Vacation Part Two

First, it's January 7th, and I'm wearing flip flops in Ohio. WTF?! Also, I would have posted sooner, but I've worked 23 hours over the weekend-y days, and I was too pooped to post.

Day 3, Monday (Christmas Eve): This was one of the boring days! We had breakfast, and I ate goetta for the first time. I've avoided in the past, part to be a pain in the butt to my boyfriend and part because I was scared of how it might taste. It was actually pretty damned good! I still refuse not to call it "peasant food", because IT IS. After breakfast, we spent a goodly amount of time in the pool and by the pool, until we kids decided it was time to explore Marathon. We went to the world's smallest K-Mart (maybe not smallest, but pretty close!), then to a few "tourist" stores like "Goofy Gecko" and "Krazy Larry's Last Store". They had lots of Florida Keys trinkets, but it was all very expensive. I did find a sand dollar ornament (to commemorate the trip) that I went back for later in the week. We then drove further south on the overseas highway and went to the "sister" resort to the one we were staying in. They had actual beach, whereas we had grass then the Gulf, but it was more crowded and more...tourist-y really. They had a bar on the beach, and jet ski rental (at $95 an hour...yikes!), and a mini-golf course, but we all decided that we liked ours better! I collected a small handful of shells before we decided to leave. From there we headed back toward our place, stopping at Walgreen's first for bait (for my boyfriend's cousin) and liquor (yes, the liquor store was part of the Walgreen's).

White sand beaches at the other resort. I'm only jealous of the sunset views they must've had.

Once home, we changed for Christmas Eve mass, and went to mass. The church we went to had a "prayer" garden that was decked out for Christmas with lots of lights, which was very pretty. I wanted to go back later in the week to take pictures, but never got around to it. Dinner was had (again, with 18 people, dinner is always a production!) and we all relaxed for the evening. Until a drunken trip to Walgreen's, which was pure hilarity. I'm surprised they didn't kick us out of Walgreen's!

This is our best Christmas picture! And it's actually taken on Christmas Eve!

Day 4, Christmas!: Instead of lugging the normal piles and piles of presents to Florida, we did a $7 secret Santa instead. It was pretty fun, and I hope that if we do it again, I'll be able to bargain hunt for great gifts better (the aunts were able to go to estate sales and get awesome things for very cheap!). The highlight of the exchange was when my boyfriend's cousin proposed to his girlfriend (of almost 8 years). I was very confused at first, because the ring was packaged and slipped in her stocking (and was the last thing she opened) and I was her secret Santa. I kept thinking...I didn't wrap that! What's that?! It was pretty cool, and I'm happy for the two of them! After lunch, we went to Bahia Honda beach and spent several hours there--in the ocean, collecting shells, building sandcastles, and watching the sunset. A very different Christmas from all others I've had!!
Merry Xmas in the sand. It matched our shirts for the occasion (we all had matching shirts, because we're dorks like that!).

The promised picture of me touching the ocean. I was unaware that he was only taking pictures of my feet!

After Christmas dinner (featuring my heart attack potatoes), we opened up a coconut we had managed to knock down from one of the palms out the back of our condos. It was a lot of fun, but the coconut was disappointing in the end (it didn't have a lot of flavor). I was still impressed with the fact that we managed to open a coconut with nothing but brute force! Other than that...we were all tired out, again. I think I managed to get to bed before midnight (or just after) almost every night we were there. It helped that we usually woke up before 8!

The coconut, as it was when it was knocked out of the tree.

After opening!