Cuba Part 2

                                                         More views of the grounds

    Now this was the day that things got really exciting as far as I was concerned!!! No Seriously we had been having the time of our lives, but we happened to be walking by the bigger of the 2 pools and saw a man holding a baby crocodile and instantly I was reeled in!! I got to hold the adorable thing...it was so quiet and cute. The man said it would grow to 4 meters long,but for now it was soft and almost cuddly !! We found out that the man and his brother have a bunch of animals that they do a show with.So guess where we were at 3:00 that afternoon? .....

                                                     4 cute little dogs doing tricks and dancing. I got the tricks on video to show the girls when we got home!

                                                   More dancing dogs

                                                      A goat with a saddle and a monkey on his back

                                                            after the show was over,naturally I wandered over to where the goat was tied , and we had a friendly little chat. I also had a monkey jump on my back..much to my surprise  when I was patting the goat, but it jumped back to its owner's shoulder so quick, Ryan didn't have time to get a picture.

                                             Dinner out at the a la carte Italian restaurant

                                                           It was very good..I stayed safe and went with lasagne though!!!

                                                                    After we had a rousing game of Dutch blitz!

                                             I trounced Ryan soundly in that game..I'm afraid we weren't exactly the most exciting vacationers! We had wanted to see at least one of the evening shows which started at 9 every evening...by 7:30 I was yawning so bad, that we actually never made it to any of them all week!! Now we probably didn't miss much as far as wholesome entertainment went...but we will never know I guess!! Really to my credit,you know how tired you get after a day at the beach..all the sun and activity leaches your energy..I think that is all I can chalk it up to!!

                                                 

                                                        The next day on our beach walk we saw lots of pelicans all on the beach surrounding a man with a white bucket....well he had figured out a great way of making money off the tourists. If you paid him 1 peso, he would let you feed the pelicans...now I didn't feed them but I took advantage of their close proximity and got lots of adorable pictures! They are the size of geese, and I think they are so cute!! In Cuba, and I suppose all over the world in tourist spots along the coast, there is one resort after the next for miles and miles along the coast. So the people who do their selling, just walk everyday from one resort to the next all day long. The pelican man did the same and was it ever cute to see these wild birds keep one eye on him as they followed him flying close , all the way up the beach to the next place he would stop and get a crowd!!

                                                              We wrote a sand message to the girls one morning on our walk..we missed them so much!

                                                        But we were having such a fun time on our own!! It was very odd not to have 1 moment of stress..(.well there was the time when Ryan realized he had locked our key card in our room..!!)., or frustration. Not to have to do a lick of work or even think of it for 7 whole days.. At one point I said something to Ryan about how glad I was to be his wife , and he looked funny at me and said it sounded strange to think of me as his wife in Cuba...what he meant was the term wife he had come to think of as house wife...and mother .All my roles melded  onto one word ,and on our own just the 2 of us it seemed so different than at home.

                                              We were serenaded twice while we were there. Once it was by a trio of Spanish musicians during our supper...they just came to our table and started singing something  romantic sounding...we did catch the words  el amor so we had an idea of what he was singing!! The second time this gentleman came by the restaurant we were eating in and he played beautifully.

                                                       

                                               The view from our balcony  Behind the trees was one of the 2  multi level,intricate pools on the property.

                                                  Another view

                                                        Here is the birthday boy ! We both woke up that day with going home that evening to see our girls on our minds...so the very sad fact is that I didn't even remember it was his birthday, so consumed was I with seeing my babies again, until we were eating lunch!!! What a bad wife I am!! He took it in stride..if you know Ryan, you know it didn't ruffle his feathers a single bit. He simply said he was( amusedly) wondering when I would remember...I said he could have reminded me, but he thought it would be more fun to  wait and see how long it took me on my own...

                                             Needless to say this day was the longest and most dragged on day of the entire vacation...I also took the most pictures of our trip on this last day!! We had to check out of our room at noon, and then just had to try to enjoy the rest of the day until 5:30 when our shuttle would pick us up to take us to the airport...So lots of sitting around..grinning with excitement!

                                             Taking pictures......

                                                    Here is one of the buffet restaurants that we ate at the most.

                                                  The effort that was put into the food presentation was incredible. I can't imagine the time it must take the chefs.

                                                            Every dish had some edible flourish

                                                           watermelon roses..

                                           these chocolate filigrees were intricate and beautiful..and stuck into every dessert on the buffet line!!

                                                             Needless to say we both did not return home at the weight in which we left....even with all those beach walks and swimming!!!

                                                More killing time!!

                                                I could not get into the swimming end of things knowing I was going home, so I opted to stay dry for the day..."Martha" (Stewart) and I had lots of fun!! I had saved my magazine for such a time as this.

                                                Ryan meanwhile had no such hesitations , he swam his heart out in the pool, while I watched...and read...

                                                     One last picture before we headed out!!

 Well, round about 4:30 we moseyed into the lobby to get ready to leave, and noticed a commotion over  a piece of paper lying on the counter ...which calmly stated that our flight had been delayed 3 whole hours.....well when  we heard that that last day seemed to get much longer!!  Here is Ryan looking over our travel documents making sure everything is in place.....again!!

                                                 More Dutch Blitz!!

                        Then we went to the beach for one last sunset in Veradero Cuba !! We had had a fabulous week together , one that we will remember forever...

                                         now we were ready to get home to our girls!!!