The Wright Family: June 2012

Paradise. Where to begin? I guess you could call this trip, “the trip that almost wasn’t!” Since we began planning this trip a few months ago, Travis and I have made all kinds of preparations. The usual ones – boarding animals, planning activities, getting ALL of Blair’s things ready – the works. And if you know me, you know that there was a notebook involved that each set of grandparents received – everything from sample menus for school lunches – to info regarding Gymboree – taking her to the doctor – everything. I wanted to make sure that everyone was fully prepared to deal with Miss B and make things as easy on everyone as possible. So like I said, we were ready. Monday night, after dropping Blair off with her Gammy and GranDad, Travis and I were finishing up the last of our packing. It was almost 10:30pm when I logged into American Airlines website to check us in. I had both passports, and was filling in all of the data to get us ready. My face dropped when I opened my passport – which read “Ashley Almon.” My face dropped, my heart sank and tears ensued. In all of our preparations, I completely forgot that my passport was still in my maiden name and hadn’t even thought anything about it. As I proceeded to sob and apologize to Travis, he was already on the phone with the airlines. 30 long and grueling minutes later, we had gotten my name on my tickets changed to Ashley Almon. RELIEF. I honestly believed that we were not going to be able to take our trip. I am going to chalk up that brief moment of insanity to a stressful day and having to say good-bye to my baby for a week.

DAY ONE

So, Tuesday morning, we are on a roll and headed to IAH to catch our 6am flight. We had three checked bags (don’t judge) and carry-ons to drag to the desk. When we round the corner to get to the American Airlines counter, we are stunned to see a HUGE line of people waiting and become quickly disheartened with how slow the line is moving. Honestly, it wasn’t moving at all. At this point, there is an hour until our flight to Miami leaves and we aren’t sure that we are going to make it – or the connecting flight to St. Martin. 40 mins until take off and we are all informed that there was some issues with AA’s tarmac – so everyone on the Miami flight is asked to cut in line to get checked in (don’t mind if we do!). After getting our boarding passes, being ushered through the short line at security and running to the terminal – we made our flight.

Our flight to Miami wasn’t too bad and after a quick breakfast in the airport, we were back on the plane – headed to St. Martin. Once arriving in St. Martin, we had to catch a nearby ferry to Anguilla. You can take a small propeller plane over, but the flight is about $200 per person, and you are on a small plane. No thanks.

We got to Anguilla around 2:45pm and after a quick run through immigration / customs, we were picking up our rental car from Andy. We were thrilled to not have a brand new vehicle (since the roads are not all paved & great for driving – plus the roads are tight and the overgrown vegetation frequently brushes against the car). We headed straight towards “our side” of the island to see if we could snag dinner at Gwen’s. Gwen’s Reggae Grill is a little beach shack on Shoal Bay East with pretty reasonable food (burgers, chicken, ribs, seafood) where we spent a lot of time when we were in Anguilla in 2009. I was surprised to see that Gwen’s had a bigger, newer building – due to a fire in November 2010. We grabbed cheeseburgers and beers and sat at one of her tables with our feet in the sand. It was amazing – and so very surreal to be back. Shoal Bay East (SBE) had eroded quite a bit since our last visit, so there were large rocks / boulders put into place to slow the erosion. It was sad to see really, since it is one of the world’s most beautiful beaches. After dinner, we headed about 1 minute up the road to our villa. Villa Mimosa is inside a locked gate on a property with about 2 other rental properties. It sits back on the hill, so you get these incredible views of the bay. AH-MA-ZING!

After getting our bags into the villa and scoping it out – we headed back to the beach to take a sunset walk to the point. These are the pictures taken from the point – to our villa.

DAY TWO

Our first full day on the island started off with my little “present” to Trav and I – a couple’s massage on the beach. I thought it would be a great way to really kick-off our trip and relax. The spa actually used to be on SBE, but due to the erosion, they moved to a resort on Mead’s bay. It was gorgeous and the massages were 90 mins of heaven.

After our massages, we drove to Blanchard’s Beach Shack (located just next door to the actual restaurant). I was super excited to try this place because not only was it reasonably priced, but it had a really great menu. There were salads, soups, burgers, sandwiches, seafood dishes, frozen yogurt, etc. And the best part – a cheeseburger was $6. Unbeatable price on this island.

