2018 October Family Cruise - Day 06 - Barbados

We arrived in Barbados at 7 AM.  We could not get off the boat until 8 AM.  We all headed for a quick breakfast up by the buffet.  Every man for him\her self!  At 9:15, we all exited the boat to go catch our excursion...a Catamaran boat that would take us to  a place to snorkel with sea turtles and then to a cove where a couple sunken ships were found.  After that, we were to park the boat and have a nice lunch on a beach.  Well...because of the sea swells, lunch was on the boat about 50 yards off the beach.  

This excursion was so much fun.  The crew was tremendous in how they waited on us, interacted with us and fed us.  They went out snorkeling with us and chummed so the sea turtles and other sea life would get near to us.  The weather was a bit over cast.  But it never rained.  It actually kept us very cool and it felt just so nice.  The boat was a bit crowded and as this case there are always a few characters that stood out.  One lady would laugh and you could hear her on the other side of the island.  They were from Conneticut.  Another family was from Arizona.  Another from the UK and the list went on.  There quite a few Canadians, including the head lady that oversaw the cruise kitchen.  All so nice.  

We were back on the boat by about 3:45 and now I'm trying to scramble to load some thoughts and some pictures quickly before the boat sails at 5 PM.

I might write more and add more pictures tomorrow when I"m a bit organized.  We go scuba diving tomorrow...at least some of us!

Dinner was once again excellent.  Lots of good options.  Many chosen!!! :-)  After dinner we headed to the main stage to watch a juggling act.  The guy was from Mexico and pretty fun.  He was a great juggler and made comedy while doing it.  After he ended, we waited to see if they would start a Clue game which is to run for the remainder of the cruise.   Once they explained the game, we were all so tired that we retreated to our cabins...at 9 PM.  Crazy.  The  day on the Catamaran took it out of us.  Denise and I tried to watch a movie in our cabin on my IPad.  But I think I was asleep within 10 minutes of trying to watch.

Diving St. Lucia tomorrow....

Pictures:

Disembarking in Barbados....

Mike recruiting passengers to join him.....

Karlie making sure we are going in the right direction.  Who needs a captain!

Sunbathers...

A happy catamaran'er....

The whole gang....

Fun day on a Catamaran in Barbados.  Clear water, great snorkeling, nice lunch on board the boat.  Turned out great.

Ashley and Cassidy....

Karlie and Atticus.....

The girls.  Love them all!

Travis and Kenzie at the head of the boat.  Mike, Cassidy, Travis and Kenzie all swam to the shore and did some sand time there.  It was not an easy swim.  But they did it.

Cassidy and new friend.

One of our turtle friends.

Same guy...

Tim surviving...actually really enjoying the snorkeling!

Brent and Ashley sharing masks...or so it looks.

2018 October Family Cruise - Day 05 - Sea Day

It was nice going to bed last night knowing that we did not have to hurry off to anywhere.  Before retiring last night to bed, we all decided to meet in the hall at 9 AM to go into the dining room for breakfast.  Well, we all ended up making it but some a little slower than others.  Sleeping in was feeling pretty good for most of us.

I, personally, am getting 'fooded out'.  Man there is so much food to eat.  It is everywhere and constantly on your mind.  Breakfast was good.  But a funny part was the fact that I ordered some hot chocolate and Orange Juice.  When my hot chocolate came, it tasted it and it did not taste like normal hot chocolate.  I had others taste it and they all agreed that it was probably a cappuccino.  So I told our waitress.  She brought a new one and yes...this time I got hot chocolate.  We all laughed at that.  But that also caused many others to request hot chocolate as they did not realize that it would be available.

After breakfast, we went up stairs and played a card game with everyone for a while.  We eventually ended up in a room where they were playing trivia games.  The funny thing was that these games were being run by gals from Mexico who could not speak English well.  They would read the sentences in their heavy Mexican accent and most of the crowd could not understand.  So they ended up reading the trivia questions many times with people interpreting for them.  In both sessions, we were all close to winning but did not take home the prize.

