Day #20 - Boats, Blades and Bimbling

So I love the word "bimble"(v) - a leisurely walk or journey. When I use it however, I use it to mean to meander and flit between activities in a sudo-productive way with no stress or deadline. Today was a bimbling day. 

We had a few tasks we wanted to achieve today - laundry and haircuts - as well as experiencing more of the island and island life.

We breakfasted at the hotel again this morning and while I stuck with the fruit and yoghurt, James opted for something new (to us) but very American - biscuits and gravy. This turned out to be like a cross between scones and dumplings in a thick savoury, slightly peppery taste. It apparently tasted far better than it looked!

First on the agenda was to gather up the washing (which was most of the contents of our suitcases by now) and head to a laundromat.  Not surprisingly, these haven't changed much since I used to use them on hot nights doing my summer camp laundry when I saw a camp counselor back in the early 90's. The need for a bunch of quarters remains as does the battle for dryers! Nevertheless, we got our load sorted in under an hour.  Which was just as well considering the heat!

We swung by the hotel to drop off our freshly laundered items and the bar, with its promise of cooling fans and ice cold beverages, proved too much! So we hung out there for a while, chatting to the barmaid who as it turns out studied in Bristol, so knew our part of the world. We promised to visit her part of the world too Slovakia on a future travel adventure. She described its beauty and friendly people and so consider it added to the list. 

Lunch today was a simple Wendy's - partly to keep costs down but also to keep it simple. Personally I think Wendy's is the best hamburger chain in the States and it's a shame we don't have more of them in the UK (or is it? Do we need more homogeneous US culture back home?).

Post lunch was time to report for our haircuts but it turns out we were a bit early. As we mooched around the streets, the rain appeared and we had to make a hasty retreat to... a bar!

Inside we met another British couple from Liverpool who were here on holiday and were having a great time. However, we couldn't chat long since we had our haircut appointments to get to.

The barber's was situated in a nail and pedicure salon, which was a first for the both of us! It's nice that beauty and grooming professionals club together and rent the same space to support each other, but even I was a little overcome with the smell of acetone and such like! Nevertheless, it was impressive to see how the ladies (both customer and nail technician) could focus on the job in hand (pardon the pun) talk to each other, the other ladies in the room and whoever it was on the phone clamped to their ear with their free hand! It was all in Spanish so I had no idea what was going on, but was entertaining all the same!

We had time to pop back to the hotel once again to freshen up, fold the laundry before heading out to check in for our evening adventure - a sunset trip out on a glass bottomed boat!

We headed out into the Gulf of Mexico to see what wonders of nature we could see. Sadly weather conditions meant we couldn't go to the boat's usual hangout and see the USA's only living coral reef, but we were taken to were there were fine examples of corel living and plenty of fish to see instead. 

The boat had two viewing areas and it was delightful to peer down into the waters below to see the fish swimming below us. The depth of the sea in the parts we were visiting was only about three to five feet and so it was really easy to see everything. The fish were camera shy unfortunately and it was hard to capture them on film since they moved so quickly under us.

As we headed back after a very informative and educational trip (there were guides on the boat to talk us through what we were seeing) the sun began to set and we were treated to a much better sunset than we were yesterday. And so the ritual of the sunset selfie began again - what do you make of tonight's effort?

We also got to know two of our fellow passengers, Courtney and Cynthia from Sacramento, California. They were able to give us some tips on our forthcoming stay in that area and we were able to reciprocate with some top tips about what to do in the UK should they choose to visit.

Our dinner this evening was Mexican so that James could once again teach me the many variations of three ingredients that is Mexican cuisine! To be far, what we had was delicious and it was all washed down with a very refreshing sangria.