I found out (while we were on the island) that Anguilla ranks as the 2^nd most expensive island in the Caribbean. I think that St. Barth’s is the 1^st. Either way, it is not a cheap place to come – but we certainly work it as economically as possible (even cooking dinners in our villa).

We grabbed cheeseburgers and frozen drinks – strawberry daiquiri and a mango colada and enjoyed our lunch by Meads Bay. It was delicious!

After lunch, we stopped by Albert’s grocery store to grab essentials, a few meal items and some juice and rum for our rum punches (see? Making my rum punch as opposed to paying the inflated prices!). Our afternoon was spent sipping rum punches on SBE, swimming and enjoying each other’s company on “our” beach.

Wednesday night’s dinner was at Picante, a Mexican restaurant that we ate at last time. They have awesome strawberry margaritas and Queso corn. They grill corn on the cob and slather it with either cojito cheese or queso fresco and bake it until it melts. It is SO good and something we plan on recreating now that we are back. For dinner we split the chicken chimichanga and steak fajitas. I was shocked to see how many tourists were at the restaurant – since we were visiting the island in low season. Picante was packed and I think the service suffered a little. Island time, Mon.

DAY 3

On Thursday morning, we woke up to no electricity. Let me back-track a little. Our villa is what you would imagine of a Caribbean villa – bright tacky colors; open windows allowing for the sea breeze to come in; appliances that were new 10-15 years ago. The AC unit was a small one, that was actually situated in the living room, right off the bedroom. So with open windows (that you cannot fully close) and a small unit, the place doesn’t cool down completely. I instantly felt/heard the fans shut off and I knew we were in trouble. As it turns out, the electricity company was replacing some poles on our side of the island, and being in the “off” season, they felt that Thursday was a good day to cut off the electricity. We found this out from the superintendent that oversees the properties. When he let us know what was going on, he offered to let us use the pool at the beachfront villa on the property. He said that the villa wouldn’t be used until Satruday and that we were welcome to use it. We grabbed croissants at our favorite French bakery for breakfast and prepared for a pool day.

Shut. The. Front. Door.

This villa (Villa Bellamare) is AMAZING. The buildings / rooms were locked up, but the beautiful infinity pool overlooks Shoal Bay, and has many “sunning” areas, a gorgeous gazebo, and an outdoor formal dining room. We immediately forgot about the electricity and gushed about the gorgeous pool and views. Later on in the afternoon, the superintendent – Junior – came by to say hi and give us a tour of the villa. WOW, WOW, WOW. It was beautiful and breathtaking! [Note: I am going to use the words “beautiful” and “gorgeous” and “amazing” at pretty much every turn – so get used to it.]

We walked up the beach to Gwen’s and ate lunch before heading back to our villa. It was somewhere between lunch and the walk back that Trav and I realized how much sun we had gotten. We had used our 30 and 50 spf sunscreen, but due to the heat – we were still sweating much of it off. We decided that we had cooked enough and spent the reaminder of the day in our villa (luckily the power was back on). We cooked dinner at the house and watched tv.

DAY 4

Friday was another day without power. At this point, we were getting pretty peeved and unsure if our entire trip would be this way. We went next door to Serentiy to grab some breakfast (and figured that they had a generator and would be cooler). An order of French toast (for me) and eggs benedict (for T) later, we hopped in the air-conditioned car and set out to explore the island. There was a bay that Trav had wanted to find, but it was one of the least visited of all 33 on Anguilla. There is a reason – it is near impossible to get to. We were doing some serious off-roading (hello anxiety!) but still could not managed to get to it (though could hear it). You cannot actually swim at Blackgarden and I think it is literally a few feet of sand, so it wasn’t too big of a bummer – though it would’ve been cool to see.

After our drive around the island, we headed back to the villa for lunch and to aloe up and hang out. (Luckily this time the power was only out for about 2 hours.)

For dinner, we went to the Viceroy resort (one of the NICEST on the island) to have dinner in their Sunset Lounge. The lounge overlooks their infinity pool which frames a beautiful sunset each evening. When we walked up to grab a seat at the bar, the house music was playing Band of Horses! How random is that? Band of Horses is one of mine and Trav’s favorite bands – but are not really well-known (Drew Barrymore’s first dance with her new hubby was to a BOH song – neat!) so we were surprised to hear it playing. Did I mention I love this place?

