Get to the beach
Thursday, May 31, 2007
May 23rd & May 24th
You can spot the cruise ship day-trippers – most of them wear day-glow yellow inflatable life vests. I’m not one of them. I stay on island; I meet the people; I visit lots of places, and I don’t kick the coral. So I bought a day-glow pink inflatable vest. Whew. Now everyone will know – I’m not one of THEM.
We left gray and green (that should’ve been OSU colors) Columbus, OH on the 23rd. The flight to Charlotte was uneventful, and once at the airport we ate and waited. Tammie scored us two exit row seats on the long flight. Yeah, by long I mean a whopping 3.5 hours. It was great to have the legroom, even if I had to lean my seat all the way back and still twist quite a bit to see half the screen for Music and Lyrics.
We rented a “villa” for this stay. It was the upstairs half of a house that was once the owner’s primary residence, 30 years earlier. We got a little surprise when we walked up the steps – open-air views meant no screens! Ugh. The owner hoped neither of us was sensitive to mosquito bites but assured us on the 2nd floor there would be barely any. Ha! The word got out – fresh blood. Soon there was plenty of buzzing. D came up with the solution (via phone) to close the hurricane shutters and crank the bedroom A/C. Worked like a charm. Those shutters stayed closed the whole time – no view for us! Be sure to read between the lines when renting an artistic villa!
The villa was a “2 minute walk to Frank Bay Beach.” So we walked, but it wasn’t so much a beach. I don’t know; I just have this thing about not getting into a bay with enormous cables running into it and a warning reading “High Voltage Cables.” No problem, I’ll stay on shore. We came to find out the rocky shore led to little urchins and coral in the shallow water, which didn’t make for fun wading or swimming. That beach is officially checked of the list – been there, done that – next.
The first full day needed two things – beach & buffet. We walked into town, past Gallows Point condos and grabbed a taxi. We were on our way! Where? To Caneel Bay Resort of course. We hiked a relatively short path to Honeymoon Beach and outlasted the day-trippers on their chartered catamarans. Once they left, we snorkeled. I made it all the way to Solomon beach. For most this would not be a big feat, but for me it was. I’ve had some snorkeling disasters, and now I’m very hesitant. Making this full beach-to-beach trip (and back) was quite an accomplishment and I knew it would be a great week of snorkeling after that!
We got to the Caneel lunch buffet just before 2pm when it closed. After a snafu, we finally got seated and continued to be a source of amusement for most of the staff. Let’s just leave it at that. The meal was of course amazing – even if we were shunned from having anything but water. After lunch we hit the Caneel shop looking for new flip-flops for me (I had a blister already) and a rashguard for Tammie. She found her shirt – very girly and
cute. I found updated guidebooks! By now its nearly dinnertime, though we’re too stuffed to even consider it. We debated on another beach or heading home – we went back to the villa. A quick shower then back to town for the evening. We walked around and then headed back with some Ting. While it sounds like a relaxing, uneventful day – it was not. I’ve purposefully left out the snafu at lunch, and I sort of skipped the part where we cased a maid cart and took off with two Caneel towels. See you need those towels to look like you belong, and to get use of the carts that take you from beach to beach and the chairs on the beaches. Of course, after that lunch snafu, I had no intention of taking any carts anywhere that week. It was a great day – Honeymoon is beautiful, and the snorkel was just right to get back into the groove.
posted by Shannon @ 31.5.07,
1 Comments:
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At June 01, 2007,
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Sounds beautiful! Can't wait to see the pictures. Of course, I hope you're not going to hold out on us with the snafu story! I want to know!
