Day 4 you guys.
Which means we are officially over halfway through our time in Antigua. Yup, we only have Days 5, 6, and 7 left. Which on one hand is sad. But on the other hand is like, “wait we still have three days to write about? Dude has a life outside this blog you know.”
Pfft. Kidding. I love writing these posts as much as you all love reading them. Which, obviously, I know is a lot.
Right?
Aw, you guys so crazy.
So yeah let’s get on with it folks. Day 4 was a good one.
Our March 2023 Antigua trip to celebrate Larissa: Day 4
Oh Day 4?
Day 4 was EARLY.
But it was early on purpose. Which is, like the craziest kind of early.
Yeah, Nickie and I were up and out of bed by 6AM.
Again, on purpose.
No sense. None.
The reason for this insanity? The sun. Yup, the sun. The thing we see legit ALL DAY. Especially in Antigua. But at this time of day, we get to see it not be in the sky and then see it be in the sky.
It was sunrise. Is what I am saying to you now.
We woke up, threw on some clothes, I splashed some water on my head to try and cure my raging case of bedhead. And we made our way out of our little bungalow of love to the main house and climbed the side stairs up to the roof deck.
While we were up there, we caught sight of our new friend. Blog – meet Bacon.
This little dude was legit hanging around us the entire week. I honestly have no idea why. He must have just really connected with us on a deeper level. You know how some animals can just sense innate goodness? I feel like that’s what was going on here.
Oh, his name? Nikki named him that because we kept giving him bacon.
…
Ohhhhhh.
Dang Bacon. Now I see how it is.
From the roof deck, we had a good view of the Sleeping Indian.
And a good view of like, all the things.
And yeah, as you could tell, things were already getting kind of light out. But that didn’t stop the sun from being all, “oh hey look at me. look how cool I am. Love me.”
The sunrise was on the other side of the villa, but we still had a pretty good view of the whole situation.
Especially when we dangerously stood on a chair that was obviously up there for you to stand on but also made it feel like you were taking your life into your own hands.
So frikkin pretty.
OK fine. Getting up early was worth it. Especially on account of not only did I get to see this beautiful sunset. But I got to see it with my beautiful bride by my side. Life was pretty good y’all.
Plus? I am near the end of my second Microsoft Word doc page and it’s only like 6:30AM.
Day 4 is gonna be a situation. Buckle up, folks.
Since I was already up, I decided to get an early morning run in before breakfast. And yeah, the day was shaping up to be a beauty, eh?
Running in pretty places is great. I mean, yeah, because it provides a nice backdrop while you run but also? It forces you to stop a bunch of times and take pictures. So win-win.
Despite continuously stopping to catch my breath take in the loveliness surrounding me, I still managed to get about 3 miles in. After finishing up, I took a quick shower and met up with the rest of the crew for breakfast.
Today’s breakfast was a light situations as we had a lot planned for the day. Bagels, cream cheese, fruit, cheese and crackers, coffee. All obviously good.
And all obviously paired with breakfast beer.
And yah, we were on the road towards our day o’ fun by 9:30 AM.
On account of today we were gonna be on the water legit ALL DAY. Tony booked us 10AM-4PM (yeah, 6 hours) on a catamaran from Catch the Cat. And we were…
HERE
FOR
IT
Yeah, I mean. Literally. The dock was like under a 10 minute golf cart ride.
At around 9:50 or so, we started to see our catamaran pulling in.
Squeeee!
As we boarded, we were greeted by our crew – Lushi, Margot, and Amara.
Who, spoiler alert, were INCREDIBLE. Such good people.
Lushi gave us our safety briefing in the back of the boat and then we were off. Being that this was a catamaran, we spent most of our time up front on the little trampoline situation. They had some bean bag pillow situation seats set up as well for us.
The crew also made us up some drinks and, once again, rum punch was the drink of the day though I think there was some wine being enjoyed as well. Today was a good day.
I mean look at this view.
Hubba hubba.
As we pulled out of the harbor, Margot sat with us and gave us a rundown of everything we were seeing. All of which? I completely forget.
I’m the best.
I will say at one point, Nickie exclaimed this experience was “sick.” And as far back as I can remember? I don’t recall her ever saying anything has ever been “sick.” So you know this was special.
