Today might be the best day yet. Oh so perfect and relaxing. Animal sightings: donkeys, chickens, goats, 1 iguana, 1 mongoose, 4 bananaquits, 1 ray, 3 parrotfish (one of which was huge1) and numerous other fish and urchins We actually got a late start to our day today... Maddie and I woke up at 6 to go the bathroom but we decided that was TOO early to get up, so after walking up to the main house and then back to the guest house where we're sleeping, we crawled back in bed and actually ALL slept until 8:30! It was fabulous! We skipped the morning swim and got a jump on our day after deciding to head to the East End of the island to Hanson Bay where Miss Vie's Snack Shack and private beach is. We went there last time, but her snack shack ran out of the famous vittles by the time we went to eat. We did NOT miss out today. We swam for a while and headed to lunch at 12:30. All the hype did not disappoint... her garlic chicken (deliciously battered and fried thigh/leg quarter), red beans and rice, johnny cake and fried plantains were all amazing. The kids liked it all too (except for the plantains). It takes a while to get your food, but it was worth the wait, plus it gave us more time to practice 'thumper'. We asked the lady cooking if she was Miss Vie - it was her daughter. Oh, and we found out the name of these incredibly beautiful red-bloomed trees that are all over the island: they are called 'flamboyants'. You'll see one in the pictures. They are gorgeous!! Apparently this property has been in their family since 1874. You pay $2 per person to access the beach, but she has chairs out and even beach kayaks you can use. It's a really cool experience. We spent longer at the beach today than any day yet. We met some other folks from Georgia, and Maddie made fast friends with their four year old. We also snorkeled some, and it ended up being really worth it (we weren't sure it was a great spot for that at first). We saw a ray, parrot fish and tons of urchins and other pretty fish. We also had fun with the kayak. We pushed the kids around in it for a while, and finally Maddie and I paddled out to a little rocky island that we had snorkeled to earlier. A floating bar even pulled up in the bay while we were there! We talked to the guy - he built the boat himself. It looked really cool. What a life! We didn't need dinner after having such a filling lunch, so we came back and enjoyed an evening swim. It's my favorite time to swim in the pool here, because it's completely shaded and the water temperature is perfect. We had so much fun goofing around doing tricks. Forgive all the photos, but I had fun experimenting with the 'continuous' mode on our cameral. :-) After the swim came showers and a movie... National Treasure 2. Tomorrow will be a game night. Woohoo!
