Today must have been the funnest day of our entire winter, in a "laugh out loud good time" sense. I can't say it was necessarily the best day of the winter, because we've had so many truly excellent ones. But in terms of pure play pleasure, today has to top the list.
We enjoyed breakfast in the dining room (with blueberry pancakes!) before packing for a beach day and taking a taxi over to....the Segway Antigua office! That's right- for the third visit in a row, we had reserved a Segway tour. Hmmmm...do ya think we might enjoy it?!?
We like to go to the Segway office early. They have the BIG five of Caribbean Internet there: free, fast, cool, quiet and shaded, and are kind enough to let us use it. In fact, while we were in the taxi going there, we passed Juliette from the Segway Antigua office riding a Segway over to the pier to meet up with the others taking the tour with us. We stopped-she stopped, and she said she had left us a note at the office. When we got there, the other two members of the Segway Antigua team, Yandeen and Elizabeth, were out with the 9:00am tour, and with Juliette away collecting the other passengers, they would normally have locked up the office. But Juliette, knowing G and I as she does, left the door unlocked and the sweetest note, advising us to come in and make ourselves comfortable and giving us the wifi password.
We love these people!
We wifi-ed fast and furiously until the 9:00am tour returned. Jenny and Bill had taken that tour and we were anxious to hear how they liked it. Jenny had told us the cutest story about her 86-year old, 4' 11" mother riding a Segway in Florida, totally successfully. But the visual of this little lady looking over the handlebar just cracked us up. Well now, Jenny knows she can keep up with her mom!
The rest of our group turned out to be a family of six from England. We all watched the training video again (those stick figures showing what NOT to do still quicken my pulse), geared up and then went outside to train with the Segways. G and I were allowed to just get started and run them around, but we listened carefully to the dismount instructions. That's still the trickiest part ("Jenny's 86-year old mom, Jenny's 86-year old mom, Jenny's 86-year old mom" became my dismount mantra. If she can do it, I can do it!). Soon we were off, on a longer tour today, through some residential areas (dogs! Barking dogs! Another fear of mine!) while Yandeen took action photos and Juliette used a blow horn to talk about Antigua's history and culture. I actually heard a lot more today, probably because my brain wasn't stuck on "stay upright".
We stopped for a stretch and water break at beautiful Runaway (or it's also called Runway) Beach, just south of Dickenson Bay Beach, and noticed that the surf today was bigger than it had been on our previous, recent visit. Ooohhh, this looked like fun!
We headed back down towards Fort James. Instead of hyperventilating at the potholes, I was slaloming around them, having the time of my life. For the fourth time this winter, we visited Fort James (we went once on our own, plus the three Segway tours). G had made that a goal for this winter- to get to Fort James. Guess we accomplished that one! After a water-sugar cane-fruit kabob break at the fort, it was time to cross that damn arched bridge again to leave. That is a trick, and convinced I was going to fall backwards, and become the living representation of one of the stick figures in training video, I cried "help me!" and Juliette was there to keep me upright and save my life. With my legs like jello, we headed back to the Segway office where we were offered a local beer (Wadadli) or a local fruit drink, or both (they're good mixed together!).
Then it was beach time, and if scooting around Antigua on Segways hadn't been enough fun, I played in those glorious waves for over an hour (Sheila, it was Ilhabela, Brazil all over again), jumping and diving while G watched nervously from shore. Sorry, hon...I wasn't going to sit that one out! When it comes to bigger waves, I'm still a kid at heart, squealing and laughing and having a grand old time. What I didn't realize- then- is that every wave was filling my swimsuit with another bunch of sand. I was padded all over on the ride back to the ship, and it all dumped on the floor when I peeled off my swimsuit. THAT wasn't going to make for a happy Steward Nazi!
We just had time for quick showers before we dressed for dinner and went up to Skywalkers to watch sailaway from Antigua (one of our favorites because of the beautiful harbor at St. John's). Once again, I was struck by how much later the sun is setting. Instead of setting while we were still in the harbor, we had already gone to dinner when it finally set, beautiful with the island of Montserrat in the distance. Montserrat is the island with the still-active volcano, and we've set as a goal for next year to get over there somehow, even if it's just by helicopter from Antigua.
Following dinner, we went to this cruise's Most Traveled Passengers (MTP) party. (Cutoff was 368 days- one of the lowest of the winter). We're now 11 for 11 for this year in qualifying for that; although one time I think we were passenger numbers 39 and 40 on the list. Professional cruisers love these 10-night itineraries, and sometimes the top three couples all have over 1000 nights on Princess. Wow.
We met Captain Nick Nash, who now becomes the "resident" captain of the Emerald Princess, as Captain Pomata is moving to the Caribbean Princess. If our plans for next year don't change, we'll be seeing a lot of him next year. The three Breeza Marinas I consumed there marked the end of my evening, and entertainment was out of the question, although production show What a Swell Party was being performed in the Princess Theater and pianoman Kory Simon was in the Explorers Lounge. Segways, waves, beach and Breeza Marinas- I was done for the day, but what a fun way to get there!
Photo 1: Runaway Beach
Photos 2-4: Fort James
Photo 5: this is how close the Segway Antigua office is too Fort James Beach...it's right there!
