Friday, June 27, 2014 - A Day to Relax

Today is our last full day and I am a bit sad because I feel like I have just settled in to the relaxing part.  We have absolutely nothing scheduled for our last day, which is perfect!  The kids were up early on the only day they could sleep in – go figure.  We went to breakfast at 7:00 a.m.  There were freshly baked cinnamon rolls, yum!

After breakfast, David and I went over to the Adventure Center and transferred the pictures of the spotted eagle ray that I took so that Eric would have them.  Gary, the manager, said that he would work on it in photoshop and post it to the Hamanasi Facebook page.

Jason and I went into the gift shop to get a t-shirt.  Now that we have seen David’s Dive Belize shirt with the spotted eagle ray on the back, we all want one.  They don’t have Jason’s size out front, so we will wait until they have a chance to look in back.

It rained this morning during breakfast, but just a bit.  Now it is really windy and we are sitting by the pool reading.  I am looking forward to this do-nothing day.  It is so nice at the pool as there are only five people here.

One of the things we have loved about this place while staying here are these bowls of water to wash your feet.  They are by the pool, on the way into the restaurant and lobby, as well as the steps leading up to our deck.  It is so nice to be able to just dip your feet in here to clean the sand off.

David and I took bikes into Hopkins again.  Even though it was very hot, it was still lovely.

We also wanted to get the wood carver David to sign the spotted eagle he made for us.  He was really nice and signed it and wrote Belize and 2014 for our 20^th wedding anniversary.

 Next we rode around the corner to Alex’s, the place I bought my conch necklace, earrings, and hair clip.  We told the guy my hair clip broke and he gave me another.  David took this picture of the Belize flag that was hanging in the shop.

We decide to buy a really nice sea turtle here.  Alex wasn’t there to sign it, so the son carved Alex and 2014… He was not very good at it I must say!  It is easy to see why his father is the one that carves the animals.

On the way back through town, I saw this beautiful giant mango tree.  There was a lady with a really long pole reaching up and pulling down mangoes.  She had a table in front of the tree and was selling them there.  We stopped so I could take a picture from across the street.  While I was taking the picture, a young boy of 10 or 11 rode up on his bike and yelled at us for taking the picture. He said that I had better delete it, so I did.  But I must say that I am a bit sad because it was a really interesting picture of typical life here in Hopkins.

We biked back just in time to say goodbye to Chris, Larry, Grace, and Grant.  We were so hot from biking that we took a swim in the pool with Danika and then went and had lunch.

We swam a bit after lunch and sat out and talked, then David and I went for a walk down the beach.  It was really hot and we walked the whole way down looking at the other places and it only confirmed that we were really happy we were staying at Hamanasi!

The dive and snorkel boats are kept on boat lifts at the end of the dock when they are not in use.  When the sea is choppy it can be a real challenge to get the boat back on the lift without having the boat slam into the bottom of the lift in the water, or into the poles supporting the lift.  It was a really choppy day today, so David spent some time watching the crews get the boats out of the water.

Our room was being made up, so Jason and I were out on the deck waiting for them to finish.  He sat in the hammock and I was on the bench rocking him.  It was so nice to just sit and have relaxing time together.

We sat at the pool and had happy hour drinks that Edgar talked us into.  At 4:30 p.m. we went and got the kids to let them have a happy hour drink too.  While at the pool I overheard Michelle (Wendy’s sister who we met on the snorkeling boat) saying she needed some Valtrex, but the nearest pharmacy was a half an hour away.  I told her I had some and went and got it for her.  She was really happy about it and kept thanking me over and over.  

The kids kept swimming in the pool and met some other kids from Texas who had just arrived.  They all started playing Marco Polo and they kept playing until it was time for dinner at 6:00 p.m.

We had a nice slow dinner and finished at 7:40 p.m.  We had considered having a separate anniversary dinner by putting the kids at a separate table tonight, but both kids wanted us to have dinner with them, so we decided to stay together.  It was really fun to hang with them – we laughed a lot, good times!  During dinner, the waiter walked up with two drinks and we said that we hadn’t ordered them.  He said they were sent from Michelle, as she wanted to thank us.  So nice of her!  We went over and thanked her for the drinks, and she was still just so happy that I had heard her plea for Valtrex! 

Back at our table, the entrees had arrived... specialty pizza tonight!

Mango cheesecake for dessert!

After dinner there was a dance/drum show until 9:00 p.m.  We could hear it while we packed.  We went and got our boarding passes – so nice the hotel checks in for you!  They couldn’t check David in, but said we could do it at the airport in Belize City.  It seems like we are mostly packed now.  The kids did a great job packing their own bags too.  So it is off to bed and a relaxing end to our vacation.