At this point, we all broke up and kind of went to find food for lunch.  Yes...food again.  This time I was determined to get some kind of salad.  We noticed at the taco bar they were doing salads in a tortilla she'll.  So Denise and I got a shrimp and steak salad.  The funny thing was that Denise put Bleu Cheese dressing on thinking it was Ranch.  When she realized what she had done, she found the Ranch dressing and put some of it on.  I usually like my salad swimming in dressing.  But this was drowning in dressing.  But it did not stop us from downing it.  We took it to our cabin in hopes that we could give Karlie some relief...which we did.  Atticus has been a little angel and hit on the boat.  Everyone stops to say hi and admire the little boy.

After lunch the girls went to a 'ladies pamper' meeting to be sold more on having spa treatments done.  I took Atticus and found some ice cream being scooped (not from the machine).  It was quite good.  I know Atticus would have loved some.  But Karlie would kill me if I shared any with him.  We found a spot to sit by where the women were and he played while I ate my ice cream.   A little while later, Brent and Mike came wandering by.  So they sat down and we visited a bit while we waited for the women to come out.  Once they came out, Denise pulled that word machine out and they all started playing that word game passing the little machine around.  The excitement was so great that I fell asleep while they played.  I have no idea how long it was that I was out.  But it felt good.  At about 3:45 PM, we all went our ways to do various things.  I think most were going to just get a nap and rest.  I tried to do that...but I was already rested a bit.  So here I am blogging waiting for thee next round of food.  Holy smokes there is so much food.  Tonight is elegant night.  So we all have to get dressed up.  I did find out this morning that they have a couple of rooms with ironing boards and irons.  So I did take my two dress shirts to those rooms and ironed my shirts.  No wrinkles for me!!!

Dinner tonight was a lot of fun.  It was prime rib and lobster night.  Yum.  But I'm soooo fooded out.  I have to slow down.  At dinner, we all had a lot of fun.  They celebrated my 60th birthday with a small red cake...which was the worst tasting thing I've eaten this whole darn cruise.   We all had different plates to eat...Lobster, Prime Rib, Steak, Carbinara, Shrimp, and the list goes on.

After dinner we went to the Divas production...the main stage affair.  It was pretty good, talent wise.  But the theatre is really poorly designed as a most of the theater cannot see the full stage.  I don't know who designed this...but they were not thinking of those going to attend.  After the show, we all changed our clothes and headed up stairs to play games.  The girls found 'Johnny Rocket' singing lots of fun songs.  So they stopped and sang along.  We all played 5 crowns for about an hour then turned it in hopefully getting some rest for our adventure in Barbados tomorrow.

Pictures:  

Sea day breakfast (not at the buffet).  It was a brunch and it offered a lot...

The rock star on the boat.....

The girls being shown how to pamper theirselves (as if they did not know already).  Not sure where Makenzie escaped to....

Me getting excited about the pampering they all got and the card game that followed!  :-)

Pictures before formal dinner behind the boat with the sun going down.  Karlie and Atticus...

Ashley and Brent....

Mike and Cassidy....

Travis and Mackenzie...

The whole gang....missing Dustin, Kerri and Neza.  ( We miss them a ton and wish they were with us.)

The two that started all this....I sure have the loveliest wife on the whole boat.

My birthday celebration....

2018 October Family Cruise - Day 04 - St Thomas & St John's (Trunk Bay)

Our day began with an alarm going off at 6;30 AM.  The plan was to all meet for breakfast at 7:15 AM and be off the boat at 7:45 AM.  We did follow schedule pretty good.  Our target...Trunk Bay on St Johns island.  This would require a 20 minute taxi ride to a ferry, a ferry ride across the water to St Johns and then another taxi ride to Trunk bay.   And...there were 9 of us.  But as they say here, 'No problem Ma'an'.  :-).   For breakfast, except Karlie, most of us ended up at the taco bar where they were doing breakfast burritos.  Others got omelettes nearby.  Karlie shot up to get breakfast while I watched Atticus while he slept.  I don't think she got enough.  We will figure this out as the trip unfolds.