At one point, we pulled into Carlisle Bay for some snorkeling. They provided all the equipment, including choice of standard snorkeling shizz or a tri-board full facemask. I opted for a standard snorkel, mask, and flipper combo while some just went snorkel and mask no flippers. Tony went for the full mask, which was a good thing. Because then I could snap this hilarious photo.
Amara took us out snorkeling and the hope was that we would see some turtles and what not. But erm…those hopes? Dashed AF.
We saw some fish, Amara pulled up a real pretty starfish, grabbed us a sand dollar, and we did get to swim through some pretty coral. But no turtles you guys.
We probably snorkeled for about an hour though and spent some time just sort of swimming around and what not. Oh and Larissa and Nikki jumped off the boat as well.
We were legit cavorting like MoFos out in the water there.
But all that swimming and snorkeling and not seeing turtles worked up quite an appetite. Thankfully? It was lunch time.
We all gathered around the table at the back of the boat. Or the stern as us seafaring folk call it.
Amara made sure all our drinks were full and I don’t know man. This whole day was a vibe. And we were all feeling it. It was hard not to feel all kinds of lucky to be sitting on this beautiful boat on this beautiful day with some beautiful friends drinking some beautiful rum punch.
Let’s. Eat.
The crew started us off with some super soft rolls and butter. Of which I, no lie, at like 4.
Ol’ Carbs Goodreau they call me.
While we were all snorkeling, Lushi really tried to catch us some fish to cook up for lunch. Which would have been pretty incredible. The sea was just not cooperating.
But still – look at this plate they ended up serving us.
That is a good-looking plate. Like, I am looking at that plate and I’m like…
Just so much good on that plate right there. Chicken. Avocado. Potatoes. So much fruit. So much veg. Everything was perfection. Seriously, this was a delicious lunch.
And being that we were celebrating Larissa’s birthday, the crew also brought out a cheesecake…
…and sang a whole song.
And, like yeah…I am sure you’re thinking that song was “Happy Birthday.”
Well, you’d be wrong.
Stupid idiot.
Because check it out…
Yeah I mean that song is kind of all kinds of great. Because, let’s be honest, when was the last time you participated in a group singing of “Happy Birthday” that didn’t sound like some sort of hellscape death march? I don’t know who decided “Happy Birthday” was the song we were all going to sing, but it never comes out as celebratory as one would hope.
While that song? That song was hella-celebratory.
Hella-bratory.
It was a really special moment though. This crew you guys.
After we finished up at the bay, it was (womp) time to head back. But don’t be too sad because the trip back was going to be about two hours. So lots more rum punch fun to be had.
We motored out for a little bit out into open waters. And then? Then the sail was raised for an all-kinds-of-relaxing trip back to Jolly Harbour.
The sail was raised and off we went.
And yeah, I mean. I fell asleep. On Tony. For a little while.
Hahahahahahaha….
SHUT UP!
At one point, though, I awoke to this…
Yep, Amara came out and brought us all these delicious fruit skewers. Which was a nice thing to wake up to. And like, I still had some rum punch too. So I could balance the healthy fruit with the EVEN HEALTHIER alcohol.
My body is a temple.
On the way back, the views continued to be breathtaking.
No no…not THOSE views.
THERE we go. That’s the stuff.
Also, I should mention, while we saw no turtles in the bay, Amara did continuously call out turtles off the boat. But every time the rest of us looked, there were no turtles to be found. Was the pulling the old turtle switcheroo? Who knows? If so, these would be lies I appreciate. Even if I never saw turtles, I prefer thinking that’s my fault.
Self-blame is my love language.
At around 3:30, we started seeing the familiar sights of Jolly Harbour.
But even though our incredible day on the catamaran was ending, nothing could stop our love.
Our boat pulled into the dock a couple minutes after 4PM.
And yeah you guys. What an amazing experience. I feel like we live a pretty blessed life for sure, but this day will definitely stick around. Like, when I look back over some of my favorite days, today will probably be a featured player.
I’ve mentioned the crew a few times but they were fantastic. I would highly HIGHLY recommend Catch the Cat.
