into the water.  Pour this into a jug of some kind (we are using a plastic milk jug). 

Next:  remember 2 - 4 - 6 - 8

2 - Mott's apple sauce measuring cup of Orange Juice
4 - Mott's apple sauce measuring cup of the simple syrup
6 - Mott's apple sauce measuring cup of Sauza Gold Tequila
8 - squeezed limes 

I had told Maria you can remember the parts of each because it was 2 - 4 - 6 - 8..and tonight she said "two, four, six, eight - who do you appreciate - Dana for making tequila sours!"

Mom said earlier something about Maria being a cheap date - I said "Cheap drunk?  I don't think I would take you out on a date!"  She has totally held her own with me in the tequila department.  In fact, as we were finishing off our last drink tonight she slammed her cup down and said "Just for the record, mine was gone before hers"..what?!?  If I had known it was a contest I totally would have kicked your butt - I was being POLITE!

My Mom said earlier - what do you think this vacation would have been like if we couldn't (I'm sure she meant didn't - because what kind of cruel joke would 'couldn't' be) drink..I said - I bet we would be up until 10 every night..reading!

Dinner tonight was leftovers, which is great.  Maria made a salad, and we had leftover Paella that we thawed from the freezer.  Maria was awesome - because Mom and I were playing Candy Crush (oh yeah) and Maria prepped everything.  (I believe at one time the words "Oh Yeah Baby...F&*K you game!" came out of my mouth while playing Candy Crush..in fact, I know they did, because I put in my prep notes for the blog tonight").
Anyway, Maria made dinner and we ate out at the pergola and Mom is on the far side and said she needed a beer and so Maria got up to get her a beer and Mom said to me "do we have croutons?"  I said yeah, they're in the cupboard..and joking, in a very quiet sing song voice I said "Mar-i-a?" .and she heard me!  I said "Geez, you have good ears" as she turned around and said "yeah, did I forget something?"  Um, no.  I got up off my lazy and sarcastic butt and got the croutons myself!  We also have a Bajan Hot Pepper sauce that we all love and had it on the Paella. I said "I can feel my a$$ burning tomorrow already, but it's so good" and both Mom and Maria laughed and said "me too!"

I checked my email after dinner and Jay had emailed saying he might go to Costa Rica for both weeks next year.  This is our exchange:

"I might go to Costa Rica for two weeks next year" (Jay)
"Wow" (me)
"Progress" (Jay)
"Maybe you should consider 9-10 days" (Me) (Because I'm a realist and 14 days would be a nightmare for everyone because after 10 days Jay would wish he was at home).
I also said that Maria loves the girls and is awesome to travel with - so if he DID decide to come for two weeks, which I think would be a mistake, it might be ok.  lol.  We'll see.  The best thing would be to tell him I booked him for 14 days but to actually book his flights for only 10 days..so that when he says "I want to go home" I can say "I knew you would, your flight is tomorrow!"  I would love if he could unwind that long, I just don't think it would happen!  He will definitely want to stay the full second week when Trev is here..so maybe I can find a direct flight for him that arrives mid-week the first week. 

Just before bed I was in the bathroom and heard a "Whooo Hoooo" from Maria. I thought - 'you bi&*h, did you just finish level 29?'  I've been stuck on level 29 since yesterday on Candy Crush..but no, Maria just got the safe open on the first try.  lol..Never.  Download.  Candy Crush.

Exploring Day

For the last few days when I've woken up in the morning I've said to Mom "I am SO hot sleeping.  I don't like these memory foam mattresses, I keep feeling like whatever is touching the mattress is burning hot and I'm sweaty"..today when I woke up the corner of my sheet had pulled off the mattress and I came out and said "I know why I've been so hot at night...there's a plastic sheet on my bed!"  Oh my God, off it came, I'm sure that will do the trick for tonight.

