Adventures in Antigua: Part 2...

So September went by and I didn't make a single post. I'm not sure how that happened. Well, I do. Work has been crazy. Our numbers are finally picking back up, which means I'm staying later and later to stay on top of my paperwork. On average I'm making it home around 7:45, totally and completely exhausted. So let's try to wrap up this honeymoon that happened over 2 months ago, shall we?

Tuesday, July 26th:


Well, we made it to breakfast this morning. We enjoyed a wide variety of foods at Mario's, and yes, there were mimosas. A delicious start to the day.

After breakfast, we got ready for part of the trip that we both had been looking forward to for a while. We were headed to zip-lining! We gathered in the lobby and after about 30 minutes of driving on windy roads up the mountain, we were getting harnessed in to go flying through the treetops. It was so much fun! Jeff and I have been zip-lining in Hawaii before, but this was different.



First off, it was humid! We were all literally dripping with sweat. Second, instead of running up a ramp at the end of each run, you had to lift your feet up and land on top of a wooden box. Well, I didn't quite lift my legs high enough on the 2nd run, and ended up a whammy of a bruise. Instant swelling and black and blue. Awesome.


There was also an obstacle course after the 12 zip lines, that consisted of walking across cables, hanging onto ropes, and basically 8 challenges that required upper body strength. Upper body strength that I didn't really have. But I made it, even with my not-so-fondness of heights.

After zip-lining we had lunch at at the pizzeria. We got back later than lunch was served at the other eateries, so more pizza for us! We weren't complaining. :) Lunch was followed by swimming in the ocean and lounging by the pool...with a snack of ice cream cones. My favorite combo was strawberry and coconut. It's like a lava flow in the form of ice cream. And I hit a landmark...I finally finished a book. I have started so many books while on vacation and never finished them. In fact, this was a book I started in Africa. It only took a year to finish, but it's finished!

After relaxing for a couple hours, we got ready for dinner at Mario's.




Yummy Italian food. I had a bowl of minestrone for a starter, followed by a 4-cheese penne. Jeff had chicken parmesan, and we split a lava cake for dessert. I think that's my favorite dessert of the trip. Ooey, gooey chocolate goodness.


Wednesday, July 27th:


We had breakfast again at Mario's. There's only 2 places that serve breakfast, and the other was on the other side of the resort. So why go all the way to the other side for the same food?

We had decided that we wanted to see part of the town, so we signed up for a shopping trip in the market district. I had read online that there would be lots of crafts and local merchants selling their goods. I was expecting what we had experienced in Africa, but this was completely different. It was more like merchants in Mexico, all selling the same thing. I was a little disappointed, but we decided to explore around the area while we were there. We bought a painting and some other little goodies and then waited for our ride back to the resort.




We ate lunch at the Bayside Grill, which was a giant lunch buffet. All kinds of food, with some yummy creole mashed potatoes. While we had lunch, it started pouring. A typical pattern...pouring rain for 15-30 minutes, followed by sunshine. We also bought a couple paintings from a guy who had been in the lobby everyday painting. A couple things that will remind us of this amazing trip.

A little more lounging by the pool. And then I headed off to my massage at the spa, while Jeff played another game of pool volleyball. I came back nice and relaxed, and wishing I could get a massage more often. Such a nice luxury.

We had dinner at the OK Corral...a Tex-Mex steak house. I had mini tostadas with spicy guacamole as an appetizer. We both got steaks for dinner, which were delicious. The restaurant was located upstairs, so we were overlooking the water the whole meal.




After dinner we played a couple games of pool with a couple from Maryland that had been on both the zip-lining and shopping trips with us. It was fun until we started getting bit by bugs.

We meandered around the resort some more, and then decided to get a scoop of ice cream/sorbet for dessert. (I told you had ice cream and pizza a lot) We ate it on one of the lounge sofas under the stars, enjoying the warm air and the sounds of the waves.

Adventures in Antigua: Part 1...

Sunday, July 24th:

We're finally flying to Antigua! There were several other newlyweds or soon-to-be newlyweds on our flight. So much for feeling special with my "Just Married" tank top. (I wore it several times on the trip anyway! Thanks, Melissa!) At least we got to fly in first class.



Just a slight rant on Continental's first class service...it stinks. There were no mimosas (it was criminal), and I should want to eat the breakfast...cereal or eggs are not good enough options. At least they had some biscuits later on. And what happened to not letting the peons in coach come use our bathroom?! Whatever...at least we didn't pay for it! American 1st class is way better though...just saying.

