Hey guys – I know I know. This one took a little while to get out. But I mean, I’ve been busy you guys.
It’s a really difficult puzzle guys.
Seriously though – Myles brought us back that puzzle as a souvenir from his spring break trip to Walt Disney World with his roommate. Which, I mean, he’s obviously awesome as we all know. But beyond that, it’s become kind of an obsession. I’m going all Winnie the Bish on this thing.
But that’s not the ONLY thing keeping me away from the blog. My work has been kind of a situation lately. All kinds of busy. And I mean, they pay me. You don’t. So…you know…priorities.
The good news though? The blog IS here. And Day 3? There are like literal hours where I took not one picture.
So I mean. Worth the wait.
Our March 2023 Antigua trip to celebrate Larissa: Day 3
On Day 3, Nickie woke up earlier than me to head over to the main house to decorate. On account of today was Larissa’s birthday brunch and Nickie brought all the decorations from home. Which that was on account of Nickie being not only incredibly sexy, but also quite thoughtful.
The theme was Lilly Pulitzer and I gotta say – Nickie nailed it.
Well she didn’t nail it. Everything was placed on the table. No tools involved.
Wouldn’t want Tony to lose his security deposit.
She also had some celebratory glasses made up for the occasion.
We also brought Larissa a bottle of Veuve that our friend Amanda incredibly and beautifully hand-painted.
Beautiful stuff.
Being that it was a Lilly party, the dress code was lots of greens and pinks and we all abided.
Which, of course, you know what that means.
PHOTO SHOOTT!!!!
And yeah, I know. No Nikki and Chris. But come on guys – say it with me…
Nickki and Chris slept in.
Now, right. So we provided the decorations for the brunch but our chef, Sira, was going to be coming a little later to provide the food for the brunch.
Which is an important part of the brunch. The food.
And she wasn’t coming for a couple hours so we had some time to chill and enjoy our morning before brunch.
And of course we all know what “enjoy our morning” means, right?
Yup. Bloody Marys.
We had Bloody Mary mix. We had vodka. We had ice.
Unfortunately, though? We didn’t have any celery.
What to do, what to do.
Oh. Wait. Though.
We had sausage.
I never sausage a Bloody Mary.
…
Ah-thank you.
Yeah we had some sausage left over from Sira’s breakfast the day before. So we cut that shizz up, stuck it on a broken-in-half skewer and took the express train to FlavorTown.
Which, good. I definitely shouldn’t have been driving. On account of there was a lot of vodka in that thing.
It was definitely a heluva start to the day. Drinks are great. But when you add pork to them? Next level.
After I finished my vodka and sausage, we still had some time before brunch so I decided to take the kayak out on the water.
But lest you think I was trying to do something healthy, please….don’t. I grabbed a Red Stripe for the trip as well. And out into the harbor I went.
Come on guys. I went out further than that. What do you think I am? A scaredy idiot.
That’s a thing right? A scaredy idiot?
Hey, did you know kayak backwards is kayak?
Dude, I really love being out in a kayak. Surrounded by water, the sun on my back. I had a beer in my hand, music on my phone. I mean, things were good man.
I mean, I wasn’t completely surrounded by water. There were also mountains.
Beeteedubz, that mountain there is called the Sleeping Indian. Which, like, I really don’t think is 100% politically correct to say but that’s what its called guys. Basically, it goes like this…
And if you look closely, squint, and lie to yourself and everyone around you, I feel like you can definitely make it out.
But you definitely have to lie to yourself.
While I was out there, I made the decision to make my way across to the beach on the other side.
The ride across took like 10-15 minutes or so.
And when I got to the beach, I hopped out of the kayak, pulled it up on the sand and, like Lewis and Clark before me, reflected on the journey that got me here, filled with a sense of accomplishment and pri…
Oh, whatever. It was a 10-minute kayak ride. Relax Wayne.
I also was obviously not the first to pass this way. Nor will I be the last.
On account of someone had built some sort of fire pit up on the beach.
And like.
OK.
So for a second or two, I was all of a sudden a little freaked out thinking maybe, just possibly, the person that made this fire pit was waiting in the woods for me to wade into the water – vulnerable, unaware – so they could exact their revenge.
Was I the one who let them drown while I was making out with another camp counselor? No.
Did I decapitate their mother whilst they watched from the woods? Not that I remember.
But did that matter to their underdeveloped and angry mind? Also, no.
…
…
Anyways, I waded into the water for a swim.
What?
I can’t let them win.
But I didn’t linger too long in there. I mean, not only did I have to worry about psycho killers lying in wait. There’s also Cthulu. Obviously.