Coming off the boat, we were greeted by taxi drivers that drove vans.  All 10 of us piled into a van with another family of 5...so that tells you how crowded it was.  Pretty good pay day for a taxi driver as each passenger cost $10 one way.  The ferry left every hour on the hour back and forth from St Thomas to St Johns.  It cost $16.30 for a round trip ticket.  I noticed that a 'senior' was 60 years or older and only $3.00 round trip.  I thought I had hit the jackpot.  But naturally, it is only for residents and I could not pass as a resident.  My tan was not good enough yet or my language was a bit foreign...although they do speak English but in a pretty broken way some of them.  The taxi ride on St Johns was an open air truck with benches in it.  What seat belt laws?  We need this is the continental US for goodness sake!  The cost was $12 round trip from the ferry terminal to Trunk Bay and back.

Trunk Bay was as I remember it...just beautiful. The sand is like talcum powder.  The snorkeling was just ok out around some rocks.  But the beach and sand was what we were there for this day.  We snorkeled for about an hour or so.   And then we all got together about 40 feet off the beach.  Even Denise joined us, who does not like water much.  She even put on a mask and snorkel and got under the water, something she hates to do.  And later, she even floated on her back...all things that she fears to do a bit.  It was so awesome...so proud that she would do it.  She swears that I told her if she would do that, I would ride Cannibal back at Lagoon.  I said unless that was on video, I don't believe those words came out of my mouth!!!  It was a beautiful morning for about 2 + hours.  Just wonderful being together and enjoying what I love to do...bask in the sun on an ocean beach somewhere in this beautiful world.

At about 12:15 PM, we caught the taxi back to the St Johns Ferry Terminal and meandered around the downtown are there for a bit.  Pretty small...pretty run down.  But it was fun talking to the locals about their lives, their likes and their families.  We arrived over at the Ferry terminal and our first taxi driver, Steve, was waiting for us.  We had called him on St Johns. Hheck, we had not paid him yet for the first trip .  So we knew he'd be there.  This guy was really nice.  But the trip back, he definitely took the scenic route back.  It took quite a while to get back to our ship...but we made it.  And what did we do immediately?  That's right...head to the Guy F's Burger Bar and get burgers and fries.  Some also hit the Ice Cream machines to kill that impulse too.  so fun to be able to do such things.

After feeding our faces, we returned to our cabins to get cleaned up.  But...last night on the ship...a few of the women decided to schedule a 'spa' time instead of excursions on a couple of the islands.  So Karlie, Cassidy and Denise hit the spa to get rubbed down before dinner.  I hope they do that to my steak tonight!  Anyway....it is 5 PM right now as I right this.  I'm looking out the window to see clouds in and rain beginning to fall.  It is time to set sail.  

Our second night for dinner on the boat was fun.  We have nice round table at the back of the dining hall.  It was a casual night so it was nice and comfortable.   We dined until about 7:30 PM and then headed to the big stage where they were going doing some form of Yahtzee game.  It turned out to be silly.  So Mike went and grabbed some seats in the comedy club.  Eventually a fellow from San Francisco took the stage.  He was quite funny.  But at one point Atticus made a small sound and the guy caught wind of the fact that a baby was in the room.  And somehow that took the conversation into being from Utah..which was a total guess by the comedian.  When we all said we were from Utah, he about fell off the stage.  Then the Mormon jokes began.  He had already made some Mormon joke references just prior to that.  I think polygamy was at the heart of the jokes.  Anyway, he was pretty good.  After his act, we all went up to listen to the piano bar again.  This guy is fun and plays the piano really well.  The music is fun to listen and sing to.  We lasted about 30 minutes there then Karlie and Atticus retired and Denise followed.  The rest of us went to watch the married game show going on in the main stage area.  One of the amazing things about this show was how he narrowed down what 3 couples would join him on the stage.  The newest married was quick to determine as there was a young couple married for only 3 days.  They were from Puerto Rico.  Then it was time to narrow down to the oldest couple.  It ended up being two couples that were married for 46 years.  To determine which one had been married the longest he had to find out months.  Both were married in July.  So then it became day of month.  Both were married on the 15th!  Same day.   The host said he had never had that happen before.  So he brought them both up.  The questions were silly and one got a little sketchy that brought out an interesting ice cream answer.  But we will eave that alone.  Denise did come back and join us for a while which was nice.

