Our Romantic Vacation...Phase 3 - The Resort and the Island Food

So, we made it to our resort with only slight emotional scars. Now we just need to check in and we can start relaxing. We walked around the resort for 10 minutes and couldn't find the registration desk. We finally asked one of the workers and off we all went on a wild goose chase to find the infamous Hugh. Hugh will know what to do.

Nope, he's not in what appears to be a closet. He's not on the beach. He's not in the resort convenience store. Hmmm, we're perplexed. The worker pointed us in the direction of an office to see if someone was in there. Luckily there was - but it wasn't Hugh. He was actually a nice guy that used to live in the trendy DC neighborhood of Adams Morgan for a while and his parents were from Alexandria. Thank goodness, we found someone that can understand our accent.

After a brief conversation with the expatriate, we were put in the faithful hands of Hugh. We found out that we weren't crazy or geographically challenged as the resort doesn't have a registration desk. They do in-room registrations so you can get a tour of the resort and the room's amenities. Nice touch - even though our room wasn't one of the fancy suites....it was just a bedroom and a bathroom.

Once we had signed the appropriate documents and freshened up, we decided it was time to feed the beast that was making all that noise in my belly. Evidently all the orange juice and Dayquil wasn't doing the trick. The resort has 2 restaurants - a Beach Cafe that's open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and Coyaba which is the islands best restaurant and only open for dinner.

We headed to the Beach Cafe since it was only 4 and we needed a quick meal. We feasted on fantastic sandwiches and enjoyed the view of the crystal clear waters. This was the first of many delicious meals on the island. There was only 1 meal that was less than extraordinary during our stay and it was still quite satisfying. After the meal, we headed back to the room to rest and unpack. We tried to make reservations at Coyaba for Valentine's Day dinner, but they were already full - so we took the night before. What's one day, right?

Later we headed back to the Beach Cafe for a few drinks to officially start the celebration of our vacation. I was hoping that an easy night would help my head cold and allow the romantic portion of our vacation to begin on Sunday. So after a few drinks we headed back to the room where I downed some Nyquil and some Halls and quickly proceeded to fall deeply asleep.

Sunday started with me waking up coughing and hocking up loogies. It was quite the romantic awakening for DaveBrown. We spent the day touring the island and doing a little shopping. In hindsight, Sunday probably isn't the best day to go shopping. It appears that the stores in Provo open and close at their own discretion regardless of day of the week or hour of the day. We ended up picking up some snacks from the only grocery store on the island - the IGA. Yep, this chain is evidently still in business. For those of you from Snow Hill, the IGA there recently went bankrupt. They still owe some of their employees a few paychecks too. Who knew?

We also got to see our first suped up car. It was your average four door car but with 22s! There's a pic included with the rest of our vacation pictures.

So once we unloaded the groceries, we put on our swimsuits and headed to the beach to enjoy the last few hours of sunlight. When we arrived it was cloudy and windy. We stayed out there, but were wrapped up in our towels while reading. Maybe we just picked a bad day.

Sunday night we got all cleaned up and put on our fancy dinnerwear and headed to Coyaba. Wow. This restaurant isn't big but it's a really cute open-air place with excellent service. The meal was fantastic! It was four-star quality food with a presentation that you'd want to photograph. Even though it was the night before Valentine's Day - it was very special...and also, very expensive. Since the restaurant isn't connected directly to the hotel, we couldn't charge our meal to our room - which wasn't a problem. This, however, was our first introduction into the inflated prices of dining on the island. Considering that there is no agriculture here, it's not hard to comprehend the prices though.

After dinner we went back to our room to relax and let our stomachs enjoy the wonderful meal that we just presented to them. It was a wonderful day topped off with a great meal. We slept well.

Stay tuned for Phase 4 - The Spa and More Shopping...