A relaxing day

I'm back  on  the  balcony  with  my  morning  coffee,   watching   the  water.  This is  truely my idea  of  paradise.   I  feel  so  lucky   for  everything  in  my  life  that  has  led  up  to  my being  able  to  have  these  indulgences.  I  am happy   to live  modestly  most  the  time,  not  that  I   ever  lack for creature comforts,  but   I  don't   need   fancy  things   if  I   can   see  new  places   and  stay somewhere  like this occasionally.

Monday  night, after  our  drinks  hit us  kind  of  hard, we  just  ate cheese  and  crackers   in  the room  and  called it  a  night.  Tues   AM   I  returned   the  rental   car  and  we  went to  see  Davina,  the  German   concierge,   about swimming with  the  dolphins.  We  picked  a  company  that  will  take  us  back out  to  stingray   city   after the dolphins.    HaHaHaHa Got  that set  up   for   Wed   AM,  so  had  the  day  to  just  goof   around.   I had     the  most delicious massage   and  Connie  has  a  pedicure.  Olive   came by   and   invited us  to join  them for  dinner  at  Casanova,   one  of  the  better  places  on  the  island.

I  asked  Nealy,  the  doorman,  if  they  would  be  bringing   Herr  Professor  Dr  Dr  Rope  a  Dope  Lover  Boy out  some  time  that day.  Here's  the  Marriott  way......Nealy   called   Walem, who came  down and  out  came   a  gorgeous parrot.   Walem   has   been  his  handler   for  7  years  and  calls  him  Echo.  He   brought  nuts to  bribe  "Echo"  and he  let  me   hold   and   love  on   him.   It  was   pretty  cool.

The  rest of  the  day  we  hung  out  in  chairs  at  the  beach.   The  umbrella  guy  makes  his  rounds  and  repositions   the  umbrellas  as  the  sun moves.  We stayed  in the  shade  as  much  as  possible,  both  of  us  were   red  in  places   from  Monday's outing.  Besides I  think  that  with  the  water  and  sand   you can  get  enough  reflected  rays   to  get  burned  even under  cover.  Anyhow,   on  a  chair,  in  and  out of  the  water,  William   brought  us  drinks,   it  was  a  very  good  day.

We  cleaned  up  for  dinner  and  headed  over  to  John  and  Olive's  condo.   On  our  way  out  the  Marriott  drive   I  spotted  a turtle  headed   for  the  road.  I   stopped  and  picked   him  up,  carried  him  through  our  lobby  and  put  him  in  the  stream  with  his  brothers.  I  just  didn't   want  him   to get   squished.  John  and  olive live  on the  top  floor   of  a  3  story   building   with  a  screened  in  porch  that  looks  out  over  the  water.  The complex   has  it's  own  pool   and  their  unit  can  be  rented  when  they  are not  there.  (Probably  mucho  dinero).

They  drove  to  dinner,  Casanova   is  an  honest  to  god  Italian  restaurant,   all  painted  in  those  buttery  colors with  murals  of Italy  everywhere.  John  and  Olive   are  obviously regulars,  we  got  quite  a  welcome  with  European  kisses  all  around.  The  restaurant  is right  on  the  shore  and  the capacity expands  with the weather.  On  a  nice  night,  the  tables  are  set right  in the  sand,  as  close  to  the  water   as   they   can  go   and   down  the pier  all  the  way  to  a  big  dock.   We   sat out on  the  pier,  a  beautiful  night  with  water  and  stars  all  around.  The  food,  wine  and  service   were excellent.  I ate  a  parpadelle   with  chunks  of  tuna,  tomato,  olives  and  eggplant.  Delish.

Olive's   hair  is  all   gray  and  I  had  always  assumed   they  were   older  than  me.  Turns out  only  by a couple  years.   They  met  in Jr  High  in  Newcomer's   town  and  have  been together  forever.  They  are  both  MD's,  John  talked  about   college  at OSU, and  having  flown  planes  over  Vietnam.  He  worked  for  many  years   for the  FDA,  I  think  both  are  trained  in  dermatology.  Not  sure.   He  retired  from  the FDA,  now  consults  with  drug  companies  in  other countries, helping them  deal  with their  regulatory  agencies.

They  are  both  smart  and  funny  and  have  traveled  a  great  deal.  John  still  does  and  I lost  count of  how  many  languages  he  speaks.  Olive  manages  the  business  end  of  the  consulting  and  has  to  fly  to  the US for  a day  to two  every  so often   to  do  their  banking.   I  didn't  get  the  whole   story  but  somehow   because  they  are  not  Caymanian,  they  can't  have  bank  accounts  here.  An  attempt  to  discourage   money  laundering?     Anyhow   we  drank  2  bottles  of  wine  and  laughed and  talked.  For  all their  wealth  and  privelege  they  are  pretty  down  to  earth.  Their  son  gave  them  discs  of  Breaking Bad  for  Christmas so  we  talked  about  that   and  John's  new  fascination  with  Notan, a  Japanese   design  concept.  Looked  it   up  this  am  and  it  is  a  very  interesting  use  of  positive  and  negative  space.  John  is  learning  to  speak  Japanese  as  he  wil lbe  traveling  there  more.

After  dinner we  went  over  to  a  shallow  pool   by  some  other  tables  and  found  a  whole  group  of  tarpons  swimming in  this  little  shallow  area.  They  have  gotten  used  to  getting  food  scraps from  the  3  nearby  restaurants  and hang  out.  A couple  looked  to  be  4  feet long  or  larger.  The  wildlife  here  is  amazing.  That being said,  I'm  off to  join  the  dolphins  and  rays.