So.
By the time I got back, the party was obviously already happening.
I mean, it was like 10:30 AM.
Brunch was ready soon enough and, man. You guys. This brunch.
Sira laid everything out on the counter for us to make our own plates and this was all kinds of a spread.
Let me just run through the dishes before diving too deep to give you all the lay of the land.
There was this avocado toast with turkey and spinach and drizzle and oof.
A lovely caprese salad.
Smoked salmon rolls, which were a late addition due to the birthday girl asking if smoked salmon could be included in the menu. And like, we were all very thankful she made all that happen.
Roasted peppers.
Baked potatoes with sour cream.
I, in the spirit of research, ensured my plate was a good representation of the full menu.
The sacrifices I make for you all.
And, like, that wasn’t everything. While we were all enjoying that bit of amazing, Sira also put out some steak and greens. Which, again for you guys, I grabbed alongside another one of those smoked salmon rolls.
It’s honestly tough to pick my favorite brunch situation from today. I loved those smoked salmon rolls and the roasted peppers were delicious as well.
But guys, that avocado toast was super duper. We were still talking about it at the end of the week. The only reason you saw me have just one helping of it was there was only one per person. Otherwise, I would have been all, “avocado-OH I WILL DEFINITELY HAVE SOME MORE.”
I totally would have been all that.
Being that this was Sira, we also did get dessert again. Because she is leading the “dessert should be at every meal” revolution. And I will lay down my life for her cause.
She is 100% my Che Guevara.
Chef Guevara?
Oh right though. Dessert. So I think this was a chocolate ice cream thing with granola? Maybe? Gah. Sorry. All that alcohol has really hurt my…
…
My….
…
Ugh what is that word?
My brain pictures.
Nailed it.
Anyways though – it looks good.
All in all, another amazing meal by Sira. Seriously amazing stuff.
The next few hours appear to be completely undocumented. Which can only mean one thing.
Shizz.
Got.
Crazy.
Like I assume maybe since it was raining and we were so bored, we ended up in the attic. Where, amongst a bunch of items from a local museum, we found a map to the treasure accumulated by a local legend (or is he, amirite?)
And then we set off on a wild adventure involving booby traps and a pirate ship and that lady from Throw Momma From the Train and then we found this guy locked up in a basement and he was wearing a Superman t-shirt and then there was this part with an octopus that was deleted and ended up in the extras on the DVD.
…
Or…I mean. I guess it could also mean it rained for the next couple hours and we just sort of hung in watching it come down.
Hrm, is it weird that I, as a 46-almost-47-year-old man, when I think about what might be something that would happen in my life that would qualify as an adventure, I go full Goonies?
Yeah, I think it’s fine too.
The rain ended at about 3:30 or so.
And it was a good thing because then we could use the tropical pink and green floats Nickie brought for today.
Which, btw, Larissa and I blew up the night before sans pump.
Sans.
Pump.
Yep. We were heroes that day.
After hanging in the pool for a little bit and drinking some Red Stripes for a little bit and feeling all kinds of Fresh Prince vibes for a little bit, we set up some chairs down by the water to live what some would call “our best life.”
While the rain had officially cleared out…
…the clouds were gonna preclude us from any chance of seeing a proper sunset.
No worries though. Because, I mean, who needs sunset with all this natural beauty.
Ah-oooga.
Eh and anyways, we had some dinner reservations to get ready for so we broke soon after that to go get dinner-ready. Which, spoiler alert, you really won’t see much of because I don’t have pictures of me and Nickie OR of Tony and Larissa.
“Wait, Wayne,” you say, “does that mean you have a picture of Nikki and Chris?”
Hmmmm….
You’ll just have to read on to see.
Dinner tonight was at Basilico Italian Restaurant.
Or, according to Google, “Basilico Italian Restautant.
Which, once again, was a short golf cart ride into Jolly Harbour.
And pro tip – pay attention. Because it’s like real easy to walk right by these places.
These guys. With the signs.
As we walked in, I could tell this was gonna be my kind of place.
You know. On account of the alcohol.
We were seated out on the patio. Which, like, look at how awesome with this place.
And there was live music.
Oh these guys?
Killed.
It.
A few of my tablemates ordered a bottle of.
…
…
Wine?
Sorry, I wish I could give you more than that. I zoomed, I Google image searched, I even grabbed text off the bottle and pasted it into a word doc. But that simply translated the word into “masturbation.” Which I don’t think was the name of the wine. I mean, at least I didn’t see it on any of the menus.
Thankfully, I know I ordered myself a Grey Goose martini, dirty.
