Thursday May 5 - Beach day

Thursday dawned with bright sunshine and calm waters again.  We woke up and meandered our way down to the deck for our breakfast of oat porridge, toast and coffee. 

 Gayle likes to help mark our chairs with our towels while we finish up our coffee.

 Breakfast this morning includes a bottle of fresh squeezed orange juice from a vendor on the beach.

As we finished up breakfast, I noticed a heron flying in and landing under the tree to the side of the property.

Looking forward to properly editing these at home - sometimes the lighting on the sand is a hassle to deal with.

We spent some time back and forth in and out of the water...

D's view of me walking out into the water to chat with some of the other guests.

Around lunch time we wandered our way down to the Waves market area to see about getting some patties from Niah's.
Of all the market places along the beach, this one is my favorite - save for the indoor gift shops, it's the only spot on the beach where you don't feel hassled.  The wood carvings that are for sale are being shown and sold by the actual carvers themselves... last year we bought from Robert Woolery, who was not in his shop today, but we met his mentor Mason, who has a shop directly across from Robert.  We absolutely plan on going back to buy something from the folks in Waves before we leave, but for today we were just looking and getting an idea of who carves what kinds of subjects.  Mason specializes in faces, some are abstract, some realistic, but all are incredibly beautiful.  I'm hoping to go back when I'm not so greased over with sunblock so I can take proper photos without fear of dropping my camera.
We ordered our patties from Niah's and they said it would take about a half hour (they had just opened) so D hiked back to the room with G to pick up some chicken across the street to go with them.  I stayed, and chatted with some women who were selling whole aloe leaves.  I was turning red in a few spots and was interested in seeing what raw aloe vera would do to help.  I picked up a stalk, and one of the women also offered to rub some on me right there (for a fee, of course)  I went ahead with it, expecting it would just be put on my shoulders where the redness was showing... and ended up with pretty much a full body aloe rubdown right there on the beach. 
I think if I'd gotten it on video I might possibly be able to make a few bucks off of that on certain websites. :)

On the way back to the hotel I noticed the stingray in the water, very close to the edge.  I grabbed a shot before stepping into the water, but once again she swam away before I could get an underwater photo.

As much as I want an underwater photo, I'm also still rather happy that she's so shy around people.

We've noticed the pattern of her swimming seems to be fairly consistent... somewhere around 11 to noon she passes back and forth around this stretch of beach.  I'll continue to try to get her underwater, but so far this is the best shot I've managed.
 While hanging out at the bar munching on our lunch a couple came up to grab a drink and say hello.  They'd just had their wedding here at Idle Awhile the day before we arrived and were now spending the remainder of their honeymoon up the beach at an all-inclusive resort.  They were talking with the staff and us about the differences between the two, saying they much prefer the experience at Idle Awhile as compared to the all inclusive.  For one thing, the staff-to-guest ratio can't be beat (the all inclusive housing hundreds of rooms as opposed to Idle Awhile's 14) and then that morning they discovered that to leave their property just to walk down the beach, they needed to "check out" - put their name and room number on a list and let them know how long they would be before they returned.
A few thicker black clouds began to roll in, so I decided it would be a good time to pop back into the room for a shower.  When I came back out Shirley, one of the guests, spotted me and said - in a voice that was calm but urgent "Oh good there you are... go get your camera!  The one with the zoom."  I dashed back inside for the camera and crept up to where she was standing to see another heron posed in the tree.

While I was having fun chasing after wildlife, D had been picked up by Tyrone to go down the street and visit Courtney, a chef we know from previous trips. 

D snapped this shot of Tyrone in his colorful shirt - which we jokingly call his "tourist shirt"

While D was out with Tyrone, I took a nap in the hammock and G worked on some of her homework packet.  Once he came back we were all still feeling kinda lazy, so we decided to stick around the bar, playing dominoes and grabbing a few snacks as dinner. 
I have about a billion photos of generic sunsets... the glowing orb off on the horizon, so I've decided to try to make each night's shooting attempts a little more creative.  Tonight I put on the lensbaby and poked around behind the little baby palm tree.