This morning we docked in Antigua. We hadn't booked any excursions so jumped in a taxi and headed to one of the 365 beaches that the island is home to. We decided the couple of popular beaches closer to the port would likely be insanely busy, so ventured to Dark Wood Beach, which is supposed to be good for snorkeling.
The drive to and from the beach wound through some small towns and picturesque countryside. The road rules appeared to be mere suggestions and the driver indicated that they were left to "driver discretion". He also claimed there are very few accidents and a young Canadian guy we were talking to at the beach told us that the drivers here are actually very courteous and no one is in a hurry so the loose rules actually work. On our way back to the port, we got a kick out of all the cars parked next to and under the "no parking on this side of the street" sign and the other truck stopped next to them in the middle of the road, door wide open but no one in sight.
The beach was beautiful and the ocean was Caribbean blue and so wavy. We jumped waves and floated for hours. The kids found so many shells and hunks of coral and Danica even found a few pieces of sea glass. My dad took quite the plunder on one attempt to get out of the water as a giant wave knocked him down. I missed the fall itself but saw him being tossed about on the sand as waves crashed over him from all directions while he was giggling at his misfortune. Between Chris, Danica and some other gentleman on the beach, we managed to get him back to his feet with no major injuries (or photo/video evidence much to Chris' dismay). If he did have any pain he was trying to hide from us, he likely successfully numbed it with the rum and coconut water they were selling on the beach. Apparently, they cut open a coconut, you drink as much of the water as you want and they fill it back up with rum. Let's just say that Chris drank about half of the coconut water from each coconut and my dad ended up drinking his and mine....
By the way, a week later, Danica is still trying to scrub the sand out of her hair. We've decided that the fine Caribbean sand is like nature's glitter.
Tonight, Chris and Renee had reservations at the Italian specialty dining restaurant, thanks to their premium drink package. They insisted I go along with them and I have no regrets about doing so. Our server and the manager were fantastic and the food was spectacular. It was supposedly a 4 course meal plus dessert but by the time you added the bread and arancini, it was essentially 7 courses. We all selected the salad, burrata and lobster tortellini. They also brought us a carbonara to share. For our mains, I had the eggplant Parmigiano, Chris had the osso bucco and Renee had a chicken dish. Then there was dessert. All of us selected the Chocolate Journeys option as we've yet to be disappointed. It was called Rocher and was essentially a small scoop of vanilla Hazelnut ice cream in a chocolate shell. This was then placed inside a large chocolate Hazelnut shell, much like a Ferrero Rocher chocolate, and topped with a chocolate curl. This was then placed on top of a chocolate cake and chocolate mousse. It was so decadent. Of course, we paired these with chocolate mint martinis or a Sicilian kiss martini. Knowing how much Danica loves chocolate, Chris sweet-talked our server into giving us a dessert to go for her. She was ecstatic.
After dinner, we joined Danica in the Princess Live Lounge for a Little White Lies Gameshow which was hilarious. Three of the cruise director staff were asked to say statements about themselves and the audience had to ask questions to determine who was telling the lie. The statements were completely outlandish and yet, many of them were essentially true. People
live very interesting lives.
Later, we attended the 5 Skies show in the theatre. It was really good. There were great costumes and theatrics, fun songs and dances. I was wishing the kids had come too as they would have enjoyed it.
I am trying to have an early night tonight as it's an early morning in St. Lucia.
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