Resort living could make me very happy! Jaime needed some peace and quiet for studying for his first block exam of the semester so he shipped us over to the Marriott for the night. I was happy to oblige. I was quick to pack my bags before he changed his mind. We got a student rate of 99.00 for the night. What a bargain for a place like this. Our ferry ride was quick and easy. We sat next to a girl that we see at the local running events on the island. She is a young chiropractor named Miranda. She was on the ferry with her mom and her 10 month old son going over to pick up her mother-in-law coming in from England. She is really nice and we exchanged information about home schooling since that is what she is going to do with her son once he gets old enough. So after our ferry ride we needed to get over to the Marriott so as we were getting out of the pier area there were a bunch of taxi drivers hounding people for fares. I got a guy to bring me there for about 10US dollars. Not too bad. There was a woman welcoming us with some local fruit juice at the open air entry to the hotel. Of course we couldn't resist a freebie. We headed over to the front desk and got started checking in. A woman came over with a tray of cold towels. She was asking Julian if he wanted one. He kept looking over at me and then at her and smiling and wondering why she would offer him one. Finally he said in a sing song voice "Hmmm, OK". And he turned to me and said "Look Mom, I got you a nice facecloth." He looked so proud. I told him he could use it and I opened it up and placed it on his neck. He really liked that. It was ice cold. We brought our things up to our room and were pleasantly surprised with our accomodations. It is a beautiful hotel with really nice comfortable rooms. We had a wet bar, a balcony, two double beds, an armoire with a t.v., a desk with internet hookup, a cushy chair with an ottoman, a huge bathroom with a bidet and a deep tub. After we got our stuff settled in we headed out to check out the grounds and hit the pool. The grounds were left behind after we saw the pool. We decided to just get in. We found a chair to put our stuff down on and dipped in. It was nice! Julian soon found a little boy to play with. His energy twin, a little 4 1/2 year old boy named Alexander. They played for a while and they found another girl to play with. She asked if they were brothers. Julian told her that he was an only kid. She said she was too and Alex did too. It was the only kids club! So it's not so odd after all. We spent a few hours out by the pool and then came inside to get ready for dinner. I had heard that the buffet was really good and was going to check it out. We got seated in a little corner over by the buffet. I decided that I just wouldn't get my money's worth that night so I went with a hamburger instead. It took a long time for our waitress to come over. I finally spied a waitress and got the eye contact going on. She reluctantly came over and she said "You haven't ordered yet?" I told her I hadn't and gave her my order. At this point I was not impressed with the service. I had sat there for at least 10 mintes before I got anyone to come over. At least 10 but probably closer to 15 minutes. So after I placed the order a guy came over and appologized that there had been a misunderstanding. I told him not to worry that I had already ordered. He told me that it was not their intention to let me sit there for so long and my food would be right and they would comp me 20%. Not bad. They were back in my good graces. The burgers came out and they were so good. They had melted cheddar and bacon with lettuce and tomato. With fries. Julian ate almost the whole thing and it was huge! So dinner was great. Then we went back to our room and Julian watched The Empire Strikes Back. He was glad we watched it on a night where he would be sleeping in the same room as me. I guess it was a little scary for him. We slept great that night. Our room was perfectly cool for our comfy cozy beds. The next morning we decided to do the breakfast buffet. It looked really good. I think we got our moneys worth on that one. Julian especially liked the pastry table. It was stuffed with croissants and turnovers and muffins. Yummy. There was a waffle bar and eggs, bacon, fried potatoes, fruit, yogurt, granola, cereal, toast, bagels, fish, and lots more that I can't remember. It was really good. Of course Julian got talking to the couple next to us. They were on their last day and were on their way back home to Michigan. They talked Star Wars mostly. The husband is the dean of agriculture and something else at Michigan State. They were really nice and enjoyed their conversation with Julian. Our waiter, Desmond, from the night before saw us and came over and said hello and asked how we were enjoying things. I thought that was really nice. Then I though he probably thought I was a freak because I was wearing the same outfit from the night before. Haha. I didn't pack a lot of clothes. I just wanted to get over there! We spent the rest of the day by the pool and then our departure time came and we had to head back to the pier. We ended up with about 45 minutes to kill over there. Not an exciting place to hang out. The riff raff hangs around to watch the free t.v. they have on in their outdoor waiting area. A cricket game was on and they were all rambunctious. An older guy came by Julian who was trying to zen out with his music. The guy asked him what he was listening to. He looked at him funny hoping he would just go away because he has a hard time understanding the accents here. Finally Julian told him he was listening to The Old Apartment. The guy looked at me and said "What?" And I looked him in the eye and said "He said, he's listening to The Barenaked Ladies". That's the name of the group who sings that song. The guy just walked away shaking his head. Haha. Got him! He wasn't expecting that. Our ferry ride back was very choppy and I had to watch the horizon all the way back. I was actually glad to pull into port for that reason only. It was really hard to come back but I finally saw paradise!