Sunday May 1 - move from TP to IA

Sunday dawned slightly later than Saturday for me... I was still amongst the first up on the grounds, but it was far enough after sunrise for the hammock hut outside to be fully lit by the sun.

 The view from our balcony looking to the right

 

Looking down to the left, that wonderful horrible bridge

 Standing in the doorway of our hut, looking out over the garden paths.

It was our last morning at Tensing Pen, so between packing the few items we'd unpacked, and double and triple checking to ensure we remembered everything, I took some opportunities to skirt around the grounds with my camera gear, shooting the gardens and the few critters who would hold still long enough for me to focus on.

 Orchids are grafted to trees, this is the tree just outside the gift shop hosting several all the way up the trunk.

 This is a bananquit nest.  These little twitchy birds have been too quick for my camera so far this trip, but I followed this one to his hiding place - that stripe in the center of the dark spot it his head.

After being teased by these birds the entire trip, this one finally gave me a break and posed in a sunny spot for me.

We were ready to go fairly early, so Tyrone came to pick us up and shuttle us down the road to Idle Awhile.  D checked us in, we piled our luggage inside the lobby, and we headed down the garden path to the beach side bar. 

 

Checking in at the lobby of Idle Awhile

 G and her American Girl doll, waiting patiently as we check in

We were immediately greeted with a lot of "Hey!  Welcome home!  Good to see you again!"... Jenny, one of the bartenders, came around to give us all hugs, and Needle shook our hands with a great big smile.  A wedding party had partially vacated the hotel that day, so as we waited for our room to be cleaned we climbed up to the bar and ordered some lunch.  I had their jerk chicken, which is very good and decidedly spicy.  As we ate, a really decent rain storm came up across the beach, hitting us with some thunder and pounding rain, letting up for about 5 minutes, then washing us out again.  After about 40 minutes of good downpour, the sky cleared, our luggage moved to our room, and we were given the keys.

We were greeted by a surprise "Welcome Home" gift... a really nice quality canvas beach bag, and a nice deep coffee mug.

 So fortunate, as we seem to have lost our old beach bag over the last year, and this one is MUCH better quality anyway

Birds of Paradise in a vase on our coffee table, I can't see these without thinking of Farscape!

You know when it's going to rain on the beach, because you can see it coming from miles away.  I *love* the dramatic lighting we get during storms.

After unpacking and slathering on some sunblock we headed straight for the water, diving in and finding a small school of fish dashing about.  It was a great relief from the heat (which has been a consistent "85 feels like 100" every day thus far)  After soaking in some refreshment from the sea and the bar, we cleaned up and headed down the beach for dinner.

Dinner was honestly not good.. we went to Alfred's (which we've been to a couple years prior, for a breakfast that I was equally less than impressed with)  We didn't bother with photos of this meal... I had shrimp, it was mediocre at best, and I forgot how very "outhouse with no sink" their bathrooms are.  We had a lovely walk down the beach to get there, however, and a nice walk back up on the road side... admiring all the drum-pan chicken we're thinking of trying one of these nights.