Well...tomorrow is our only sea day.   It will be interesting to see how that goes.

Pictures:

Isn't he so darn cute?!  What a great little traveler and guy he is.  He loved the ocean water.

The clan overlooking Trunk Bay, St Johns.

A snorkeled and her coach...way to go Denise!

The male crew (minus Atticus).  We wish Dustin and Neza could be here with us.  Maybe another time.

The whole clan in the water.  You walked out a few feet and then it dropped off a few feet.  Really soft sand which made it real nice.

A friend in downtown St Johns looking for lunch....Jurasaik Park!

Karlie and her handsome boy....

Setting sail....

Some beautiful ladies....love them all.  Atticus was embarrassed to be in the all female picture.  So he turned his head!  

2018 October Family Cruise - Day 03 - San Juan, Puerto Rico Bon Voyage

Well it is Sunday morning...set sail day.  Old squeaky kept us up a good portion of the night unfortunately.  Denise ended up on the couch because she could not sleep well.  It is the one comment that I'll provide our host about the apartment.   Nonetheless, it was a very nice apartment in a nice beach location.

At 5 AM, I started getting texts that Ashley, Brent and Karlie were in Fort Lauderdale and Mike and Cassidy were in Boston.  Their next destination...San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Brent, Ashley and Karlie (and Atticus) were to arrive at 9:30 AM.  Cassidy and Mike at 10:30.  At 10:00 AM, Denise and I hailed an Uber to take us to the cruise port.  Ashley called us and told use we could board the boat at 11 AM and then we get could off if we wanted to.  So we hurried down there to get in line with them.  By the time they opened up the doors to go check in, all of us were together, Denise, myself, Brent, Ashley, Mike, Cassidy, Karlie, Travis and Mackenzie (and a very cute baby....Atticus).

We were on board before noon with full salad and food plates for a hearty lunch.  We could only eat as we could not get into our rooms until 1:30 PM.  So we ate and chatted for quite a while.  But once the rooms were available, we hurried off to explore those.  We even found our suitcases in the elevator hall.  So we grabbed them and took them to our rooms to unload them.  

The first thing we noticed was the fact that our rooms were not perpendicular to the hall way like most rooms.  They were parallel.  And the way they had the beds set up was awkward.  So immediately, Denise and I took the room apart and rearranged it to our liking.  One of the sides of the bed would not have had a wall for a headboard and that was NOT acceptable.  So we fixed that.  Nonetheless, the rooms are nice and guess what...no old squeaky...nothing makes a sound!  

Once we had got settled, Travis and Kenzie wanted to go see old San Juan.  Denise and I wanted to do that too.  Dinner was at 5 PM and we had to be on the boat no later than 8 PM as the boat sailed at 9:00 PM.  So we had plenty of time.  However, it was pretty hot and muggy.  And after walking the streets for about 45 minutes or so it was clear that we were going to melt.  So Denise and I headed back to the ship.  But Travis and Kenzie continued on seeing more of the point and old San Juan.

At 5 PM, we all gathered for our first dinner.  It was instruction time for some of the new cruisers on the fact that the menu was actually a BUFFET...pick all that you want!  It was fun to watch everyone try to decide what to pick off the menu.  It all sounded so good...and it was pretty good.  We ate for about an hour land half....something like that.    

At 8:30 PM, we had to go to our muster stations to be reminded how to put on a life saving vest in case this big boat decides to sink.  Let's hope not...although it would be a nice swim in uncartered water.  After the muster discourse, Denise, Karlie and Atticus headed back to the rooms to get a head start on sleeping.  The rest of us headed to the piano bar to listen to this guy play some tunes.  That was a ton of fun.  Ashley and CAssidy called out some songs to sing and the guy had them come up and sing part of them.  Geez those girls were good.  They knew every word to the songs that they selected to have him play.  He was impressed with them....a lot!  It was a lot of fun.  I really enjoyed it.

