Yesterday was so enjoyable that I thought maybe I should repeat myself. And so I did. This morning, Gary again had a meeting, and so I was on my own until about noon. After getting cleaned up, I headed out for breakfast, but I decided to try a different buffet. It was basically the same as the buffet I had yesterday, though today’s restaurant was near the kiddie pool, and the average age of the diner was considerably lower. The group in front of me in line consisted of four adults and eleven kids under ten.
Bacon and sausage again with a roll and a chocolate muffin and a cup of darjeeling tea, and I was off for a walk on the beach. I went in the opposite direction. (I’ll call it east, though I really have no idea which direction I was walking.) About half way on, I thought, “Hmm. I’m clearly on the beach adjacent to a different resort. Perhaps I am not allowed to be here,” but I kept walking anyway. The beach was fairly crowded, so I was surprised when a woman picked me out and said hello. She was obviously an employee of the adjacent resort, but at first, I couldn’t figure out how she picked me out as a stranger. The I remembered the Hard Rock wristband that I’m required to wear on the resort. Crap.
It turned out, though, that she didn’t confront me after all. I think she was just letting me know that she was aware that I had wandered off my resort. I walked for another quarter hour and then turned back. Gary reassured me later that legally, the beaches are all public, so I hadn’t trespassed after all.
It was warmer today than yesterday, so I made a pit stop to the room to cool off a bit, then I went over to the resort’s main building to shop for souvenirs and meet Gary for lunch. Here is the pond near our building with an egret or crane in the distance.
Gary has been enamored of the Mexican restaurant—Los Gallos—in which we ate dinner on Wednesday, so we went back there for a very light lunch. A trip back to the same pool we visited yesterday rounded out the afternoon. Here are a few photos from the day (again, sorry about the quality).
Slathered in sunblock, I grabbed a quick shower then hung out with Gary for a little while on the balcony. Eventually, though, the craving for ice cream bested me, and I went over to the main resort building for two scoops of chocolate chip gelato.
Tonight was the main dinner for Gary’s company, so while I was gone he started getting ready for that. It was actually a really nice evening—not a lot of speechifying, pretty good food, and really nice chatting. I sat next to Ryan, another “+1” and the husband of one of Gary’s colleagues who I met yesterday. He coaches rowing in Virginia, so we talked about that a for much of the evening. I also met Cherie Marchio, whose name I know from Prentice Hall days and with whom I share contacts at Pearson. I didn’t get much time to talk with Cherie or her “+1,” Rachel (I hope I have that right), who was at Merrill (which became Macmillan, which became Prentice Hall) and knew some of the same people whom I know. We had a really fun table; I wish I could have spent more time talking with everyone, but it was just too loud to hear and be heard at either end of the table.
After dinner, we were supposed to go the the nightclub, but Gary is a bit under the weather, so I think we’re going to pass. Tomorrow, we have a shopping excursion and then I head back to cold Columbus. I’ll post-mortem tomorrow during my flight home.