Sunday, I don't have to run day!

Sunday and no plans! Great. We were going to have a nice "down" day, this ended up being a good thing as our poor Kara woke up swollen! Unbeknownst to her, she had a reaction with one of her meds + the sun. We had to lay the smack down and make her stay inside with Benadryl. We spent our morning sitting or crouching in the sand looking for shells, finding lots of keepers! The water looked super choppy and come noon you can really feel the intense heat of the sun so we went in to cool down and Hope and I needed to address our bug bites. We settled into the two seater and watched a little boob tube, just chillin for a change - you have to keep reminding yourself you are on vAcA! We gathered everything we had brought in our "quart baggies" - we had some witch hazel, mouthwash and the local remedy of using a fresh lime??? I found a plastic fork which ended up being the perfect bite scratcher?!!?? We tried it all.........aaaaggghhhh! The bites were BAD and driving us nuts! Kara was having a nice Benadryl induced nap, so we meandered back out to explore the beach again and ended up in a square lava rock saltwater pool (the Kanucks had told us about it, we had spotted it when the tide was out before, so it was good timing- was super warm and felt great! We floated around in the water whilst the tide was coming in - was spa like:) We were sunburned again from just crouching in the morning, down one side only! OMG! Reapply!!! Hope and I explored the coastline - there is lots of lava like rock - so crocs or watershoes are a must! Kara joined us out on the beach feeling and looking Way better than she did earlier! More shelling - it never gets old!
Next? Yes, "holy time limited shower~n~all", get dressed and we're off to Sunset Inn for dinner. Large, airy & bright establishment, seating on the patio - kinda seat yourself as there only seemed to be one lady serving?!?? Think we got the Fried Conch appetizer, not keen, way too chewy and strong. Maybe if the conch was pounded and marinated a little longer in the lime it wouldn't be quite so chewy? Just my 2 cents worth! I ordered off the smaller "snack" portion meal ($13.00) and it was more than enough food! I had the fried grouper fingers, with chips and a small very basic salad. The grouper was in a nice light but crispy batter, not greasy and very juicy pieces of grouper cooked to perfection! There was a nice breeze out on the patio, the moon reflected on to the waves and the sound never gets tired! Would definitely return to the Sunset Inn. Made our way home and chilled - time flies when you are having fun! No laptops or cell phones......Oh glory be!
Perri Again...

Thursday........in Paradise

We slept well in our rustic surroundings, thanks in part to our imbibing the night before and our getting in and out of Ocean Hole a few times! Perhaps just a little wobbly in the morning but the weather and the view soon put the wind back in our sails! It was closer confines than Seabreeze (2 dbls and one loo) but after seeing our new view we knew we had made the right decision - and not a dog in sight - praise Jah! So for under $300 each person for seven nights (really six @ Lil Red) we were still doing good......there was a few OCD moments but they were easy to pass over due to our private and beautiful tropical surroundings! We vowed never to leave.....
We took our morning slowly - we had adapted to "Island Time". We sat on the deck and were in awe of our view. We finally got our showers in - um....yea long time for us Americans with no water 'cept salt water! We also were "green" when it came to being water conscious while we were there knowing conservation is crucial on Eleuthera! We then made a trip to the newer store in Palmetto. We got some supplies and groceries and then made our way back to the house. It was super sunny and hot (and I was feeling a wee bit hung over - mybad), so we decided to spend a little down time in the house, eat grilled cheese sandwiches, little nap (just cause we could!) and wait till later in the afternoon to go and explore our beach. We ventured out to our beach - we were relaxed and happy campers and there wasn't another soul on the beach! There was tons of cool shells to be found - they were everywhere, and if you bent down (which kills the back and knees) you could spy some real "keepers" - love shelling! We heard some music coming from the cliff - Ya know that "I'm getting my buzz on..let's see how loud I can crank this?!?!? - I'm thinking it was country, some little ditty you'd know the words too.....anyho, later to find out it was the house of an expat going by the name "Cowboy", is a bit of a character there in the middle of Eleuthera! We saw a group of people up above on their deck and we all holla'd "hey!". We were invited up for a drink. It was their last nite there! They were a delightful two couples from Canada. We had a good natter and that's the first time we noticed the "bugs".....noseeum's biting you every second - omg! We were getting eaten alive - the girlz then showed us ALL of their bites!! Worse than Survivor One....huge and blistery AND EVERYWHERE! Out of the four peeps only one guy had NO bites. This was a sign of "bites to come" SERiously!! We moseyed on home and decided to go back to Palmetto to the gas station/store to get a sandwich "to go" and some more Cadbury's. We sat on our little two person couch with one chair and settled in for - yep, you got it.....Survivor. There are some TV shows you just don't want to miss. Yes, I like TV wherever I go. I wouldn't have missed the Fish Fry for it, but for a night when you just want to relax it was perfect. We made our calls home with a calling card we bought - had to check in with the families and let them know where we were now! We watched the sunset on the Caribbean and it was picture perfect, sailboat off in the distance, balmy weather, palm tree......What lucky girlz we were:) Perri

