Now here’s the part where we were actually in Barbados.  After the stress and frustration of losing an entire day on what was just an extended weekend, we were visibly crestfallen.  We arrived Friday afternoon at around 1:30 and met George and Linda in the lobby of the Hilton Barbados (they had been there since Sunday).  We checked in without incident but couldn’t get into the room yet since it wasn’t check in time (even though we were supposed to check in the day before so we were technically late, not early, but whatever).  While we waited for our room to open up, we went to eat lunch in one of the Hilton’s restaurants since Andy and I hadn’t had a real meal in more than 24 hours.  Service was leisurely, but we had bread, a pepper butter (spiced with red peppers), and water to tide us over.  Andy ordered a hamburger, a real American hamburger, while I got the pan-fried mahi-mahi sandwich.  Now, granted, hunger is the best seasoning, but these sandwiches were absolutely delicious.  We ate like starving children who feared they might never see food again; it was all I could do to remember to chew in between bites! Thankfully, that sated our appetites sufficiently, eliminated the headache I developed from hunger, and we were ready to spend the rest of our vacation having fun!

After lunch, we checked into our room and changed into our bathing suits.  The room was nice, a pretty standard Hilton room – very clean, decent king bed, pleasant decor, view of the bay, small bath tub and separate shower, but after 15 months in Dominica it seemed a bit like Shangri-La.  We went to the pool, set out our towels and I proceeded to read or nap for the next couple hours, while Andy and George body-surfed in the ocean.  Unfortunately, it was so cloudy that it rained a bit on and off that first day while we were out there.  After all that torture from Liat, we just wanted to relax and see a bit of sunshine, but alas, that was not to be.  We moved to the hot tub, which was probably only about 100 degrees, but felt nice because it was a bit breezy.  It was there than Andy and I talked with two women from Trinidad for quite a while.  They’re the executive producers of “Caribbean Idol,” the Caribbean version of American Idol, which will be airing next season from Barbados.  They were on business signing contracts and have been traveling basically non-stop to all the islands to sign them up.  So far, they have 30 countries in the Caribbean that are all teaming up to compete in the show.  It was very interesting to talk to them and we talked politics, international relations, and about life in the Caribbean.

After about four hours outside sans sun, we proceeded to prepare for dinner.  We had dinner at Bellini’s, an Italian restaurant by the water.  I had the pescatore pasta – with fish, shrimp, and calamari over linguini in a spicy red pepper sauce.  Andy had a chicken pesto pizza.  We were both very happy with our entrees – the food and service was so much better than you could ever find in Dominica.  Despite the fact that Dominica is an island, we almost never can find decent fish here, so it was fantastic for me to get a lot of high quality seafood finally!  We went back to the hotel and went to bed immediately, still exhausted from all the drama of just trying to get to Barbados.

The next morning we were up relatively early; I was at the gym before 8am.  When I returned we prepared for a day outside and were by the pool before 10.  We had planned to go snorkeling with sea turtles that morning, but the weather foiled our plans yet again.  Again, the sky was overrun with clouds, but we were hopeful they would dissipate.  Unfortunately, they didn’t and it began to rain – really substantial rain – on and off for the next several hours.  We took cover in the lobby at first, then Andy and George went back in the ocean and I swam laps in the pool.  Eventually growing weary of all this rain, Andy and I had lunch at the pool bar (shrimp caesar salad for me, another hamburger for him).  We changed clothes and began wandering around the property.  There is a fort on the Hilton so we ambled around looking at the old, rusty cannons and trudging through the narrow passageways.  Although it wasn’t nearly as cool as being able to enjoy some sunshine, it was a fun way to pass the time.  Later that afternoon, Andy had an appointment to get his hair cut (it’s been growing since August, so it was pretty long) and I scheduled a pedicure.  That was a great way to spend our rainy afternoon.  We returned to the hot tub afterwards, despite the weather still being a bit miserable before preparing for dinner.

Since it was Saturday night, it was the same night that all our friends in Dominica would be preparing for the 4th semester banquet.  I had been looking forward to going to it, but unfortunately, our vacation conflicted with it.  Andy and I got dressed up anyway since I had brought my dress and shoes from the US for the exclusive purpose of wearing it to the banquet and went to The Grille – the fancy restaurant at the Hilton.  The atmosphere was excellent, it was quiet, there was live music – it was perfect.  Our amuse-bouche was a chicken mousse with a hint of curry (excellent), then I had crab cakes (my favorite!) and Andy had lentil soup (one of his favorites).  Our main course were 10 oz Angus filet mignons that were beyond fantastic.  They tasted they way meat was supposed to taste!  Our sides were sweet potato fries and onion rings (also delicious).  For dessert, I had a couple scoops of chocolate ice cream while Andy had a chocolate mousse and panna cotta mixture with a citrus sauce.  After dinner, we went to one of the bars at the Hilton for an after dinner drink, to enjoy some more live music, and watch a little bit of the Bama game (PS – go Commodores – bowl eligible for the first time since 1982).

The next morning, we finished packing and went down to the pool again.  Finally, some sunshine!  It figures that the only sun we’d get would be right before we had to leave.  We made the most of it and swam in the ocean, swam in the pool, soaked in the hot tub, and repeated.  We left for the airport at 11:30, ate a small lunch at Chefette (Barbados’ version of McDonalds) and proceeded through immigration and security sans problems, and into the duty-free mini mall at the airport (Dominica could learn so much from Barbados).  I bought a magazine and a little makeup before we proceeded to our gate.  Liat was all the way at the end of the airport (like they were embarrassed by it or something), in a different building from the rest of the airlines.  We sat in a room and marveled at how efficient this particular group of Liat employees were being.  Planes arrived, they boarded people.  They made announcements about when flights were coming in, when they were leaving, etc.  What a novel concept!  We boarded our flight early (yes, I said early) and left on time, arriving in Dominica on time.  I think part of us hoped we’d get stuck in Barbados so we could spend more time there, but alas, that didn’t happen.  Ren was at the airport at exactly the time we collected our bags and passed through customs and we drove home without incident.

We know we’ll go back to Barbados – it was so beautiful, the food was fantastic, and it was a very comfortable island to be on.  If you like the beach, it’s a great place to go because the sand was powder-white and soft (not dirty brown or gray and rocky), the waves were just right (not too big, not too small), and it was clean (no Kubuli bottles or trash in the sand).  If you like shopping, there are malls, duty free shops, and department stores.  If you like food, there is no lack of restaurants or places to get all types of food from American to Italian to Asian to International to Creole or Barbadian.  If you like spas, there are day spas in most of the big hotels, most of which admit non-resident guests. We loved it, despite all the problems we faced with the airport, rain, and the lack of sunshine and turtle snorkeling, and we know we’ll go back.