Proverbs Thirty One: Thirty

The last couple days we've been out and about.  The other day we took a long drive to a local place called Tex to get malasadas.  There are only a couple places on the island to get them and they are famous here.  They are like a square doughnut with filling in them.  I had bavarian cream and Jon had strawberry, chocolate and pineapple :)  They are super tasty.  Afterward, we drove to a black sand beach where we had to hike down this rocky rough trail (the picture shows the smoother top part) that was super steep and probably close to 1/2 mile long down to this amazing beach!  There were cliffs to both sides and amazing super fine black sand.  The waves were pretty rough so Jon had to have a hold on Breyton at all times while in the water.  He loved the water but hates getting sand on his hands and doesn't get the concept that he can just wash it off in the water.  At one point he was running and fell, face planted in the sand.  I thought, "oh, this is going to be bad."  His face was covered in black sand.  He was not very happy, mostly about his hands being covered though.  It took a bit to get all of it off his face!  At the edges, closer to the cliffs, there were all these cool black crabs on the rocks and in the sand.  When Breyton was all spent on beach time, we headed back up the trail.  Worse going up!  It was super hot.  Jon had to carry Breyton so he had it a little worse but he said he went slow so it wasn't too bad.  I was literally dripping with sweat when I got up to the parking lot and way too hot.  But the beach was worth it.  Kim and Randy went to another black sand beach when they were here another time and they said the hike was unbelievably harder and steeper so I was glad for that at least.

Yesterday we changed resorts to the Royal Sea Cliff and we will stay here until we leave.  This one is only a block or two away from the last.  This one is definitely more dated and not quite as nice but it does back to the ocean.  I think we might go back to the last one to swim in one of their pools because they have a great baby pool.  We couldn't check in yesterday until 4 in the afternoon but had to be out of the last one by 10am so we spent the day in the car driving to the nice hotels on the coast.  There is a Marriot, Hilton, and a couple others.  My mom stayed at the Hilton a couple years ago when she was here so it was nice to see that.  We walked around the Hilton for a lot of the afternoon.  It was amazing!  The pool (the main one) was crazy big with side children's pools/beach area, waterfalls, and a huge slide.  I asked Jon if we could come swim here but it looked like everyone had a wristband so they might notice if we didn't :)  The resort is huge and you can walk under a shaded hallway the whole way around and it is covered with art and various pieces of art and cultural stuff the whole way.  There is also a tram that runs alongside and a canal that boats give rides to different parts of the hotel.  We walked all the way to the end and then took the boat back.  There is also a dolphin area where you can watch them swim or train or play with tourists that have paid oober amounts of money to pet them.  :)

So, by 4pm we had a very cranky kid that needed a nap badly (but couldn't have one at that point d/t the time and near-ness to bed) and was ready to be out of the car.  Spent the rest of the night scoping out the hotel and pools and resting in the room.

Here are a bunch of pictures of the last couple days.  You can click on any of them for a better look.