This morning after breakfast and blogging and looking up some scenic drives online we decided to head out to Ragged Point and then to Bath Beach on the East coast of the island.  In the middle of all of that I played a game of Jenga with the girls, which was interesting - they wanted to take their piece out and put it beside them, not put it on the top.  I guess they never heard the song "You take a piece from the middle and put it on the top...jenga je je je jenga".  Also, Maria let the girls use her camera this morning so there were some interesting photos..

Sophie, the little director, said "can you move that towel (which was on the sofa arm) it's ruining the picture". Hmmm, sounds like her Mom?

Maria firmed up her vacation too..gotta love her..she's good to go for December so we're booking the house on the hill for the first week of Dec!  Google Casa de los Congos, Flamingo Beach - freaking awesome.  Just waiting to see if the Conrods can swing the second week and we will either book it for two weeks or book a house on the beach because Lea wants to be able to have easy access with the baby, totally understandable. 

We headed out this morning and went to Ragged Point, where there is east point Lighthouse, there was a cool look out point here.

After that we went to Bath beach, but got lost along the way and ended up way inland, but had a nice scenic detour.  We found our way to Bath beach, which was a lunch bag let down, it was described by the owners of the house we're in now as a nice beach with water as warm as Bath water..totally not cool.  

There was a tonne of seaweed and a beach that did not seem appetizing at all, so we left and went to Crane Beach which Leanne had wanted to go to last week and was described as one of the 10 best Beaches by Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous (which you have to say with the Robin Leech accent).

We went to the Crane Hotel and Resort and paid 25 bajan (12.50 US) per adult to go onto the resort, but then you got a voucher for 25 bajan per adult to use for food on the resort, so it was basically free as long as you planned to eat on the resort.  Its a total 5* resort, and Maria said its where a radio station in Toronto does "Breakfast in Barbados"..but I would be upset if I booked there as a family because the beach was very rough and full of seaweed as well.  The red flags were up, which means no swimming because its too rough - which is typical of the East side of Barbados.  We were staying on the West side last week and the South West side this week.  Jay and Trev would have loved it here - the waves were huge and it was a lot of fun, and even though the waves were big there wasn't a lot of rip tide.  So even though it was a red flag on the beach we went in with the girls 1 adult:1 child ratio and had a great time.

That rock outcropping is actually flat just above the water and when we first got here there was a lifeguard in the water with a boogie board and people were jumping off the rocks and into the waves. 

The waves break way out, then break in a different spot every time close to shore.  There's a mild undertow that can knock you over when multiple waves come in at the same time.  One second you're standing ankle deep and the next almost chest deep.  Tons of fun!  But not for the faint of heart.

At one point going through Maria's photos for the day I said "it's a good thing you came, I have way more pictures of the girls. I'm usually telling them to get out of the picture so I can take the scenery!"  I've airdropped some of Maria's photos and put them in the blog. 

We finally pack up and stop on the way home to buy . . . Tequila and limes.  And a few other non-essentials like bread and juice and fruit and vegetables.  These would be bottles 4 and 5.  We are on day 4 and Mom hasn't broken into the tequila yet. 

We came home after spending the afternoon at the beach and I jumped in the pool before we even unload the groceries.  I was very, very hot and the cold pool water was just what I needed.  Mom had a shower, then a baby beer,  a couple of Zantac, then she was ready to attack the tequila.  The tequila sours are so good.  She has to add a bit of sweet to hers, she doesn't like it as sour as Maria and I do, but I think she enjoyed them... a short time later Maria found her dazed and confused trying to remember what she was doing in the kitchen.  Amateur.

 

We had leftover stuffed peppers for dinner - briefly we thought about a salad but then filled up on booze so didn't need it - and went to bed at 8.  A typical day!

Two for One

Ok, so I'm behind on the blog, so you get two days in one post...

