FLIP + CHING

A La Carte Breakfast at Il Cielo

Posted on December 10, 2017 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.

Tuesday morning, Halloween, was Jay and Becca’s departure day from Sandals Emerald Bay. They had plans to spend Halloween night at Universal Studios before heading to Mexico (Valentin) to celebrate Jennifer Jacob’s BIG 50th birthday. Our breakfast at Il Cielo was our last sit down meal with them.

Here are some pictures of our delicious breakfast.

I think it’s pretty easy to guess who ordered what.

I ordered the benedict (first pic), Becca ordered the omelet (second pic), Brian ordered the pancakes (he’s not very adventurous when it comes to food as you all know), and Jay ordered the steak and eggs (pictured below).

The craziest thing about Jay and Becca’s departure day is that it was the day that all of the crazy flight cancelations started. Apparently, the airport only has one firetruck and it was broken. US safety regulations don’t allow US flights to land in an airport without a working firetruck.

Well, Jay and Becca were relying on the flight to arrive because that was the plane that they were going to take back to the US. Being the savvy travel agents that they are, they managed to reroute their travel from Georgetown to Nassau and Nassau to Miami. This was possible because local flights and Canadian flights were still running as usual. The airport firetruck issue only affected US flights.

Several people who couldn’t get rerouted returned to the resort (it took several days for the firetruck to be repaired). The resort was nice enough to offer these folks a discounted rate for the additional unplanned days. Such was the case with my birthday sister Sharon. We found out that we share the same birthday at the manager’s cocktail party. Anyway, she and her husband didn’t end up leaving until Saturday. Their flight just kept getting rescheduled for the next day and the next.

At least I can’t imagine a better place to be stranded. Sharon and her husband didn’t seem to mind staying the extra days.

Jay and Becca, on the other hand, had specific plans. They had a few more stops on this trip. They had to get off the island stat. They figured it out but we did get to hang out with them a bit longer as they came back to the resort to sort out their flight situation after their original flight was canceled.

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Red Lane Spa at Sandals Emerald Bay

Posted on December 10, 2017 by Ching under Travel.

We didn’t get any spa treatments on this trip because we had an appointment for a couples massage at Sveta’s (our favorite spa here in town) immediately following our return. However, I still wanted to check out the amazing resort spa so I could tell you guys about it. Here are some pictures.

This is the path to Red Lane Spa which is on the far end of the resort, away from the hustle and bustle of the mail pool activities.

This is the bright and inviting lobby.

This is one of several treatment rooms. This one is for couples treatments.

This is the pedicure area.

One of the relaxation rooms (pre and post treatment waiting areas).

I kind of wish we could have taken advantage of the beautiful onsite spa. However, the prizes were just too much. That, and we are very particular about our massages. We have specific people we go to. I’m sure that therapists at the resort are excellent but we are very picky.

We had our couples massage with Mindy and Johnson on Saturday, the day after we arrived back, which was perfect because I always feel like I need a massage after sitting in an airplane for several hours. And, Mindy and Johnson did a fabulous job. It was totally worth waiting until we got back to Wichita.

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Birthday Dinner at the Bombay Club

Posted on December 10, 2017 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.

Later that evening we celebrated my birthday at the Bombay Club. My 40th birthday dinner was also our last dinner with Jay and Becca since they were leaving the next day to travel to Mexico to celebrate another friend’s 50th birthday.

I know. They live quite the luxe life!

Here are some pictures of our delicious dinner.

Everything was served in little metal bowls that are set on a base with a tea light candle inside to keep the food warm.

The presentation was both beautiful and functional.

The served us the most delicious naan bread I’d ever tasted.

This garlic shrimp tikka was also super flavorful and delicious.

I think these are the samosas. Brian LOVED them!

Just a silly picture of me with our table centerpiece. LOL.

An even sillier picture of Brian.

Here are a couple of pictures of the menu so you can see the descriptions of all the amazing foods we enjoyed at dinner.

Here’s a picture of me with the beautiful glass turtle that Jay and Becca got me for my birthday. Thanks, Dills!

And finally, here’s a picture of our good looking dinner party.

The funniest part of the dinner is that the entire day Jay and Brian were joking about having to go to the pizza place after because they were worried they wouldn’t like anything. Everything was so delicious! The Bombay actually turned out to be our most favorite restaurant at the resort.

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Birthday Surprise

Posted on December 9, 2017 by Ching under Travel.

We woke up to this awesome birthday greeting on our doormat on the day of my birthday, which I thought was super thoughtful.

Then this greeted us when we returned to our villa later that day.

This is possibly the best, most creative towel art I’d ever seen. And it was all for me. Naturally, I had to take a bunch of pictures.

I spent the rest of my 40th birthday hanging out at the pool. In case you’re wondering about the snowman, his name is Snowman. He is my coworker Jackie’s traveling snowman. He has traveled all over the world with various people. This time he traveled to the Bahamas with us.

We were careful not to take him everywhere so he would melt and die but he did get to hang out with us at the resort’s main pool that day.

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Ching’s 40th Birthday Adventure

Posted on December 7, 2017 by Ching under Travel.

Brian, Jay, Becca and I went on an ocean safari adventure with Island Routes on the day of my actual 40th birthday. The excursion left from the Emerald Bay Marina, about five minutes from our resort, which was super convenient. It meant more time adventuring on the boat and less time on the bus.

Our adventure included swimming with pigs and feeding iguanas. We also got to see several beautiful islands, some privately owned and some uninhabited. We got to see a huge osprey nest that has survived multiple hurricanes and hike up one of the islands and enjoy magnificent 360 views of the Exuma cays. We got to see the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Caribbean Sea on the other. It was breathtaking. The only thing we didn’t get to do was snorkeling because a recent storm came through and kicked up the bottom of the ocean making it murky and hard to see.