Creature of habit I am.
And that habit? Drinking.
Our meal started with a couple bread baskets. Yeah, a couple.
There was this one.
And there was this one.
Ah the bread basket. A great way to start a meal. An awful way to start a game of Operation.
Seriously. The worst.
But that second basket of bread was this pizza bread stuff that was insanely good stuff.
OK though – let’s move onto the dishes, shall we? And like, get excited because I am gonna be speaking all kinds of Italian up in this mess.
To start, we ordered the Carpaccio di Manzo con Rucola, Grana, e Olio al Tarfuto (beef carpaccio with rocket, parmesan cheese, and truffle oil.)
We also got the bruschetta.
Which, yeah, that’s all I got there. I think it must have been a special because it’s not on the regular menu and thus I don’t have the full Italian situation going on there.
But hey, I am bringing it back for this one – the Carpaccio di Tonno con Spinach Freschi e Pinoli (tuna carpaccio with fresh spinach and nuts.)
Honestly? All of these starters were fire emoji. But the real standout for me was that beef carpaccio. That stuff was all kinds of fresh and flavorful.
So those were the starters. We then moved onto our main dishes.
Is what I would be saying to you now if we weren’t the people we are.
Because of course we had a pasta course.
We split a couple plates. The Tagliatelle al Ragu (homemade tagliatelle with fresh meat ragu Bolognese style.)
And the Spaghetti AOP (spaghetti with olive oil, garlic, and chili.) This was sold as a special chef’s recipe.
Which was incredible. Guys, this spaghetti. I mean, the Bolognese was good too. But like I literally just saw that picture and was like, “oh man, that spaghetti. I really wish I could spaGHETti me some right now.”
And I don’t just say that for the pun. It was a really nice dish. The pasta tasted fresh and it was all oily and what not with a tiny little kick to it that hit you on the back of the tongue.
It was rull good.
For her dinner, Nickie ordered the Penne Salsiccia e Funghi (penne pasta in a creamy sauce with sausage and mushrooms.)
Which she just told me, as my laptop light was keeping her awake, was delicious.
I opted for the traditional Lasagna.
And traditional or not, this was so good. Like, shockingly good.
I actually was like a real-life blogger tonight and snapped some pics of other people’s dishes. Like Nikki’s Linguine al Frutti di Mare (linguini with tomatoes, shrimp, squid, clams, and mussels.)
Which I distinctly remember her loving.
And Tony’s Ravioli di Pesce (homemade fish ravioli with shellfish sauce.)
Which, erm…I remember him liking? I think he was having a little entrée envy when he saw everyone else’s but it still looked like a nice dish.
I didn’t get pics of Larissa’s or Chris’s dishes but I think Lasagna got the Larissa.
Wait, scratch that. Reverse it.
And I am pretty sure Chris got the Bolognese maybe?
This was a truly excellent dinner though. And being that it was so excellent, we didn’t want to stop there.
Nikki and Chris ordered a couple Espresso Martinis.
And see guys. Pictures of people.
Larissa also got an espresso martini, which is unlike her because (foreshadowing) she has trouble sleeping after them.
I know I ordered a cappuccino but I can’t seem to find a picture of it. Which is odd. I do, however, have a picture of the tea Nickie ordered. On account of it came in this mug.
And YOU KNOW we ordered some dessert.
To be honest, we were on the fence regarding dessert considering how much food we had already taken in. But the waiter sold us on talk of coffee gelato.
So we ordered a coffee gelato, a chocolate cheesecake, and a lemon cheesecake to share.
I mean, coffee gelato. Amirite?
Also though?
They were out of coffee gelato.
Blergh. We opted for vanilla.
Still though. Gelato.
And here are the cheesecakes…
All of it was good but I think the lemon cheesecake ended up being the table favorite.
The waiter also brought us each out a little shot of what I assume was Limoncello? It looks like Limoncello right. Yeah, let’s say it was Limoncello.
Aren’t you glad you came to this uber-informative blog?
But yeah man. This was a real good dinner. It was a beautiful night. The drinks were flowing. The food was delicious. And obvs squad the company was on point.
And like, that was Day 3 pretty much. After dinner, we made our way back to the villa and each kind of separated off into our own rooms to sleep I think. Again, doing nothing? Super tiring.
Well, actually. Remember that espresso martini Larissa ordered? She said the next day she was up for a good part of the night. So most of us went to our rooms to fall asleep. This was the one night Larissa out-stayed-awake us all. lulz.
Hope you all enjoyed Day 3. Keep your eyes out for Day 4. It should be here sometime before Fall.
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Next post – Day 4
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