Replicating a photo we did w the girls on family vacay in 2018- same location at Mitchell Airport

2018- Looks like they repainted

LOVE seeing this destination on the board! Here we come!

Video alert! AND we’re just going in circles waiting to land….sooo close! STILL waiting……..AND we made it 25 mins later- all good- glad to be here

Once again - not sure we are on the same vacation….geeeez John packs a lot…😂

We had a fast track through customs courtesy of the resort, but it didn’t really matter because luggage took 1 hour literally- to arrive. Island Time indeed!

Passport stamp- ✅

Entering Hermitage Bay Resort…

The initial entrance to paradise.

Video alert! I literally said holy crap out loud when the bellman took us to our suite.

VIDEO alert- back half of the suite.

We had a typical first day- tooo much fun! This place is ridiculous and beautiful and quiet. Hotel gave us champagne 🥂 for our anniversary and a beautiful fruit platter.

Welcome amenity

Suite 11

This was our deck of our “suite” more like a small house if you ask me! We have our own foot washing stations at the front door and the deck in back.

Cheers!

Our first sunset of the week- \240Happy 11 years! Speaking of that, our suite # is 11!!

Wahoo Wonton Tacos and beef carpaccio

Rack of lamb and snapper

Surprise dessert treat

Snowflake - 1 of the resort cats

Signature Rum Punch

First night’s moon

We are sure to share the UV index with Lauren each day- very important.

Breakfast- we had avocado toast- fresh juice of the day was pineapple with ginger- delicious.

Infinity pool view

Lunch STARTER……avocado with shrimp and pork wonton tacos….

Snapper and jerk chicken with an over the top sangria.

John was most excited for this! Everyday at 4:30 or 5:30 seatings- sushi by the beach under the expansive hut built around a tree.

Geeez I’m behind on the journal- the day I am writing this is Thursday!

Evening sunset

Dinner!

Too much fun…

Conch stew and lobster

Ridiculous creamy smooth mashed potatoes, truffle fries and xxx

Scored a free snorkeling trip!

I was told to book the snorkeling trip w the water sports desk- went there- they told me to book with the front desk….went to the front desk who told me to go to water sports desk….AND then found out it’s no longer complimentary- but because I had the flyer from our room stating it was complimentary- they honored it! Super score.

Lunch view

Lunch- sooo full today

Beach lunch BBQ where they cook the food.

Close up of the lobster

John’s new swim trunks came with a bottle opener 😂- he ripped it off.

One of my favorite things- outdoor shower! Showered under the moon and stars ⭐️ the other night. Amazing

So at dinner last night- there is an uber rich dad here with his two kids- one girl, one boy, probs young 20’s - you just know their stupid rich because you can just tell- and last night you def knew because he had on a gold silk outfit that looked like PJ’s 😂

Super heavy short rainstorm just before we left for dinner!

Goat cheese egg bacon spinach frittata.

Came across this tree yesterday at the end of the property- with a small sign underneath it- when we went closer to read it it says don’t stand under the tree or touch it! Perhaps the sign should be relocated…

Poisonous!!

WTH lol lol - nice pic

The hotel snorkeling trip- we were by ourselves and it was maybe a 10- minute ride to Hawks Bill Rock. Jen tried to snorkel and once again- did not bother. Instead, I just floated around in the water. It was nice. It lasted all of five minutes. John on the other hand enjoyed it and saw all kinds of fish zebra fish zebra fish, bright yellow orange fish purple fish rainbow fish- tropical fish medium small fish a cornucopia of fish he says! Motor on the boat was a Mercury!

Better pic

Other ties to home- sand fleas! We did not jump on that bandwagon soon enough, and therefore have multiple bites already not quite as bad as St. Thomas yet but now we’re using the spray.

So ridiculous- it’s like this everyday- empty !

SCJohnson saves the day!

Video alert- play me. View today

Need something? Raise the wood flag!

Now John is talking about living in a catamaran …no taxes he says.

Maybe we will get jobs for this company.

Left the resort at 10 am and returned at 4:15 pm. Really got to see a flavor of the island overall. Beautiful churches, old forts and of course- more gorgeous views.

St John’s Harbor- tourist trap heaven of course along w a cheesy bar. But look at that water. They are ending the prime season which welcomes 4-5 cruise ships everyday! Now through November will be about 1 or 2 per month.

Loud terrible bar

Roadside shack lunch

Museum of Antigua and Barbuda

Cemetery - All cemeteries are at the churches. Veryyy old at this particular one.

Cathedral Church of St John the Divine - established in 1683

Leaded stain glass window

Inside the church

Love love

Missing Evey!

Lunch spot

Found our old pay phone to call Maria AND Evey

Part of our rainforest drive - these are a type of mango- apparently there are many varieties. This is Fig Tree Drive which has so many fruit trees growing- bananas mangoes passion fruit and much more.

Shirley Heights

At Nelson’s Dockyard

Fresh coconut water- a family favorite 😂 Not- if you’ve ever had it- you know what I mean- it’s not very good- but good for you.

Sushi - always three courses

Sushi 2

There are two rotating sushi chefs- one of which worked at Nobu in Spain and was brought here. There is a Nobu on Barbuda as well. A ferry ride or helicopter ride from Antigua.