We ordered sushi for Trav and chicken terayki for me. We of course shared our entrees and sipped on our beers before our next stop – Elvis’ Beach Bar on Sandy Ground. Sandy Ground is one of the “areas” on Anguilla that holds most of the beach bars.

We had visited Elvis’ the last time we were here, so we knew what to expect. This time, the owner, Elvis (who reminds me to a low-key version of Flavor-Flav) chatted with us quite a bit and even offered us up a shot of his homemade rum (who knows what was actually in it since it is not mass produced and sold). We got a kick out of this group of about 4 50-60 year old women. They had clearly been drinking ALL day and were pretty silly. They were bugging Elvis about where to get some ++++++. When he pointed them in the direction of the individual, they swarmed him like bees to a hive. We laughed as they enjoyed their treat, wondering if they would be able to stumble back to their resort – or just pass out at the table. One of the ladies cracked us up when she said, “My daughter would have a fit if she knew about this!” Haha, I bet.

DAY 5

The next morning, we ran back to Albert’s for some more aloe, water, etc and Le Bon Pain for breakfast. Our plan was to hang out at Savannah Bay, eat lunch at Palm Grove and see how we felt. Once we got to Savannah Bay, we realized that there was absolutely not a speck of shade and that our umbrella wasn’t really going to do it – since we both were still pretty red and tender. We bagged on that idea and headed to SBE to eat lunch (at Gwen’s) and play on the beach. Thank goodness for my big floppy hat. It not only covered my face, but my shoulders as well! We collected coral, drank beers and enjoyed the sound of the waves and smell of the ocean.

We ate a quick dinner at the villa before heading back to Elvis’ to watch Boston and Miami in Game 7. Elvis is a huge Boston fan, so that is who we were rooting for. About halfway through the 1^st quarter, Travis leaned over and told me to look to my right. About 15-20 feet way, we caught our first (and only) celebrity siting. No, not Brad Pitt, or Emma Stone, or Ryan Gosling. Sitting just a few feet away from us was Little Wayne. Anytime any of the locals or tourists would try to casually stroll up and talk to him, his bodyguards shut it down, with a quickness. He sat off to the side (with his lady friend) and watched the game.

We left in the 3^rd quarter and watched the rest of the game from our villa. We spent many of the nights on our outside balcony, watching the stars. Thanks to the lack of ambient light from the small island, we were able to see millions all over!

DAY 6

On Sunday – we tackled our long awaited trip to Little Bay. There are two ways to reach Little Bay – you can either pay a fisherman at Crocus Bay to bring you over & pick you up, or you can climb down a 35 ft cliff (with the help of a rope) to get to this little secluded beach. 3 years ago, on our honeymoon, we had made it as far as the cliff’s edge. We were not at all prepared for the climb down and didn’t have the necessary things – like a cooler or rope. I am proud to say that we were prepared and we did it. The pictures hardly do it any justice. The bay is shallow and amazing. Easily one of the MOST beautiful places I have ever laid my eyes on (and I have done some traveling in my day) or been to. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! We spent the morning in awe of this little bay, swimming all over the bay and playing with the little fish. We decided that we would come back the next day to snorkel.

Due to where the bay is located and the cliffs, you are only protected from the sun for a few hours, so we climbed back up around lunchtime to find something to eat. Unfortunately most places are closed on Sunday / Mondays (in the slow season), so our drive to the other side of the island to Blanchard’s Beach Shack left us empty-handed. We ended up having lunch at E’s Oven, a place we passed a million times and never ate at. We got burgers to go and drank a daiquiri while chatting with the nice waitress. She said gas had gotten as high as $10 / gallon - so I guess we should've been thankful for the $7 / gallon gas. Yikes. Thankfully the island isn't that big!

We rested (and aloe-ed) at the villa in the afternoon and ate at one of our favorite restaurants, Straw Hat. Straw Hat is located next to the Frangapani resort on Mead's Bay (where we got our massages and just a little ways down the beach from Blanchard's and Blanchard's Beach Shack. Trav had requested a table by the edge of the patio so that we would have an unobstructed view of the gorgeous sunset. Bliss!

