We've been married for a full week! And I gotta tell you, married life is awesome! When you're married, you get to hang out in Belize!
We did our little curtain trick again so that we could sleep until after 9am. Which is great since we were up so late the night before (ha). We woke up to rain once again, and we knew that Tropical Storm Alex was officially coming to meet us, but we didn't care. We decided to go out to breakfast, and found a Cuban Cafe that was serving a great breakfast, playing the world cup broadcast, and catering to the 9am beer crowd (there were several). We met a stray dog along the way, and he followed us and waited while we ate. This breakfast was delectable - fresh fruit, amazing coffee (seriously delicious), toast, omelets, breakfast sandwiches, fry jacks (like little pancakes), and the best orange juice I have ever had in my life. You could tell they probably squeezed the juice 5 minutes earlier back in the kitchen. The rain was steady most of the day, but falling relatively lightly. (Maybe moderately). But when it is 99 degrees outside, the rain just makes things more refreshing, so Andy and I decided to go for a walk in the rain and check out what the island looked like when it wasn't bright and sunny. Our walk ended up being just under four miles long, all in the rain. The dog followed us for a good part of it. We left the main streets that we'd been exploring and walked all the way to the airport. (Sounds impressive, but it is less than a mile from the resort). Then we kept going, and walked in the less populated area until we found the San Pedro schools - three little buildings that looked like tiny houses right next to each other, in bright blue, yellow, and green. Kept going - we found a store that actually sold xD cards so I could replace the one in my digital camera and start taking more pictures! Awesome! Kept going - we found a nice little wine store! Kept going - we started to find private homes, so we decided we'd gone far enough. We cut through someone's pathway to the beach, and then walked home, in the rain, along the beach. The rain was making the little fishies that live along the shore scramble, and we took our time getting back to the condo.
We dried ourselves off and decided to contact our parents to let them know that the storm didn't seem to be too bad, in case they were worried. I mean, we just spend hours walking around in the rain! Yes, it was going to get worse, but it would be fine. We met up with members of the staff who told us about their hurricane plan. These folks at the Phoenix are so well prepared! They took in all the outdoor furniture of all the units that had glass tables. For folks that had big wooden outdoor sets like we did, they helped us move everything to the corners of the balcony where it was less likely to be picked up by any wind. Then people came to every unit to deliver emergency lights in case we lost power, buckets of water in case we lost water, and a list of emergency phone numbers in case we needed them, after making sure that the cell phones they provided for us were well charged. We were all prepared. I even had a dumb moment in my own preparations, but it is not one that I wish to post on my blog. It was dumb, though. When we were all set for the storm, and the wind and rain started to pick up, we went outside again to check it out first hand.
Water was starting to crash over the retaining walls between the ocean and the resort. The sky turned black. The wind really started whipping. And there I was, trying to take pictures of it. We met a few folks who told us they had come to the Phoenix because they were staying at another hotel on the island (a much smaller establishment) that basically told them "storm's coming. You can't get off the island. Good luck. You're on your own." So they felt comforted by the readiness of the Phoenix. And more comforted by the insane amount of booze they had clearly already imbibed. They took off for a walk/stumble down the beach. We are pretty sure they all made it back eventually.
We borrowed a couple of movies from the resort, knowing that it would be a 'stay-in' night, and then headed to dinner at the Red Ginger restaurant on site, since we learned that the island was given an 8pm curfew and everything on the island would have to close early. And no alcohol could be served. We both ordered the largest french onion soup imaginable as an appetizer. It was great, but large. While Andy enjoyed his honey chipotle glazed ribs and I dove into my breaded chicken with capers and white wine sauce, the lights in the restaurant began to flicker. Because it looked like we were about to lose power, we wrapped it up and the restaurant shut down.
Thinking that we were about to have a power outage, we stayed in the condo and just watched the storm for a while. When the wind and rain got so bad that we could no longer see out the window, and we still had power, we popped in a few movies. Shutter Island. Without giving much away, it takes place on an island that no one can get off of due to a terrible storm. Hmmm.... it was decent. Then we watched Nine. It was just plain awful. I hate to say that about musicals, but it was. We tried to open the doors to the balcony at one point to check out the storm again, and after using our body weight against the door just to open it against the wind, the rain came flying in and we were instantly soaked. The door was shut and we decided it was a good time to call it a night.
Our first tropical storm! How exciting!
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