We had intended to do one of our big day trips today, but were reconsidering this morning after a rough night for me. We had breakfast in our room, and Mimi started in on the pineapple from Mana Foods. The water in our room, however, had a distinct but not pleasant taste, and so we decided to get some more drinks from Whalers’. We got in the car and headed to the store, picked up a few things and were on our way back when we suddenly had to stop beside the road until I felt better.

When we got back to the room we reassessed our day, and I missed most of the rest of it.

The rest of the family switched to bathing suits and towels and headed off to Big Beach, about ten minutes drive south of our location. Big Beach is aptly named as it stretches out seemingly forever (about half a mile) and is so much soft, soft sand. It’s a somewhat dangerous beach, however, as the wave breaks and undertow are pretty severe. Occasionally the lifeguard would warn people about paying attention to the breaks and warning people about broken necks and backs – Sharon didn’t want her children dragged out to sea, and so kept the kids in shallower than waist deep water.

Nonetheless the beach was a wonderful find with lots of room to spread a towel and enjoy the sunshine and to run about enjoying the surf.

With the sun getting really warm Sharon and the kids decided to head back to the room and make sure Dad hadn’t died (I hadn’t) and to get some more food. Mimi finished off the rest of the pineapple and they had lunch on the deck.

Lounging about was the order of the early afternoon, but eventually Sharon and Mimi decided that this was the perfect opportunity to get the mani/pedi thing done, and so headed down to the front desk to ask for a recommendation. Within half an hour the girls were down at Happy Nails getting their colours – Mimi got blue on her fingers (with sparkles) and purple on her toes (with sparkles!); Sharon got a pale purple on her fingers and a darker purple on her toes (no sparkles!).

Ross, meanwhile, continued expert lounging out on the grass. Max relaxation and enjoying the sunshine was the order of the day.

When Mimi and Sharon returned to the room, I was semi-upright and reading magazines on the couch and enjoying cold water. We all spent the balance of the afternoon hanging about with the doors open to let the breeze and birdsong through Much reading was done, and guidebooks were perused, and we had a better sense of the things we’d like to do over the next few days.

Hunger again drove the next action, which prompted Sharon, Ross and Mimi to seek pizza. This landed them at Pizza Madness which served EXCELLENT pizza in an environment that was a cross between sports bar and reclaimed warehouse space. Ross had a deluxe, Mimi enjoyed chicken and pineapple, and Sharon also enjoyed mushrooms, olives and onions. The toppings were plentiful and there were leftovers.

Back at the room, I remained upright and feeling better, so we’re hopeful for an outing tomorrow. We all hung about some more, with Ross and Mimi playing cards “forever” and occassionally devolving into extreme silliness, and we finished off the day with a dip in the pool.