We finally made it to Antigua and made it to the Sandals Resort, where we were greeted with mimosas (why yes, I will have another mimosa!) while we checked in. We were so excited to make it to our room, which was absolutely gorgeous with a killer view.





We walked around the resort and on the beach, letting the warm water splash on our feet. I would kill to look at that water every day. Such an unbelievable color!



We had dinner at the British pub, The Cricketer's Pub, because they were the first place open for dinner and we were starving!


We shared some caribbean bbq chicken wings as an appetizer, which were super delish. I had pulled pork sliders for dinner and Jeff tried bangers and mash. And this is where I was first introduced to my new favorite drink...The Crazy Monkey. Banana, strawberry, orange deliciousness.

We headed over to the pool and spa for a little soak. Because it was dinner time, it was pretty empty, so we enjoyed the water with just a few other couples. We headed back over to the Pub to play a game of pool and Jeff played in a friendly darts competition with some employees and another couple. A few more Crazy Monkeys for me while I watched him play, and then we called it a night.

Monday, July 25th:

Well apparently we were tired from our flying mishaps the days before, because we slept in until 10:15. Yep, we missed breakfast service. Oops! We hit up the coffee shop for a couple little pastries and then decided to take the resort tour/orientation. After trying to find our way around the day before unsuccessfully, we didn't want to waste time getting lost again.

After seeing the resort in its entirety, we had lunch at Barefoot By The Sea. It was an open-air restaurant on the beach. Nothing like eating with sand in your toes! I had some yummy roasted red pepper hummus and pita chips for an appetizer. I could have licked the bowl. Jeff had Jamaican jerk chicken and I had a smoked salmon wrap. We learned quickly that they know how to do chicken here! Jeff's wings were soooo good...so spicy but so flavorful. You have to watch out for the birds though...they will come swarm your table if you're not looking.


With our full bellies we changed into our swimsuits and went to lounge under a palapa on the beach. So relaxing listening to the waves and breeze through the palm trees. I can still here them now.



Then we went to lounge by the pool. Jeff played pool volleyball while I read a book.



We had a snack of stone-fire pizza from the pizzeria and ice cream from the coffee shop. (because why not, we're on our honeymoon!) The pizzas here were to die for. Crispy thin crust with simple flavorful toppings. Pizza just does not taste the same here. And my favorite combo of ice cream was a scoop of coconut and a scoop of strawberry. A mini lava flow in a cup! (You will notice that we frequented these two eateries many times...how could we not when they were so good!)

Every Monday night the resort has a giant beach bbq. Buffet tables galore with food of every kind. And yes, there was mac and cheese. :) There was a steel drum band playing which was later followed by another local band. The highlight of the entertainment was a fire dancer/limbo expert called Mr. Moves. He was crazy. I didn't know it was possible to go that low. With fire no less.




It was a lot of fun, and we met a few couples from Texas, Toronto, and England. We saw them several times throughout the rest of the week. It was kind of nice seeing a familiar face every once and a while. We tried not to get jealous though...the couple from Texas was in the "Millionaire Suites" with their own private butler. And the couple from Toronto was staying for 2 weeks. Jealous!

A moonlit meander back to the room in the warm tropical air, and another day was over.

And the Honeymoon Begins...

Alright, it's about time I write about our honeymoon. Things have been a little hectic at work...let's just say I'm more frequently working 12-13 hour shifts. Definitely not by choice. So this blog got put on the back burner while I tried to maintain my sanity. Let's just pretend we're back in Antingua and we'll all be happy...

Friday, July 22nd:
After I finished working a long 10-hour shift, we hurried down to the SLO airport to begin our journey. Having never flown out of SLO, we didn't know what to expect, other than it being small. And small it was. There were maybe 30 seats on the plane. And it was so noisy we couldn't hear each other. Reminded me of some of our flights in Africa. Good thing it was only a 45 minute flight.

After finding our way to our gate at LAX, we found out the plane we were waiting for to Newark was about 2 hours late due to weather problems. Slight problem...we only had 45 minutes between flights. And there's only 1 flight a day from Newark to Antigua. The poor guy at the ticket counter was trying to find a way to get us to Antigua on Saturday, but to no avail. And the flight on Sunday only had 2 seats left...in first class. Fortunately he got permission from his supervisor to upgrade us so that we'd only be a day late, instead of two. And in Newark we would pick up our hotel vouchers so we wouldn't have to live in the airport for a day.

