A Week in Paradise

Thanks in part to an airline points sale, I spent last week in Grenada in the Caribbean for a much-needed vacation. A friend wanted to go to the Galapagos, but after looking at the prices, we (read: I) decided on something a little more reasonable, especially for a vacation we planned just a couple of months ago.

If I’m going to spend ridiculous money, I need a while to think about it, lol. A long while.

Our resort in Grenada was also a little ridiculous, but on a different scale. It was also incredible. They claim to have the longest pool in the Caribbean at 100m, and I believe them. It was gorgeous! Then, just a few feet past the pool’s end is the beautiful, crystal-clear water of the ocean.

The hotel was incredibly lovely, the entire staff was amazing, and I would’ve liked to have stayed another week or two or twelve. :)

This is the shoulder season for tourism in Grenada, since they’re getting closer to the rainy season (and hurricane season), so it was not crowded at all. I don’t know how busy it actually gets, but last week was perfect.

Mr. M and I spent the week snorkeling, swimming, and reading in a cute little cabana by the pool/ocean. It was the perfect amount of fun and relaxing, and thanks to a long-sleeve rash guard and frequent reapplication of sunscreen, I only got a tad sunburned on one day.

I was sitting in full shade, but the ocean is sneaky, and the reflected sun got me anyway.

Our friend Ms. T went on a bunch of scuba dives and brought back amazing pictures of fish and the reef. And a sea turtle! It was almost enough to convince me to try diving, but since my brain is SUPER GOOD at thinking about every possible catastrophe for any given situation, I still think it’s not for me. Though the clear water certainly was tempting.

The three of us did a day tour, which ended up being a little rushed thanks to a hotel mixup, but it was nice to see some of the other parts of the island, and I’m 1000% glad we didn’t try to drive. Not only do they drive on the “wrong” side of the road, they also drive with some innate ability to know who should give way on the steep, narrow, winding mountain roads.

There was a lot of honking involved and more games of high-speed, head-on chicken than I was entirely comfortable with.

No vacation is complete without a lot of delicious food, and we found it, mostly within walking distance of the hotel, which was nice. On our next-to-last day, we also found a great bar just down the beach and had our fair share of cocktails. Every single one of them was delicious. I think this one was called the Purple Rainbow, since after it was mixed it turned bluish-purple:

Unfortunately, our trip home wasn’t quite as nice. The Miami airport was a little bit of a disaster. We ended up being delayed by over two hours, and that wouldn’t have been so bad on its own, but the flight was supposed to leave at 9:45PM and arrive in Austin at midnight.

Instead, we left at midnight and arrived after 2AM.

It was like 3:15 by the time we made it home, and that made for a long day. So today I’m getting caught up and doing laundry and all of that other stuff that piles up after a nice time away. Tomorrow I’ll hopefully get back to writing my work-in-progress, since I need to be making progress on it. We’re practically to June. How did that happen???

One last thing: while we were lounging around in the pool, I overheard someone’s new business plan. He was talking about his idea, trying to convince his significant other that it was a good idea (with very limited success, lol). He wasn’t intending this to be the slogan, but this sentence that came out of his mouth was pure gold:

Dog Cologne: Because Dogs Smell Like Shit

If you use that to make a zillion dollars, remember to give me and the unnamed man at the hotel our cuts. Maybe then I can go back for another week. :)