Monday, January 13, 2025

Ring out the Old

Despite the fact that we didn't have any company in town for the holidays, we managed to visit a couple of nice Christmas displays in our area. The Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden does a great job with their lights, and nearby McAdenville is a must if the weather cooperates. We had great weather for both events, and it was pleasant walking around to really enjoy the decorations.

Christmas lights

For the first time in our 46 years of marriage, my husband and I spent Christmas Eve and Day on our own. Early on we always traveled to either his parents or my parents, even after we started our family. After we moved to North Carolina in 2019, our kids came here to be with us. But this December our daughter couldn't get the time away from her job, and our son and his family went to his in-laws for the holiday.

We ended up opening gifts via FaceTime on Christmas Eve with our daughter. We made our signature Cranberry Cosmopolitan, and put on music in the background. While it wasn't ideal, I'm grateful for the technology that makes it possible to do a virtual gathering.

On New Year's Eve we drove up to our son and daughter-in-law's house to do our gift exchange with them. Again making our signature cocktail, we got our daughter on FaceTime and we opened up our presents together. It was a nice way for everyone to catch up. The next morning afternoon we again used FaceTime for our granddaughter to open her presents with her aunt. Hopefully we can all be together in 2025.

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Sandals Royal Barbados

Barbados
Last week we escaped the cold temperatures with a trip to the all-inclusive Sandals Royal Barbados. This was the second time we have stayed at a Sandals, but our first time visiting Barbados. We had a direct flight from Charlotte to Christ Church, Barbados, and were blessed that no one occupied the seat between us. Entering the country was quite easy, and we had a short 15 minute drive on the Sandals bus to our resort.

The Barbados property actually contains two Sandals resorts side by side, giving us access to 21 dining options and multiple bars and swimming pools. We stayed on the Royal side, which is newer, and had an end room on the top floor (5th) of building 7. This afforded us a partial ocean view, which was great to enjoy from the large balcony. Our location also enabled us to listen to the live music each evening from the privacy of our balcony if we so desired.

Some of the online reviews of the resort were fairly negative, but I tried to keep an open mind going into the trip. I'm glad I did, because one thing I have learned is that people like to complain. We found the staff to be almost overwhelmingly helpful and friendly, most of the food was very good, the drinks were tasty and for the most part not watered down, and housekeeping took great care of our room.

Was service sometimes slow? Yes, but you are on island time so just accept it. Our one try at room service was dismal. The food took over two hours to get to us (we were told 40 minutes), my sandwich was nearly inedible due to being soggy and they forgot to include a spoon for my soup. But that was just one meal, so no big deal. The food at the specialty restaurants exceeded our expectations, and we particularly enjoyed our experience at the Japanese restaurant.

Kimonos
We took advantage of the snorkeling trip offered by Sandals. Unfortunately the boat was not located at the resort, and it took way longer to get to the boat and back than the actual time we spent snorkeling. That is one area I might mark them down a little. At other resorts we have typically been taken to a couple different areas to snorkel. In this case they took us to one, and it was fairly crowded with other excursion boats. Nevertheless, it was cool to see the sunken ship, the fish, and especially the sea turtle!
snorkeling
We hired a private driver to give us a tour of the island. Barbados is only 166 square miles, but the road system and traffic make it impossible to get anywhere fast. So in our four hours we traveled from our location in the south up the west coast to the north coast and back. We saw a little bit of Christ Church, then visited St. Nicholas Abbey and its rum distillery. The tour of the house and the rum operations was very interesting.
St. Nicholas Abbey
Overall we had a wonderful time in Barbados. We met some nice people from Great Britain, Canada and the United States, enjoyed the resort grounds with its wildlife, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and made some great memories.
Sandals sunset






Sunday, December 15, 2024

Lighting the Christmas Spirit

We do very little exterior Christmas lighting ourselves, but we love to look at what other's have done. While we haven't had an opportunity to go see any large light installations yet, we did go to see a house that is in Mount Holly.

This guy does extreme Halloween decorations as well, apparently. We haven't seen those, but this is our second year of driving to his neighborhood to see the Christmas display. It is so large that you really need to park and get out of the car to truly appreciate the extent of the decorations. It really put me in the Christmas spirit for sure!

the Christmas house
My Christmas cards were put in the mail the beginning of the month. All of my shopping is done, and my last two gifts should arrive in the mail today. Once I get those wrapped, I will definitely be ready for Christmas!