Go to Heaven for a Quiet Afternoon

For lunch, we drove to the opposite end of the island to eat at Hog Heaven, an outdoor barb-e-que joint perched on the cliffs high above Leverick Bay, Bitter End, Neckar Island (owner by Sir Richard Branson), and various other islands.  The number of boats in the views of the clear blue water is countless.  If Coco Maya is the prettiest setting for a restaurant I've ever been, then Hog Heaven is in position 1a. 

The food and service were both good, and then we headed back to the Villa.  At some point, I've got to video the villa and hopefully post it, although I'm having no luck posting video on the blog. 

We spent a relatively lazy afternoon on the beach, alternatively sunning ourselves, shading ourselves (we are all whites with pale skin and want to avoid burns -- Maddy tans the best of the bunch), swimming, and sea kayaking.  Torie and I threw the football around a bit, although she throws such a strong tight spiral that it hurts to catch many of her throws.

I went out pretty far out on the sea kayak, include a point where the reefs rise (tide was low too, which didn't help my cause).  I scraped bottom a couple of times before coming to a halt on some coral.  I tried to gently work my way off, before dumping myself out of the boat.  I clambered back in, trying to not to damage the coral.  I made it back to shore without incident.

The villas do a midweek cocktail hour on the beach for guests, so we sat around in the chairs, enjoying some drinks and snacks like conch fritters, shrimp, cheese, and a crab thingie.

Carol and I had a massage on our balcony -- quite a view as the sun was going down.  Then, Chefs Mimi and Neptune prepared a lobster dinner (steak for Maddy and Torie) for us at the villa.  Having a massage followed by a private chef is quite decadent and quite enjoyable.  The soup course was pumpkin potato, which was very tasty.  The chicken satay with peanut sauce made a great appetizer, and then the lobster was amazing.  The coconut cake with ice cream for dessert was okay, although it was the weakest course of the meal.  With the dinner, we enjoyed first a Duckhorn Merlot (the official wine of the Stapleton family) and the La Confession 2005 Bordeaux.  Smuggling the wine in was a brilliant idea -- I'm pretty sure it was Carol's plan.

Afterwards, we did our traditional gather by the pool, as TJ and some of the girls swam.  I couldn't make it past 9:30 again, so I went to bed early.  The others weren't up much later.

Time for breakfast and the boat. . .so I will try to add more photos later or tomorrow.