After we disembarked, it was back in the golf carts for the short ride back to the villa.
When we got back, we made some drinks and headed out to the pool. And I mean look at Tony here.
Best.
Life.
We hung at the pool for about an hour or so before making our way down to the beach to get in position for sunset.
And I mean, if you’ve been paying attention you know there is no possible way we are enjoying a sunset without champagne. It’s not our fault though. I have been conditioned to expect such a thing and this expectation manifests itself in very physical ways. In short, if I see the sun going down and don’t hear the pop of a champagne cork, I lose consciousness for about 5 minutes.
Ah well. I’m sure that’s perfectly normal.
Cheers!
We were still a few minutes off from the start of the Sunset Show. So you know what that meant.
Photo shoot!
But eventually, the sun did in fact start to set. So get ready you guys. Because it’s a SUNSET-PALOOZA!!
SUNSET! SUNSET! SUNSET!!!! ITS GONNA BE AWESOMMMMMEEE!!
Pretty great stuff right there.
Now, the original plan for tonight was to go out to dinner but our chef, Sira, made the call that after a full day on the ocean we may not be all that up for going out. And man, was that the right call. Because by dinner time, we were all feeling pretty tired.
So yeah – Sira: 1, our original plan: 0.
In lieu of going out to dinner, we figured we would just pick up a few pizzas from the place down the road – Al Porto.
I called in the order and Tony, Chris, and I offered to take the golf cart down the road to pick up the pizzas. Which obviously made us heroes in the eyes of these ladies.
Much like pretty much most of the things we were doing on this trip, the pizza place was less than a 10-minute golf cart ride away.
Now, tonight was a Monday. And I guess on Mondays, Al Porto is a vibe. This picture doesn’t really capture it…
…but when we walked in, it was loud, there were flashing lights, live music popping off. Al Porto on Mondays is like Chuck E. Cheese on Thursdays.
Oh pfft. You don’t know? Yah man. Pasqually gets nuts AF on Thursdays.
Look at him, man. Dude is faced.
Speaking of, did you know there was this whole situation where Chuck E. Cheese figured no one was going to order their pizza on takeout apps so they started selling their food under the name “Pasqually’s Pizza” to trick people into ordering from them. This is real. Look it up.
And I don’t know how to feel about it. I mean, obviously, its duplicitous and all that. But having the bold audacity to use the name of a Chuck E. Cheese character to hide the fact that they were, in fact, Chuck E. Cheese is just so idiotic and brilliant at the same time that I can’t help but be kind of in love with it.
Anyways though, yeah. Al Porto was lit.
We walked up to the front, checked on our order, and the girl working the front told us it would be about 10 minutes. Which, of course, meant there was time for a beer. Which we enjoyed while watching the staff work their magic.
We also ran into the people from the villa next to ours, who we met earlier that day. They seemed to know what they were doing and also confirmed Monday was the night to go to Al Porto. They also loved us. I mean, of course they did.
Eventually, our food was ready and off we went back to the villa.
The scene…
I think we got a couple Cheeses, a Quattro Formaggio (Mozzarella, Gorgonzola, Parmesan, and Feta), and a Diavolo (Mozzarella, Spicy Italian Sausage, Pepperoni, Red Onion, and Jalapeno). All good, but that Diavolo was all, “Diavolo? More like Diavol-OH EM GEE.”
We also got some Arancini. Because, I mean, if there’s arancini on the menu? You have to get it. It’s the law.
But that wasn’t all. Not only was this a pizza and chill night. This was a Netflix and Chill night.
Well, an Amazon Prime and Chill night I think.
But yeah, we also watched a movie. After much deliberation we landed on the Billy Crystal / Meg Ryan / Bruno F’ing Kirby classic – When Harry Met Sally.
It’s a great movie. It’s obviously a great movie. We all know that.
So of course it was an awesome night.
And an awesome end to an awesome day.
Think about today – we went sunrise to sunset. We spent the majority of the day on the water, sipping rum punch. We had delicious food. We saw some beautiful things. And we spent some SERIOUS quality time together. This day was a perfect situation.
And the trip ain’t over you guys. We still have some amazing ahead of us. Stay tuned.
Last post – Day 3
Next post – Day 5
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