Day 3
Alan and his brother headed off to dive 2 sites in the
morning. Alan’s diving wish finally came
true. He saw not one, not two, but THREE
sharks. He also tested out a new
underwater camera. So, we can believe
him that he was super close to sharks – because there is video proof, ha. I can't quite yet figure out how to upload videos, I think the files are too big. To be continued...
Alan scuba diving
While the boys were off playing under the sea, us ladies
went parasailing. Being suspended a
hundred feet above creature-infested waters is not something I necessarily
wanted to do…but since I am a good daughter-in-law, I agreed to it J
Post-parasailing cruise
By recommendation of our parasailing guide, we went to
dinner at Mango Reef. There was an
entire side of the menu dedicated just to Lobster (it’s in season). I think all 6 of us got
lobster-something. I ordered open-faced
lobster raviolis and Alan got Thai lobster curry.
Day 4
We kicked of the morning with a trip to downtown Grace
Bay. There are a bunch of luxury shops,
so we peeked in many of them. I even scored a new sunhat. We ate lunch at Tiki Hut in Turtle Cove. It was this great open-aired restaurant
located on the harbor. I found it in my
travel book that has proven to be very useful on this trip. I got mahi mahi
tacos with mango coleslaw and a Madori margarita.
My slice of heaven - a new sunhat & a marg
Also in my quest to find a stellar snorkel spot on the
island, we ventured to Smith’s Reef. You
navigate through a neighborhood, and then park at one of the beach access
points on Turtle Cove. Walk about 150
yards down the beach, and you find a stone marker that points out where you
access the water to swim out to the reef.
You have to swim about 50 feet off shore (a lil scary). But it was worth it. We snorkeled with schools of fish, giant pieces
of coral, and a bunch of other underwater creatures.
Sun goddesses
The beach at Smiths Reef
We cooked a rockin dinner at the condo tonight. Pork chops w/ apples & pearl onions and
cauliflower. And finished puzzle #1 of
the trip J
Day 5
Ahhh, today was such a blast. We chartered a private fishing boat for half
a day to take us deep sea fishing. It
was action packed. We cruised 20 minutes
off the coast. Right out of the gate, 2
fish bit our lines and Matt & Cassie jumped in the reel them in. We lost one, but captured the other. The guides connect you into this belt, but it
is still really really hard to crank the reel.
Holy cow, those fish are strong!
Fighting to reel in the fishys
In the end our final count was 3 Mahi-Mahi’s and 1 Grouper. All of us were soaked to the bone. The waves were SO big, and the boat would just
crash into them and water would shoot straight at us. We just couldn’t even believe how wet we were
getting! I kept saying it felt like I was on one of
those water rides at Cedar Point and you just keep getting dripping wet over
and over and over. About an hour left in
the trip we drove with the waves to the marina - a much smoother ride. Ate some sandwiches & had some homemade
rum punch. Alan’s parents were waiting
for us at the dock and cheered when we screamed ‘we brought home dinner for
tonight!!!’ The guides filleted the fish on the back of the boat and sent us home with piles and piles of mahi.
I got the biggest Mahi (20 pounds), just saying
Cassie wins with this 50 pound Grouper
We wrapped up the day with a 3-hour nap (god, I love
vacation). All that salt water and
sunshine really did us in.