Well, it was a beautiful site to see the boat pull away from the dock knowing that we were going to have fun week full of adventures.  We sure miss those who are not here.  Hopefully we can get them another time.   Day 3 is in the books.....

Some pictures:

What a good little traveler this cute little guy was with his mother.  Not easy...but they did it!

Finally on board feeding our faces at the buffet...

A happy group just being together....love them all!

It was hot in Puerto Rico.  Little did we know that back home, the First Presidency of our church was announcing 12 new temples during General Conference and one was San Juan, Puerto Rico!  It will bless these people much!

Walking the streets in old San Juan, we came across this street with umbrellas hanging from wire.  It was quite pretty.  And there were many people enjoying it.

A nice street behind was.  What a beautiful wife I have!

Travis, Kenzie Denise and I at the old wall that surrounds the point of the bay here.

A nice little beach.  I think I'm coming back to this beach next time we return to San Juan and we're on a cruise ship.

We did go to church this Sunday...but not The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!  It was nice to be in this old cathedral.  They are always distinct all over the world.

Our first dinner together....lots of fun.  The wine bottle, merely decoration!  :-). (Unless Karlie snuck a little!)

2018 October Family Cruise - Day 02 - San Juan, Puerto Rico

Our trip is going well thus far.  Taking red-eye flights is always interesting though.  You want to stay awake but boy is it tough.  We tried to watch the movie 'Adrift' (not the most appropriate movie when you are about to take a cruise) and it was so tough to stay awake.  Finally at 8:00 PM, we gave up and went to sleep.  I think we both slept pretty well considering the airplanes were taking off and landing in our bedroom and the bed we slept on....well it has a new name...'Old Squeaky'.  It is the squeakiest darn bed I've ever had to sleep in.

Upon waking up, we finished the movie off while lying in bed.  Once that was completed, we got ready for the day as Travis and Mackenzie were in the air and would arrive around 9:15 AM...which they did.  The room they had rented is in the same area (Carolina) but their room was not going to be ready until 2:30 PM.  So they taxied over to our place to be with us while they waited to get into their room.  That turned out to be so much fun.  Once things settled down, we all changed into our swim suits to head down to the beach.  We were probably on the beach by 10:15'ish.  The sun was trying to come out through the clouds, which turned out to be the only sun we got all day.  The beach was a long beach with fairly large waves crashing in.  I believe there was a surfer school that had some students out trying to learn how to ride the waves.  Travis and I, we headed out to try and body surf on the same waves.  The water was so refreshing and it was fun diving into the waves, tasting salty water again and just loving being in the ocean again.  There will always be something in me that deeply loves the ocean and being in it.  I don't know why.  Denise and Mackenzie stayed on the shore.  Our BNB had some beach chairs and things that made the experience nice.  Eventually Denise and Mackenzie came into the water to enjoy its coolness although getting their hair wet was not part of the plan.  So they just waded in is all.  So fun though.  At about 11:30, we were back in our BNB getting ready to sit down and stream the first General Conference sessions of our church back in Salt Lake City.  We have been anticipating more changes from the President of the the Church and the 12 Apostles.  We were not let down.  The church is moving more of its focus to having the family be the base location where instruction and testimony building is to occur.  We had heard rumors of the new curriculum that was coming along with the rumor that Sunday meetings would be reduced from 3 hours to 2 hours.  And such was the case.  I remember when meetings were consolidated into a block of meetings to last 3 hours each Sunday.  Now I have seen the day when a new shift has occurred.  This will be a good one if applied right.  It doesn't mean more football games, basketball games to watch.  It means we need to come together more often as families and friends in our homes to study the gospel of Jesus Christ and apply its teachings.

