June 11, 2013-
GOODNESSS!!!! Have you looked out the window????????
Oh, by the way, Good Morning! :-)
Anyway….have you looked out the window and seen where we've managed to land this time?????
WOWZERS! This place is GORGEOUS!!!!!
Since we're in the so-called Ocean Club we can have breakfast upstairs in the Ocean Club Lounge (we're on the 7th floor and the lounge is on the 8th floor. Our room is 7005). Let's go!
That was a nice but quite limited breakfast. Hmmm…tomorrow how about we try the big huge buffet and see what they have available there?
Now…let's get down to business! We came here for the ocean…and the ocean. Let's go suit up and head to the beach!
We're going to head over to the dive shop located on the resort property. Mark is just a few dives away from completing his Open Water scuba diving certification and he intends to finish it up on during our stay here. He's trying to see if he can get started today with his diving instruction. We're going to head back to the beach and play for a bit as his diving instructor isn't here yet.
Looks like Mark is going out on two dives today….once this morning and another after lunch. Woo Hooo!!!! The girls and I are going to hang out on the beach and play and swim in the water. Oh, and SNORKEL!!!!! The snorkeling just off the beach is …. breath-taking. This is the most colorful coral reef we've seen to date.
Below is a bulletin board (located at the entrance to the beach) with a few of the fish species that you'll encounter while snorkeling in and around the Shangri-La House Reef. My favorite:Clownfish and Pipefish (Pipefish belong in the same family as seahorses….I've always wanted to see seahorses in the wild!!!!!!!):
We're waiting for Mark to get done with his first diving instruction for the day….and while we're waiting the girls and I ordered a couple of drinks to help cool us down. I've got an orange-ginger smoothie (yum,yum, yum! Orange and ginger are an excellent combo!) and the girls each got a Halo Halo. The Halo Halo is a Filipino dessert with shaved ice, evaporated milk, ube (purple yam) and other things…like corn? jelly candies? and corn flakes? Huh. Kind of weird but definitely tasty!
Mark is done with his first dive – he's got only an hour until his next dive. We're going to order some lunch and stay on the beach until he gets back from his second dive.
I could swim all. day. long!
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Yay! Mark is back!!!! He's done with his diving instruction for today. I think it might be time for a change of scenery…shall we head to the pool????
Ooooo!!! This kid water park is freaking AWESOME:
There's a big water slide but sadly it's closed for some reason. Bummer. The pools themselves are all nice but they're not anything special. (Remember the pools at the JW Marriot in Phuket? Now those were beautifully designed.)
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One thing that is unique at this resort….there are life guards EVERYWHERE. On the beach. At the pool. And lots of them. This is the first place we've stayed at where there are actual life guards and they are really doing their job. Wow!
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The girls want to go play on the swing set located between the kid water park and the ocean. Okie dokie…. Go play!!!
You know what? I think it's time for dinner! Let's go change up and find a restaurant in the resort complex. Tonight we want a nice meal to celebrate our wedding annivesary.
Sooooo….where should we go eat? There's an Italian restaurant- no; a Chinese restaurant- NOOOOOOO; a buffet -nah; and a seafood restaurant located on the beach- YESSSS!!!! The restaurant is called Cowrie Cove.
Whoops. We're a little early. They don't start serving dinner until 6:00pm and it's only 5:30. How about we enjoy a few beachy cocktails while we wait?
What summery cocktail or mocktail do you want to try? I think I'll try the mai tai. Mark wants a pina colada. The girls ordered Shirley Temples. Mmm!!!
The girls ordered Pad Thai, Mark ordered grilled Sea Breem (I thought I read Sea BRAIN on the menu. LOL! That sounds nasty….but it turns out that Sea Breem is just a small-ish fish) and I'm getting the Parrot Fish dish. I've always wanted to try parrot fish! Mark heard a few years ago while snorkeling in Hawaii that parrot fish is yummy and ever since then I've been looking forward to trying it. Sooo…when they say FRESH FISH on the menu they really truly mean FRESH FISH. The server is showing Mark a live, flopping around sea breem in a basket. Why are they showing it to us???
Okay, the girls' have finished eating their noodle-y Thai dish but our fish dishes are no where near ready. Our server keeps coming to our table and apologizing for the delay. Oh boy. Now I really am getting hungry. We spent the entire day swimming and we didn't have a huge lunch. The server just brought me another (third!) mai tai. It's getting dark now…too dark to take photos. I Wish for a Fish Dish…. Hey!! Whew. Our fish dishes are here. Oh. Boy. My parrot fish is excellent! Mark's sea breem is pretty tasty too but I like mine better. ;-)
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It's time to wind down for the night…I'm feeling rather sleepy after swimming for most of the day! I hope you had fun too!!!
See you tomorrow!