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.