Day 28 of Governor Newson’s “Blueprint for a Safer Economy”

Glass-bottom boat tour…

Thursday. 9/24/20.

6:30 - 8:00 - The plan is to leave our hotel room at 8:00 in order to ensure that we get breakfast at the Bistro. We have ONE day left to redeem $120 in food credits - can we do it? I make coffee, then shower. Make-up. Dress in Covid-19 uniform. Ready to go.

8:00-9:00 - We walk to the Bistro and discover that the line is quite long, for a “grab-and-go” breakfast! no less. We finally arrive at the cashier around 9:00 and I order a coffee, a croissant, and a Pellegrino - nothing much interests me. B orders coffee and what else??? The bill is approximately $18 and we are on our way to exhausting the $120 food credit.

9:00-11:30 - We sit on the chaise lounges again and I eat my breakfast and read In Order to Live. About an hour in, I grab my apple and almond butter that I brought from home and return to the chaise lounge to eat it.

11:30 - 12:30 - B. and I pick up everything and return to the hotel room. Then we walk to the pier for our 12:30 glass-bottom boat tour.

12:30 - 1:30 - The captain of the glass-bottom boat is a female and I instantly like her. The boat holds approximately 20 people (pre-Covid they probably crammed 40 people in here) and we are seated inside, quasi-social distancing and looking down through thick panes of glass, at the bottom of the boat. The windows surrounding the boat are open, so there is cross ventilation, but I’m a bit anxious since I have not been in a contained space for some time. Although there are mask requirement signs here, too, a mother and daughter take their masks off as soon as they board and don’t wear them the entire time!! 18 passengers continue to wear their masks - it is only these two who refuse. I find this sooo selfish - especially when everyone else is following the rules.

Regardless, the tour is great!! and we see schools of fish, huge pillars of seaweed, and some coral as we speed along. The captain takes us to Lovers Cove and it’s teeming with sea bass that I’m able to see through the glass panel.

We return to the pier and I suggest to B. that we sit on the beach, look out at the harbor, and have a drink. B. agrees and we find an outdoor bar where he orders a vodka tonic. We return to the beach, sit on one of the benches encircling a large planter, and watch the beach goers and the boats coming in and out of the harbor. I open a prosecco-in-a-can (one of many that I brought from home - don’t judge me :-) ) and we sit and chill for a couple of hours.

3:30 - 7:00 - B. and I return to our hotel room and I dress in my biking attire. Then we head to the Concierge, pick up our bikes, and ride to the Beach Club for dinner, mindful that the restaurant closes at 5:00. Once there, we sit on the beach and I order a hummus plate, nachos carnitas, and a glass of Prosecco. Gotta use that food credit - drinks are included! B. gets a poke dish that tastes excellent - we probably should have switched meals. We eat our dinner, look out at the ocean, and discuss how we never want to return home. The bill comes and, despite all of our careful planning, we go over the food credit if you add in the tip and the Bistro breakfast we purchased earlier today.

B. leaves to go to the bathroom, but then returns, telling me that several dear are ‘frolicking’ (my word, not his) in the grass, behind the Beach Club. I want to see, so I immediately jump up and we run over there. I see four deer and they are incredibly tame. I try to walk up to whichever deer will have me so I can get a good photo-op and B. takes tons of pictures of me riding the deer - j/k - he takes pictures of me walking next to the deer. Spoiler Alert - The pictures come out great!

My 7:00 class starts soon so we need to get going. We get back on the bikes and return to our hotel. I still have some time before class starts, so after we drop off the bikes, I suggest we go to the ice cream shop a few stores down. I get a chocolate-dipped cone and B. gets something?? I pick up the tab and we eat outside, on the beach, looking at the harbor.

7:00-10:00 - We head back to the room and I log into class while B. goes outside to read his book. There’s a lot going on tonight. Two lectures (I call it ‘a combo’); Blago, the documentary; and a video quiz. The Midterm is next week and there is a lot of live chatting with the students tonight. I deploy lecture and answer emails from the past couple days.

B. comes in from the patio around 8:00 and I set him up with I’m Thinking of Ending Things so he has something to do while I’m occupied. I watch it, too, in between class.

Unfortunately, I get distracted by the movie until B. mentions something about my Netbook, which causes me to look up and see several emails coming in from students, in rapid succession, asking where the link to the documentary is. Oops. I “publish” the link and the video quiz together - they don’t actually have to watch the entire movie in order to get an A on the quiz, just the first 20 to 30 minutes - and everyone seems to calm down. I’m relieved that 10s are coming up for the video quiz, which means the students are doing well on the test.

Class ends without further incident and B. and I continue to watch the movie. I like to stick around a few minutes after class, so wait until 10:30 before I shut everything down. I check the Discussion Board prompt and the video link for my morning classes tomorrow at College No. 2. and make sure everything is ready to go. We stop the movie at around the half-way point and go to bed. A great day!