Just off the patio, onto the beach, there was a fresh sea turtle's nest. One of the waiters told us that the turtle had come up the beach around 11:30pm the night before, to lay them. He said that Monday (the next business day) somebody from the Anguillan Wildlife Conservatory was coming out to mark it off so keep it from being disturbed by unknowing beach goers. How crazy is that?

We both ordered the grilled, 1 1/2 pound Anguillan lobster. Again, it was to die for! The peas and rice (a traditional Anguillan side) - I could do without out. At the last second we decided to order the spinach and artichoke dip - and boy am I glad that we did! It was super rich, but delicious.
DAY 7
Back at Little Bay! First, we made our last trip to Le Bon Pain (closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, boo) for croissants and sandwiches to take with us. This time, we brought snorkling gear and the underwater video camera. We saw all kinds of beautiful fish, jellyfish (that didn't sting) and sea urchins. We didn't see any turtles or mantas (like other people we were talking to), but there were millions of fish! I was determined to video as many of the fish as I could. Blair loves fish and I knew it'd be a hit!
We grabbed lunch at Blanchard's Beach Shack, then made our trek back to the other side of the island to our villa for a few "rummy" drinks.

Travis had a sunset walk planned for us on Captain's Bay. One thing you have to remember about Anguilla is how undeveloped it is. You travel on dirt roads about 40% of the time and any paved road is gutted pretty bad with pot holes. A lot of bays are tucked back from the developed roads. Captain's Bay is one of those bays. After a VERY bumpy ride, we found it. It is absolutely gorgeous, but there aren't any palm trees, you cannot swim in the bay (bad under tow) and there is nothing on it - but a massive villa at the other end. We walked up and down the bay, taking pictures and wondering what it would be like to live on this secluded beach. We decided to walk up the driveway to find out the name of the villa. All of the sudden we heard someone inviting us in. So barefoot (we'd left our shoes on the beach), we walked into this woman's immaculate villa. It is called Exclusivity if you want to look it up. She was telling us all about the celebrities that have stayed there, where she got inspired for the design, about her dog... she went on and on. Trav and I smiled and nodded, but really I was just looking all around me. The views were amazing - and I did catch her say that she built the house so that all of the bedrooms had the bay view. Not a bad room there!
T and I politely did not wear out our welcome and left after some small talk. We found our way and had dinner at our place before getting up for our last day!

DAY 8
Sigh. Our last day. We knew we'd spend our whole day on Shoal Bay East. We slept in a little and had breakfast at Serenity. We then packed up our gear and grabbed a perfect spot right under the palm trees, but close enough to the water to reach our feet. Heaven. After about half the day at the beach, we had lunch at Gwen's... I am going to miss her coleslaw very, very much. I loved it when I first tried it three years ago - and still haven't had anything close to hers. I am probably just not adding enough sugar. Ha!

We got most of our packing done in the afternoon (and just for the record, it would be really nice if Villa Mimosa would consider having a small washer / dryer for the unit!), so we could find some dinner. We found some great pizza at Valley Bistro. This was another first visit for us and one we will definitely dine at again. A 12" pizza and two cokes was $15. That was the cheapest meal we'd ever had on the island. I wish we had tried there sooner, but I am glad we can go there next time.
DAY 9
Thanks to having packed the night before, we were able to get up pretty quick, get to St, Martin and have lunch before our flight. I find that whenever we travel, our "return" flights always seem to be the worst. Weird, but it always finds both Trav and I swearing off flying for a couple of years. Maybe I am just getting old.

We finally made it home around midnight. My mom had put Bug to bed here so that we would all be able to wake up together. Around 7am she was stirring a little and I went in there to grab her. When I opened the door, she looked surprised and a little in disbelief. She laid her head on my shoulder and kicked her feet excitedly. It was really cute and we missed her SO very much! It is hard enough to be away from her while I am working. I knew that this wasn't a Bug-kind of trip and that'd she'd have way more FUN with all of her grandparents, aunts and uncles! Blair did so great with everyone (and still slept through the night - yay!) and had a blast. We were able to FaceTime with her, so that made it a little easier.
Now that we are back, she is gluedtomyhip. I am indulging her a little because I missed her so darn much, but know this isn't going to go in my favor.

Short story LONG - we had a really incredible time on our little island, just the two of us. It was really good to get that time to spend together and be a little irresponsible. Just a little.