MONDAY - day 2 with Mom and Maria

Today it rained.  A lot.  Yesterday it rained a lot too, so I'm hoping that it clears sometime before Mom and Maria go home so that they can enjoy the sun of Barbados!  This is the new house. 

I called this morning to see when Maria and I can do the dive and we can go tomorrow morning.  The girls were asking if we could do the Atlantis Submarine today.  Maria has done one before and Mom wasn't too interested, so we set off for Bridgetown all together, but their plan was to shop or go to the beach (weather permitting).  We put Atlantis Submarine's in the GPS and made our way there first, I wanted to see where it was so that when we had to check in for 12:30 we could find it no problem.  We ended up a bit turned around when we were supposed to enter the marina I went past it, but we back-tracked and found it.  So we went in to the office to make sure the tour ran rain or shine, which it does, but also I asked if there was a good place we could have lunch close by (it was now 11:30) and the girl I was talking to pointed to a yellow building across the marina called Dockside.  So we went over and parked and walked through the marina (which is like shipyard marina, not a boat slip marina) to the restaurant.  Its like a cafeteria style, they have the stuff all pre-made and you order what you want from the options.  I had the special, which was a beef stir-fry which was amazing - it wasn't a teriyaki sauce that you would expect, it had a caribbean sauce/gravy on it that was so tasty.  Mom and Maria both had the stewed lamb, Sophie had mac n cheese (macaronni pie they call it) and Paige had a caesar salad.  They were all really good.

After that we headed over to the submarine to check in and waited for us to be called.  I had explained to Sophie that we were going on a boat out to where the submarine was waiting in the water and that we would have to cross from the boat to the submarine and she was fine.  But, when we got out on the water, because we've had so much rain and clearly its a system of somekind, there were swells and it was making her nervous and she started to cry as we were supposed to board the submarine.  I told her if we don't go on the submarine we still have to stay on the boat, its not like they'll take us back, and that once the submarine went under water we wouldn't be able to feel the waves - but she wasn't buying it.  Finally, I asked if one of the crew could hold her hand as she went across the bridge to the submarine and a female crew member took her hand and then picked her up and walked her over and helped her down the stairs.  At that point she had to go because Paige had already gone over and down the stairs with another family a few minutes earlier (there was no way she was missing out going on a submarine!).  So Sophie ended up doing fine and loving the submarine and when we came back up to the surface and had to cross over to the ship again she did it all on her own with no hesitation.

Mom and Maria met us at the dock and we headed home, with a stop at the grocery store for dinner (and drinking) supplies on the way.  I had also told the girls that I would make them virgin pina coladas, so we picked up the supplies for that as well.  I didn't think, until the last day, to make some for Dwayne who had a pina colada every time we went out.  So I picked up pineapple juice, a can of coconut milk and a can of coconut cream and a couple of bags of ice, which we needed anyway for the tequila sours.  The girls were very helpful in the grocery store and making the pina coladas.  And there is even little cups here with built in straws, meant for the children, that Mom used to enjoy her pina colada!  Because those that know Mom knows she puts the straw in her mouth and doesn't take it out until the drink is done!

Mom made nachos tonight for dinner and when we looked at the tray she had made (using the Taco Sauce, no less!) both Maria and I said "Are you feeding an army?  Oh my God".  But we somehow managed to eat every last nacho and it was delicious!  I'll have to remember what an easy and delicious dinner that is with a little salsa and sour cream that we had picked up.  I said "Your picture of the nachos is a little blurry Maria"..she said "Yeah, imagine that..that was well into the pitcher of tequila sours".

Yes, it certainly didn't hurt that we had made a pitcher of tequila sours, with Paige's help

when we got home from the grocery store (this time getting 2 more bottles of tequila) - - 

Maria can hold her own and shared the pitcher with me, making me proud!  And apparently shocking Jim, while making him proud as well!  At one point Maria started laughing..quietly!..and I said to Mom "Oh look..Maria laughs without making any noise too!"  Too funny.  We all sit in silence shaking with laughter..Mom and I with tears in our eyes.  Sours and nachos are a perfect pairing!  The girls played a bit of Candy Crush at the table as we chatted.