After conference, Travis and Mackenzie headed off to their BNB.  But, upon leaving they told us they were real hungry and did not want to wait to eat.  So we agreed that once they settled in, that we would meet them half way at some restaurant.  We met them almost exactly at a restaurant that featured Puerto Rican food.  We sat down.  The waitress gave us menus.  We all gasped at the prices. We all decided that it was too expensive for our taste and politely excused ourselves from the restaurant.  The waitress was very kind and understanding.  We ended up in a smaller joint about a block away.  It was not as nice but the food sounded good...and it was.  Denise and Kenzie ordered a native dish...I wish I could remember it's name.  It was a mound of mashed plantains with chicken in a brown gravy inside and smothered on top.  It was AWESOME.   Travis and I were a bit bummed with what we ordered (empanadas, fried plantains, flattened chicken, rice, beans).  Our plates were good.  But nothing like our wives had ordered.

After eating, we parted ways as Travis and Kenzie were starting to hit the red-eye wall and we wanted to see the 2nd session of conference.  The walk was only about 5 to 10 minutes.  But it was raining.  I've never used an umbrella this much.  Fortunately it was not a hard rain.

Conference was great...again.  Such uplifting and encouraging talks.  Once conference was over, and with nothing much to do, we turned on a movie called 'Mississippi is Burning'.  It was an older movie but really interesting about the shooting of Medgar Evers in the 60's and the retrial of his killer in the 90's.  True story it was.  Anyway, after the movie, the Women's session of conference was held which we also watched.  Good stuff.  At this point, my travel worries for Cassidy, Mike, Ashley, Brent, Karlie and Atticus kicked in.  I started watching flights and things with fingers crossed everything would go well.  We ended up on bed around 10 PM'ish.

Our long awaited cruise begins tomorrow.  It is going to be so fun having our children here with us.  We will GREATLY miss Dustin, Kerri and Neza though.  But those who could make the trip...we are going to have a blast!  Now blogging will be a bit tough as my posts won't come each day.  I will blog each day but because of no internet connection on the boat, posting will be somewhat random based upon what I find on these islands.

Bon voyage!

Look who arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico!  So glad they are here safe and sound.

Watching conference on the 'Big' screen in our BNB.  I used my IPad to stream it.  Fortunately the tv had an HDMI cable that I could use and I brought the connections between my IPad and the HDMI cable with me.  Worked great!

This is how our guests watched conference...on old squeaky!

Two people in love with each other enjoying the ocean....

Travis and Kenzie....

One is bigger than the other...I'll let you decide if I'm talking about height or weight!

Our lunch\dinner.  I can't remember the name of this Puerto Rican dish...but it was great.  Mashed Plantains covered in a chicken gravy sauce.  

Fried plantain....

Our wonderful kids in route...look at that happy baby. 

Denise happy to do her hair under the cooler....they knew she would need that!

2018 October Family Cruise - Day 01 - San Juan, Puerto Rico

Our family trip is here!  It is hard to believe.  I remember sitting at Cassidy's backyard in July of 2017, and having a weak moment, booking a cruise for all adult members of our family to celebrate my 60th birthday.  Well, that birthday has come and passed.  And after many highs and lows in trying to get everyone to join us....7 of our 10 adult kids will be with us.  Dustin and Kerri cannot come because of a job shift that Dustin is pursuing that will move them to Las Vegas.  His 4 month 'boot camp' falls right in the middle of our trip.  So....they chose to pursue that.  Neza, Karlie's husband, was told it was his job or the cruise by his employers.  I say employers as his current employer told him that and then he set out to find a new job quickly...which he did.  But that employer ALSO told him that he MUST start on the 11th.  Although Neza would be home on the 14th, this new employer could not wait.  I'm just amazed by the cruelty of people and employers.  REALLY...that business could not wait 72 hours for Neza to get home.  It is horrible that people could be so not sensitive to such things.  Oh well, Neza took the new job and will stay behind.  We will miss all three of these kids.  But the rest of us....we're going to have a blast sailing to many Caribbean Islands, snorkeling, scuba diving and eating like piggies.

