All good things must come to an end and we are on our way home this morning! We have enjoyed every second of it and met so many friendly people here in Antigua. It will give me lots of wonderful memories to think about when I am shoving that blasted art cart down the hallways next year. haha
   Yesterday was our official anniversary and we celebrated by having a couples massage at the Red Lane Spa. Very froo-froo with robes, steam rooms, and lots of hibiscus flowers tossed everywhere. They put us each on a table in a dimly lit room and we each had a lady massage our  backs, legs, and arms. I had previously checked "medium pressure" on my card and Dennis put "firm". Really? She mashed him out like a wad of pizza dough! This lasted for 50 minutes and mine felt wonderful, most of Dennis' did too! We spent the afternoon kayaking on the bay but there was quite a bit of wind and lots of icky clouds, again! But it was still hot and we stayed on the beach all afternoon anyway! Our "romantic dinner on the beach" was last night and that was really special too. You had your own private waiter (ours was 20 year old Corey) and a 4 course dinner with champagne. The food was awesome! So now I have to pack and get ready to roll back to WV!

                                        Leaving the Red Lane Spa..................aaaahhhhh......

                                          Kayaking over to the cliff to see the brown pelicans.

                                                                  25 years together!

                                               Dinner on the beach.......................

                                                     Antigua, you wore me out!!!!

The Snorkel Cruise!

   What a great day we had yesterday, despite the fact that the sun never came out! Really? It was still in the low eighties and it probably kept us from getting fried! We got on the boat at about 10 and got back at 4. There was a hike on bird island (and I got to hold a snake - cool!) We toured the mangroves and saw Jumby Island where a 20 year study of hawksbill turtles is still going on today! They can actually find there way back to the beach they were born on 20 years later to lay eggs! I can barely find my way around the resort. We later did tons of snorkeling in the Caribbean Sea, which was awesome. Here are some photos!

 Another day in paradise! Gosh I am going to miss the breakfast buffet when I get back! haha
   Yesterday was spent on our "sightseeing adventure of Antigua". Apperently, we were the only couple that cared what the real world is like here on the island! (and it sure isn't like Sandals!) The road is quite bumpy as they place speed bumps every 50 feet through the small towns and most are very curvy. Lots of poverty and people just sitting out on the porch of their shack. Some women actually sit by a bar-b-que in their yard and sell ears of corn or fruits. It was also weird how at any "touristy" spot, a woman will appear out of nowhere with a bunch of necklaces swinging from her arm and tell you how great you would look in them! I wouldn't be surprised if one popped up in the bathroom stall with me!
   We were driven in an airconditioned van by Wal, a very nice local man who was really tall. Our tour lasted 4 hours and we stopped by Jolly Beach, Nelson's Dockyard, Shirley Heights, and several gorgeous beaches. It was good to see the whole island and not just the resort scene. They do have a KFC, which is the only restaurant chain to survive (they like their chicken!), Radio Shack,  and a couple of others. People here don't have enough money to support many businesses.

                                              Me standing at Nelson's Dockyard.

                                          Dennis holding onto his hat at Shirley Heights where
                                                the British watched for threats to their trade route.

Our tour guide, Wal, was a super friendly guy!

  Today is our snorkel tour and that should be interesting. Here are a few pics from yesterday!

            Weird restroom at Nelson's Dockyard...you had to pass underwear hanging on a line!!

                                               Us hanging out at the dockyard, photo courtesy of Wal.

Giant game of chess, anyone? This is just one of the many things to do at Sandals!

Didn't get a chance to blog yesterday! Spent another day at the beach and we did the paddle boards, together this time! The wind was pretty bad going one direction and we ended up just sitting on the boards and paddling them like a kayak. haha I bet people on the beach were thinking "what idiots" but it worked for us! Once we got out a ways, we turned around and stood up and what took us 15 minutes one way, took about 5 minutes to get back. That was fun! We also had someone take us out for a sail on a small catamaran, he was 18 but he knew what he was doing, thank goodness. We spent the rest of our day swimming in the Caribbean Sea.AAAHHH............Funny thing - you see nothing but white sand through that clear water even at about 4 feet. But there is one fish, the snapper, that is a lovely white with black lines on the fins and a dot above the eye. They LOVE swimming around you feet and nibble on your toes! One kept swimming circles up around my calf and it would rub my leg! Those freaked some people out by I thought they were cute. It felt like a fly landing on you when they touched you. 

     We had reservations at the Japanese restaurant last night and it was delicious as well. We sat at the table with a couple from Ohio, Tennessee, California, and Canada. Most of the couples here are from the eastern half of the good ol' US! Today is our tour of the historical Antigua. Gotta run!
  

A day at the beach!

What a fabulous day! It's been some time since we have actually just taken a vacation and hung out, so we did alot of that today. We started the day with the mother of all breakfast buffets. Fruits, ham, salmon, breads, cereals, french toast, everything! The only thing we didn't see was eggs. Guess there aren't chickens on Antigua or if there were, some poor people ate them all. It was funny because this one black bird had the nerve to fly over to the watermelon and helped himself! They actually have a lady stand there with a stick and shoo them away. Hilarious!
         We went to the beach and swam and turned ourselves into crispy critters from laying out like two dead  people all day. There are LOTS of locals selling stuff and they will come by and ask you to buy cheap jewelry or go on a tour, etc. I eventually started saying "already did it" to move them along. They are very friendly and polite and it's sometimes just fun to talk to them. I bought a sarong from "Sunshine" who was really nice, missing teeth and leathery, black skin. Afterward, Dennis said, " She's looks to have been doing this a long time" in a sad sorta' voice. Then we looked at each other and said "she's probably 25!"

Me and Miss Sunshine!

We also tried paddle boarding which I thought was pretty cool. You're stand on the ocean! Dennis said it was too slow, of course, but fun. We had lunch at the pizzeria and it was delicious once it finally came to the table. We had fun people watching and Dennis noticed that most of the couples here were young! I said, yeah, we're the old ones now! hahaha 

    We are getting some rest before we go to the "beach party" this evening. Steel drums and limbo! woo hoo

Dennis havin' some tearin' up the surf.....

Yes, a girl could certainly get used to this......... 

We're here!!!

                                               A welcome to Sandals glass of champagne!

                                                  Me trying to look glamorous before dinner!

Dennis eating his chocolate and ice cream dessert! Sooo gooood!

 We arrived at the Antigua airport right on time yesterday evening and things went pretty smoothly. Dennis tried to snap a "first time in Antigua photo" of me getting off the plane and the guy working there demanded to see the photo! (maybe he worried about the lighting of the subject????!) Anyway, paranoia is universal. We made it through customs easily. I was worried when I saw others luggage being disected but they didn't even want to see in ours. Yay! We were shuttled to the resort over the narrow streets and it is beautiful here! We got checked into our room and had a wonderful dinner at Mario's Italian Restaurant. I literally, thought we would cry,it was that good. And it was so nice to not have to pay anything too! Today is a  beach day for us and we are now getting ready to go to breakfast. Will have more stories and more pic's later! 

Off to Antiqua!

Looking forward to another awesome vacation this year! Dennis and I are going to be celebrating 25 wonderful years together on the island of Antiqua at the Sandals resort. We are leaving on June 10 for one week of sun and fun! Visit us on the blog during our travels!