Moving on up...the coast that is

Okay, so after our horrible run-in with the dogs, and our visit from Officer Turnquest, the day was still young. We hopped in the car and headed south to Rock Sound. A few turns later and we were staring in amazement at Ocean Hole...a saltwater hole (the size of a large lake) in the middle of town. We looked at the fish, took in the scenery and wondered "didn't we read that you can swim in here?" We knew you could jump in...but how to get out was the real question.

Then a church mission group from South Carolina pulled up. Some of the kids made their way down the steps while others were at the top stripping off shirts...then "SPLASH!" We looked up to see the teens jumping off the cliff above into the ocean hole. Perri being the "talk to anyone" kinda girl she is, struck up conversation with the teens who then showed us how to get out. After some convincing, Perri and I decided we could jump off that cliff too. COWABUNGA!! Kara jumped in as well, but from the lower cliff...still adventurous since that was not exactly close to the water either.
We stayed at Ocean Hole for a while longer before deciding to head back to the house to shower......hopefully! Ahhhh, but no such luck...no water, and come to find out there had been a problem with the water prior to our arrival. At this point, we were all fed up with our current lodging situation and scared to death to go back on the beach. Perri called the cottage owners sister and nicely demanded all of our money back (including our security deposit.) The funds had to be rounded up. While waiting for our monies, Kara and I began packing and Perri began calling around to find us another abode. I went into panic mode a little...we were unfamiliar with the island and our reservation for Seabreeze had been secured months in advance...how were we going to find somewhere to stay, in our PRICE RANGE at this late point in the day???

After a couple of phones calls (small island, remember?) Perri arranged for us to meet Spencer Thompson at Mate & Jenny's in South Palmetto Point, about a 20 minute ride north. We packed up the car, did a last minute sweep of the house, decided to grab those beach towels (okay, they belonged with the cottage, but we just borrowed them...they are still in Eleuthera...lol) and by 7:30 we were on our way.

Spencer was not at Mate & Jenny's when we got there, but Mate let us use the phone; Spencer was only minutes away. We had a drink whilst waiting for him and began making conversation about our almost fatal dog attack with some locals. Upon Spencer's arrival we promised our new friends, Mate, Dorrell, Kevin, James & Meagan that we would return in a while.

Dorrell and Meagan

We followed Spencer down a road that was treacherously bumpy and had potholes that I'm sure could swallow a Mini Cooper. By this point it was dark, but we turned off the road down a short drive and there in the night was the Lil Red House.

Spencer had it prepped for our arrival and although much smaller and older than the Seabreeze Cottage, it was cozy and felt like the place to be. We paid Spencer, staked out our rooms (okay, Kara and Perri went left, I went right...LOL), debated for a few minutes about going back to Mate & Jenny's then hopped in the car.

I'm not sure if it was fate or luck, but something was working in our favor, you see, Spencer was departing the next morning for Miami. He was going on a cruise with his family (otherwise he would have joined us for a drink at Mate & Jenny's). How fortunate we were...

Our new friends were happy that we kept our word and eventhough Mate was closing (officially), he said not to worry. He even made us a bite to eat. We chatted, drank, danced, sang and let the perils of the day fade away into the darkness. Finally (I think around 1:00 am?) Mate decided he was going home. Being the night owl, party girlz we are, Perri and I immediately invited everyone back to the Lil Red House...(sorry Kara)

Down the bumpity road we went again. Everyone pitched in and helped us unload the car. Then we chit chatted the night away. By 2:30 everyone departed, exhausted (mentally and physically) we collapsed snug as bugs in our beds. Day two of our trip turned out to be the re-start to our Eleutheracation that we needed...