FRIDAY...

On Friday, we packed up and moved out of the hellishly uncomfortable... ahem, I mean, um... most wonderful condo ever (it was the site of our engagement, after all!). We dropped our bags at the Seaside Cabanas, the bright-yellow hotel just on the other side of the main pier from the condo. They had luckily had a cancellation and had just the one night available in cabana #4. After breakfast and some wandering around, we parked ourselves in the Seaside Cabanas bar, waiting for our room. The bartender was a friendly woman who was chatting with a young English woman (20s) and a large Hawaiian man. The man turned out to be from Phoenix, sort of. He was the groundskeeper (or whatever that's called) at the super-luxurious golf resort on a neighboring caye. We talked to him about golf, the special salt-tolerant grass needed in tropical climes, and so on. The English woman had been on the caye for a couple of months, and was leaving soon. She was hoping to come back semi-permanently, but I think her tourist visa was expiring. The wait was long and hot, and I was getting tired of drinking Belikins, the local beer. Eventually, we checked in and got to go to our cabana. It was so nice, and the bed was GREAT. I tell you, that condo bed was the WORST.

The cabana had a private roof deck with a hammock and some lounge chairs. Although we didn't use the swimming pool (the only one on the island), we did take advantage of the deck. In the afternoon, we went up to the split and swam. We met up with Molly and Sally and brought them back to enjoy some take out Chinese on our deck for dinner. That evening, we went on a sunset kayak. We had to ask at a couple of different places to find two double kayaks that we could take out that late, but it all worked out. The sunset ended up being pretty undramatic, but it was nice being out on the water and drifting around with my honey.

SATURDAY... APRIL 1...

Nothing very foolish happened that day. We had to catch the boat to the mainland around 12:30 or 1, so we decided to spend the morning exploring the island via bike. They were cheap -- I think it was $10 for two bikes for an hour. We rode all the way down to the bottom tip, and around back up the other side around the tiny airstrip. Parts of the island were pretty dry and empty. We ended up back at the top, near the split, where we found Sally and Molly soaking up the sun. We dipped our sweaty legs in, but didn't want to get too sticky, since we anticipated being on a plane that afternoon... little did we know!

So, the ferry ride... not too exciting... We took a cab from the water taxi terminal to the airport. A bit cramped. We get to the airport, there's a big line. Um, bad news. The flight the day before had been cancelled due to some kind of pilot's union strike or threat of a strike, and everyone from that flight had priority over us (we were flying standby). Not good. Our buddy Mike from Ohio was there with his son, Delta had put them up at the casino the night before because of the cancelled flight. No such luck would there be for us. James and I decided that we should let the girls go if it came down to it, as they were out of money and we could afford to stay another night. And guess what -- it did come down to that, luckily for the girls but not so happy for us. They got the last two seats on the flight. We headed back out into the humid afternoon to figure out what to do with our extra day in paradise.

We talked to a couple of different car companies and ended up with a two-seater without air. It was cheaper than a taxi both ways into Belize City and back. We called a couple of hotels, and decided to check out one or two before settling. The first one was kinda dingy, seemed empty (it was large), and not very welcoming. We walked around the block and checked out the White House (I think that was what it was called...?), which I loved. It was rather luxurious, and a bit pricy, but I was feeling like we needed to stay someplace nice to compensate for the bummer of the missed flight. That night we went to the casino (best forgotten, what a waste of time & money) and had a few drinks in the hotel bar, in the courtyard downstairs. The something-Mermaid was the name of the restaurant/bar. Smoking? No, that can't be it. Sultry? Nah... We had breakfast there the next morning as well.

The flight on Sunday went fine, first class (yeay!), but the flights to SF Sunday night from Atlanta were full, so we ended up back at James' mom's place for the (short) night. We got on the first flight Monday morning, and were home by early afternoon.

Well, that's about it. I'll try to think if I have anything else to add...