Jeff and I tried not to cry. Or yell. It was late, we were tired, and our honeymoon was crumbling before our very eyes. But our only choice was to accept the situation at hand, suck it up, and make the most of the situation.

The plane finally made it into LAX, we finally boarded, and we settled into our bulkhead seats that the ticket guy moved us into to try to make up for the crappy situation. They were great except for being next to the bathroom. But we slept through most the flight anyway.

Saturday, July 23rd:
We made it to lovely Newark the next morning and shuffled our way to the customer service counter to get our hotel voucher. We were greeted by the nicest, sweetest, kindest ladies at the Continental counter. Oh wait...I must have still been dreaming. We were greeted by two grumpy, disgruntled, not-so-friendly Continental employees. They didn't seem to understand why a whole plane's worth of customers were so upset about missing their connections. And they weren't going to give us the hotel voucher.

Because the flight was delayed due to weather, they were not obligated to provide us any compensation. Regardless of the fact that we were stuck there for almost 24 hours. And the people in LA "should have known better." And they didn't understand "why people are so upset." At this point, Jeff had the look of "I'm about to kill someone", I had the look of "you have GOT to be kidding me, woman" and we sternly persisted that they speak to a supervisor. Long story short, they eventually gave us our voucher.

We requested a bag retrieval so we could change our clothes, and meandered our way to P4...which in Newark speak, means the place you go to catch the shuttle to your hotel. (Note: we deciphered this after asking a couple people where to go and not really getting any help.) We caught our shuttle to the Newark Ramada Plaza Hotel, and got a lovely tour of the sketchy neighborhood we were about to spend the night in. We got to check-in early into our room, which I wish I had a picture of so you would know I'm not exaggerating. There were two deadbolts on the door, stains on the ceiling and walls, air conditioning only in the rooms and not in the hallways, and the tiles were not exactly attached to the bathroom floor.

After a quick shower, we decided we better not spend the entire day in the room or we might become fully depressed. So we took the shuttle back to the airport, and got information about going into NYC. Mind you, I have wanted to go to New York for quite some time. But this was not the time. First, it was 100º with what felt like 100% humidity. Oh yea, and we were supposed to be in Antigua. Not Newark/NYC.


We took the Manhattan Express into NYC, which dropped us off near Times Square.



We walked around Broadway (which was not nearly as impressive as I thought it was going to be), and into Times Square, overwhelmed by the shear number of people and terrible smell of sweat, dirt, smog, trash, and all around filth. We decided to have lunch at the Hard Rock and cool off for a little bit in an air conditioned building.



Then we walked through Bryant Park, which is quite beautiful. There was an outdoor reading room, and chess sets (most of them in use by older men), and a lawn with a giant screen where it looked like a movie would be showing later that night. All I could think about was Fashion Week and Project Runway.



We then walked in front of the NY Public Library...such cool architecture.



And then headed into Grand Central Station. The ceiling was gorgeous, with the constellations lit up. Such a huge place, with so much going on. And such a pretty building in general.



We finally made it to the Chrysler Building, which was closed by the time we got there.



So we figured out how to make it to the Empire State Building. Let me tell you, city blocks are something else! I thought I was going to die in the heat/humidity. We didn't go inside, but took pictures outside.



We eventually made it back to the bus depot and waited for our ride back to the airport.

We made it back to the hotel, ordered a pizza from the cafe in the lobby, and called it a night. We just wanted to get on the plane in the morning and make it to Antigua.

New York...I'm sorry we didn't like you. We are not big city people. Especially when we didn't plan on being there in the first place. And not when it's disgustingly hot and humid. There is more of you I wish to see, but not anytime soon. I need more time to warm up to the idea of visiting you again.

Mr. & Mrs.

Well, just in case you have been living under a rock...


WE GOT MARRIED!


It was a simply beautiful, wonderful, memorable day. We felt love, joy, and happiness. After the past 2 1/2 years of planning, everything finally came to be. And it was everything I had dreamed of and more.

Thank you to all who made the day so special. We were so glad you all could be there.








And to those of you couldn't make it, we missed you. You missed out on a pretty awesome day...and party!





A big thanks to all the photographers who sent me the pictures used above. I will post pics from our awesome photographer, Kate DiSimone once she's finished processing them. She's sent me a few sneak peeks, and let me tell you...they're breathtaking!