Although our cruise ship leaves port at 9 PM Sunday evening, Denise and I left Thursday night on a red eye flight.  As a matter of fact, everyone is taking the same red eye itinerary on Jet Blue...but we left Thursday, Travis and Mackenzie are in route as I write this (Saturday morning) and Mike, Cassidy, Brent, Ashley and Karlie (and 6 month old Atticus) are leaving tonight.  Yay!

We arrived without a hitch to San Juan.  Red eye flights are never fun.  But they do save some 'tour' time.  Upon arriving, I texted our BNB host to see if we could get in early.  We landed around 9:30 AM and check in, in theory, was not until 3 PM.  He texted back and said his current guests were checking out and that he would text me when the apartment was ready.  So to kill time, Denise and I found a little food court where departure gates were found.  We watched a TV show that I had downloaded, ate some real food (not juices and chips as given on the planes).  At around 11:15, our host Carlos texted us to let us know that the apartment was ready.  So off we went to get a Taxi.

Our apartment was real close to the airport.  So I knew the Taxi ride would not be too far.  And that was clearly the case.  Frankly, I can see the eyes of the pilots as they take off and land planes outside the window of our apartment.  It feels like we are on the runway.  Anyway, to go less than two miles, it cost us $20 for the taxi ride.  Kind of a robbery if. you ask me.  But oh well...the taxis have a market here.  They won't let Uber on to the airport.

Our apartment complex is on the beach.  The complex is pretty old and apparently had sustained some pretty good damage last year during the hurricane that ravaged Puerto Rico.  The apartment, however, is very clean and nice.  But having said that...is is the NOISIEST place we've ever stayed in.  Besides the roar of planes coming and going periodically, the fans make noises, the bed is the squeakiest bed I've ever slept in and then outside in the concrete hallways, a fire alarm must need a battery or something and let's of a squeak every few minutes.  But....we were so tired, none of this could stop us from catching a nice nap, then later on, sleeping deeply through the night.

After our nap, we showered.  Normally we would have just changed into our swim wear and headed to the beach.  But, clouds came in and it rained, and rained.  We did go down to check the beach out once the rain stopped and lots of surfers were out enjoying the big waves.  But we decided we would enjoy the beach tomorrow (Saturday), assuming we got some sunshine.  We'll see.

At around 3:30 PM, we decided we would go for a walk and find some 'dinner'.  We knew our evening was going to be cut short due to 'tiredness'.  So we went looking for some dinner when it was not raining and we still had the energy.  We found a place right by a Cockfighting ring.  I can't believe they actually allow this still.  But apparently they do.  The restaurant was really good.  We both got some Cuban food.  It seemed to dominate this restaurants menu.  It was a bit expensive and the portions really large.  We would share a plate the next time we were to eat there.  The name of the place was 'Metropol'.

After eating, we decided that we would walk to the super mercado to get some stuff for breakfasts and of course, dessert.  The walk was about 10 minutes.  And it is warm and humid here, even with clouds dropping rain on us.  Luckily we did bring umbrellas.  We thought, after shopping, that we would just catch an Uber back to the BNB.  But we decided the walk would feel good after our large meal...and it did.

The evening was just a night of trying to stay awake.  We eventually laid in bed and watched the movie 'Adrift' on my IPad.  But even then, we could not stay awake.  So it was lights out by 8 PM.  And...did I tell you that the bed was squeaky?  Man, every time I moved, the people in the airport terminal yelled 'oil that bed'!  :-)

Hopefully tomorrow, Saturday, we'll have more energy, more blue sky and lots of beach time.  We shall see.

Pictures...

Out in front of our BNB building.  We are in the room, 5 floors up to the far left.  

Some dinner...first picture is my plate...port roast with the pig skin left on it.  I tried the skin...pretty chewy.  But the roast, yummy!  Denise's plate was a Cuban sampler.  It was really good too.

The fighters outside the 'ring'.  Hard to believe they really allow cockfighting to go on.

Our pool and private beach...supposedly.

Looking from our BNB towards the airport.  Just passed the green belt of trees is one of the primary runways.  Wholly smokes it can be loud.