Sushi 3

We have made fellow vacation friends courtesy of the sushi bar- everyone wants to come each night! Well not everyone- but the four couples we have encountered. Maybe 5 actually.

Rum Runner and fresh flowers

Starters

Dinner- again everything was amazing

Put make-up on for the first time this week….dinner

Some of this mornings finds.

Breakfast! It’s 12:15 and John already got a nap in. Todays goals- get tan and nap. No leaving the resort today.

Housekeeping comes no less than 4x per day- maybe more for all we know. 1 person cleans the room, another refreshes the glass bottles of water, another freshens the mini- bar- which by the way- we place our requests for at breakfast. And the LAST one we know of is turndown service around 7:30 pm….

Everyday at lunch there are four course small shareable starters…here are today’s

Video alert- Everyday there is a live band at the beach bar where lunch is served. But is t every bar a beach bar here??? Also every evening at the pool bar- last night got a little crazy lol !

Current view

Lunch starters - John won’t let me stop taking pics of food since we started it…

So beautiful

Even at this paradise with amazing farm to table food- which- fun fact- 80 percent of the food served is grown right here at the resort- despite this- Jenny will still not eat these pickles- nope nope nope

I thought my burger was going to be tiny like John’s tiny hot dog yesterday- the server laughed at me and said “you thought wrong!”

Learned of these on our last vacation- beach towel clips! Brilliant for the tropical 🌴 winds.

Snapper sashimi

Sushi hour got crazy- sake bombs

View from our deck

Wahoo tacos

Tenderloin and jambalaya

John asked for hot sauce - they have tobacco brand or their version- home made of course - w scotch bonnet peppers. Jen made the mistake of trying it straight up vs mixed in w John’s jambalaya- holy moley it’s HOTT!

So- more on customer service- we were telling our server how we once made a recipe that called for scotch bonnet peppers and we told her how they were impossible to find- yada- yada- the story went on and ends up that SHE was going to find us hot sauce to take home- however, may be difficult for her with it being Good Friday- a national holiday here and us leaving on Saturday.

Post dinner photo.

We never shower and get ready until AFTER sushi hour sunset- so no dressy photos w sunset.

Lunch menu

Lunch starters

Guess what??!! While at lunch - Sandy said she scored the hot sauce and will give it to us a dinner tonite! Soooo nice. ❤️

Video! Us on the Hobie Cat- Bree took video for us.

Mai Tais- woooooweeee!

Sand fleas are BAD but we’ll get over it. Need more bug spray- which they supply.

Jesse- One of the beach servers- just brought us two beers we didn’t even ask for- just thought we might like them…again- what’s not to love ❤️ here.

John asked if I was getting sad about leaving- I said of course! But I’m more worried about YOU and the LAST sushi hour- he claims he’s had enough sushi for one week…

John is more in to finding shells this week than me- he’s finding some good ones- I’m trying to eye up good coral pieces.

On the edge of our deck

DC friends- Ben and Bree

Larger group of us- with Ryan and Camille from San Diego- good group of peeps we had fun with- we all did sushi every night and Ryan is the one who brought up Sake Bombs! The hotel loved it- they had never heard of it and were laughing and the GM of the hotel filmed us.

Turndown service- again- theme of the week- ridiculous…

Our Last Dinner Menu- tonight’s theme was local BBQ

Always so much food! Not sure how we go back to our boring food!!

Restaurant evening vibe - breakfast is here each morning as well.

Chicken and shrimp

Sandy bought us Two bottles of the hot save we talked about.

Last night pic

Sushi friends from DC - Bree

Bree’s husband Ben

One of our faves! Simone!!

Good morning last day! View from our deck each morning- drinking coffee relaxing and waking up before going to breakfast

We have to leave the resort at 1:15 pm today…

The Last Breakfast

The not so great part of paradise…

Exhibit A- Miserable itchy bites.

Exhibit B- More of Exhibit A- reminds us of the chicken pox.

We woke up earlier today to get packed and mope. OK OK we took our last walks on the beach, sat in the beach chairs , our deck and moped.

One last video- this is the resort

The water!

No caption needed

The process from the time we got dropped to boarding took almost two hours- sooo slowwww

How old is this plane???

Todays lunch……wahhh wahhh wahhh

For some reason I learned that John loves PF Chang’s and was looking forward to our dinner at the Atlanta airport….. I guess I was surprised because we typically don’t like chain restaurants such as this, but I guess P.F. Chang’s is the exception!!

Flight to MKE is currently delayed and leaving at 11:30 pm instead of 11 pm 🤦‍♀️- update- now we don’t BOARD until 11:45 pm ET of course- but still.

Here’s tonight’s AMAZING dinner…not- it’s not bad actually it’s just not over the top of course. We’re slummin’ now as John says..

Finally boarded at 11:30 —-leaving at 11:56 John got upgraded to First Class

Received this note passed out by flight attendants but only to certain passengers. Going all out for 100 years.

We finally got home at 1:30 am. And today (Sunday) Therse left us some breakfast sliders- perfect! Great neighbors!