We all went to bed at the same time and when I got up to pee at 12:30 all the lights were on and the front door was unlocked...we literally went to bed at the same time.  And in the morning both Mom and Maria said "I can't believe I just went to bed without saying goodnight or anything"..we all did.  And I think it was 8:30pm, one of our latest nights yet!  HAHA.

Maria FaceTimed Jim when she got into bed and I could just hear her laughing and laughing.....remember when we were younger it used to be a 2am drunk call?  yup, he got an 9pm drunk call!  Times, they are a changin'...


TUESDAY - Day 3 with Mom and Maria

We got up this morning, same time the internal clock wakes me up every morning, 7:30am and Maria and I got ready to go diving!  Mom decided she would stay at the house with the girls rather than come into Bridgetown with us.  We got to the dive shop just a little late, there was traffic again - and we're not used to going out at 8am and hitting the morning traffic - so when we got there there was only one other certified diver diving today so we headed off to the beach to meet Patrick again to go to our first dive.  I followed behind in the car so that Maria and I didn't have to come back to the dive shop, she would be going down to the beach to do some underwater skills in the shallow water and then meet us for the second dive along with 3 other Discover Scuba divers.

We went to the same dive site as before, but this time there were huge swells in the ocean so the boat was popping up and down in the waves.  I don't get motion sick, but if you did then this would have done it!  We got in the water, descended and drifted along with the current for about 40 minutes before popping up to the surface again.  Patrick has a long, orange noodle (I'm sure there is an actual name for it) that he blows up with his regulator and pops up to the surface so that Kenroy, the boat driver, can see where we are and come and pick us up.  We managed to get in the boat in the swells, but as I was taking off my flippers I somehow released by weight belt and it sunk (obviously)...and we were at about 60ft depth when we came up so Patrick just left it down there without trying to retrieve it.

We headed back to the beach to pick up the snorkelers and other divers and Maria was still in the water..so I wondered if she had felt comfortable with the equipment.  She said that it went ok, she was actually really comfortable with the skills (taking off her regulator under water, clearing her mask, etc) but didn't like being in the deep water, so wasn't sure how she would do on the dive.  At least if she didn't like the dive there were 5 snorkelers on board, so she could always come up and snorkel with them.

Maria did great though, she ended up diving down to the ocean floor, at about 30 ft, and swimming around for a bit before she went back and finished up snorkeling.

I dove with Patrick and another couple who had just arrived off one of the ships for a dive, and I took my underwater camera with me this time because its good to 33ft and we were only going to about 40 ft total, so I figured it would probably be ok!

We saw this awesome sea turtle coming out of the hatch of this wreck.  My camera was almost dead, so it wouldn't take a video, but I got a couple of good photos.

Me entering one of the wrecks 

After the dive Maria and I went back to Harbour Lights for lunch and I had the jerk chicken, which was delicious and Maria had the Mahi Mahi, which was the catch of the day.  Then we headed back to the house and when we got here the kids were in the pool with Mom.  We sat outside for a bit (Mom with a beer, me with a Pina Colada and Maria with a tequila sour) and Mom went in the house and came back out and said "What are you DOING?!? Are you playing Candy Crush?"  "Yes, I'm doing it!"  I said "I'm playing it, I won't get addicted to this game, I can handle it!"  Mom said - oh that's funny, she has sworn that she won't play it because she knows a few people addicted to it, but she said "I wondered when the girls were going to play theirs so maybe I can see how it works".  I think it helps me not to be addicted that I don't listen to the sound - Maria says half of the addiction is the sounds (like on a slot machine, you're just waiting for the bells!)


Maria made amazing stuffed peppers for dinner tonight, we ate and then went to bed at 8..another late night. I'm exhausted.