Back Home

Well a nice uneventful flight home mant we landed at 5:30 AM, so even allowing time to pick up the luggage and pick up the car from Valet parking we were home by 9:20. All a bit jet lagged and tired, but at least the weather is warmer than when we left. Shame we've got work/school tomorrow (well except Rachel) so not much time to aclimatise before we're back to it. Still, we had a good break.

Heads and Kayaks

Today was a celebration of Antigua, which meant they dug out all of the festival gear including the headdresses, which the kids enjoyed trying on.

In the afternoon Steve and Isobel took a kayak out for a paddle, Isobel did a good job of paddling!

We head home tomorrow afternoon, but out Internet runs out in the morning so this will be the last blog until we get home (mid-morning on Sunday all being well). See you all when we get back!

Feet and ribs

Those of you also on Facebook will have seen the competition on who has the best feet in front of the sea picture, I think Rachel has been voted the winner.

We got a lovely sea view table at breakfast, sitting at home looking at the garden in a couple of days won't be the same!

We went up to Mary's Outhouse for lunch, Rachel and I have decided it's our favourite spot for lunch but the kids moan as it involves walking up the hill. On Friday we're going to go on our own and leave the children by the pool with burgers and chips. The chilled bottle beers are worth the walk.

Ball games

Spent the morning on the beach, Isobel happy to be digging in the sand again with the bucket and moulds we got for a bargain $3 in St Johns.

After lunch Sam played Volleyball with the other kids while we all played catch in the sea with the green rubber ball.

Later Steve and the kids played water polo with their friends in the pool, using the waterfall as the goal. After dinner we had a go at pool too, though Sam needs to practice his cuing action! He should take lessons off his dad. ;)

Fire and Water

After a morning on the beach after lunch we went down to the far end of the bay to do some snorkelling. It was a bit of a swim to the coral but after we got there, there were some decent fish to see swimming around and a few pics and videos taken with the waterproof kit (for which my blackberry doesn't qualify sadly.)

For dinner we tried the Italian restaurant, which did good strawberry sorbet apparently!

The show in the bar was a fire-eater and limbo dancer, with lots of audience participation. He ran a fire stick up Rachel's leg and got Steve to do a limbo dance. Sadly (ahem) we didn't get pictures of either of these we can put on the blog.

Mary's Outhouse

After 2 fairly busy days we spent the morning on the beach swimming and making sand castles.

For lunch we walked up the hill to Mary's Outhouse, an old wooden shack on the hill where they serve chicken and ribs and lovely cold beer from an ice box. Plus hot dogs for Sam. Lots of people who visit decorate it with wooden plaques, flags and assorted other things with their names on.

There are also mongoose wandering about up there, which were pretty cute looking.

You get a good view over the resort walking back down the hill.

Museums and hotdogs

We had lunch in an impressively restored Inn, made you feel very piratey.

We had a look around the museum and Isobel gave her best Nelson impression.

After this we headed to Half Moon Cay where there is an abandoned hotel that was wrecked in a hurricane and never rebuilt. We played in the very rough surf, though unfortunately all the pictures we're taken on the waterproof camera.

Nelson's dockyard

After Shirley Heights we headed down to Nelson's dockyard. The young Nelson spent 3 years here in his 20s helping establish the harbour as a major English repair and maintenance yard. The dockyard has been extensively restored in the past decades.

The dockyard is now an active port and had some very impressive yachts moored in it's harbour. I'm not even sure winning the lottery will get you one if these. Would be nice though!

Heading South and Shirley Heights

First point of order, Rachel says the car is mint green not olive green, she's probably right.

We drove down to the South of the Island and up to Shirley Heights, which is the old fortification that looks down over English Harbour and Nelson's dockyard.

This was the major British stronghold in the East Caribbean and an important harbour because the headlands gave excellent protection from hurricanes. It also was on the southern most point of the island and facing down to those pesky French in Guadeloupe. Nowadays it is host to lots of fancy yachts.

St Johns and cannons

We carried on into the capital St Johns, after driving through the market we finally parked on the street down by the port. We had a look around the cruise port, but it was quiet as we'd deliberately hired the car for two days when no ships were in so it wouldn't be so busy around the island. We found a Burger King for the kids and somewhere for Rachel to work.

We drove around the headland to St James fort which guarded the entrance to the town's harbour, there were some impressive old English cannons still keeping watch.

We drove around the north side of the island, past some lovely deserted beaches and also the Sandals resort that Rachel would like to stay in one day (when the kids are grown up!)

Out and about

We hired a car for two days today in order to see some of the Island, an olive green Toyota Yaris, lovely. Out first stop was Devil's Bridge which is only half a mile from the hotel anyway, a lovely rock formation with crashing waves aplenty.

We then carried on to Betty's Hope, an old sugar plantation that has been partially restored including a windmill for crushing the sugar cane.

Not far down the road we passed the Viv Richards cricket ground, where some players were practising outside in the nets.

Beachy

We spent the morning by the beach, with the kids flitting off to play with their friends again and then coming back for drinks, refreshments and sun tan cream top ups as it is pretty hot. The wedding party recreated the scene to take some photos in the sun this time.

In the afternoon we went to the pool and Sam and Steve played pool tennis/football with the tennis ball.  We had burgers and chips for lunch from the pool bar, much to the kids delight. Dinner was a la carte again but the children reverted to chicken nuggets and chips or spaghetti meatballs. After dinner we had rum and coke/strawberry slush and played pool.

Conch salad

Dinner was an a la carte affair, but with glazed ham and chicken available the kids were OK. I ordered a conch salad starter, which had limes, peppers and chilli in it. I didn't realise the conch part of it was a giant sea snail (presumably where conch shells come from?) so I was in for a surprise when I took my first mouthful. Everyone else had a pork fajita starter which was much more palatable.

We were all pretty tired after dinner so it was another relatively early night, what a bunch of lightweights!

First day

Sam spent half of the day playing with his new friends, Isobel too for a while, so we took the opportunity to catch a few rays. Making sure to keep well hydrated with strawberry slush and piña colada's.

We all went in the sea which was lovely and warm, the sand is almost pink in colour. After a buffet lunch we chilled out for a while before heading back to the beach. There was a wedding on the beach later in the afternoon but unfortunately a rain shower turned up at exactly the same time and they all got a bit wet. 

Luckily they saw the funny side, I guess you either have to laugh or cry!

Not a bad view

Woke up this morning about 6 AM, which wasn't too bad given the time we went to bed. Once the sun came up Rachel took this picture from our bed, not a bad view when lying there.

Steve went off for a 7AM swim,it looked so inviting, before coming back and jumping into the shower.

We had breakfast, of which there was a good selection and then went to sit down on the beach. The children had made friends with some kids from Huddersfield, so they went off playing with them for a while, especially Sam.

Grand Pineapple hotel beachfront room

Our room is looking over the beach, lying in bed you can hear the waves rolling onto the beach. Here is the view from inside our room and on the balcony outside.

We went for a drink and then dinner, which was a Caribbean buffet. We were a bit tired by this point so we retired to bed about 8 pm, which in our defence was 1 AM at home. Luckily the beds are comfy.

Whoa, we're going to Barbados, then Antigua

After a slight panic when we realised we should have paid and displayed in the hotel car park and hadn't, we realised the late arrival and early departure worked in our favour and no-one noticed. The ice on the windscreen probably helped too. So £7.50 saved!

5 minute drive to the airport, valet parking and no queues either at bag drop or security. All going great but after what happened last time in Newark we weren't counting our chickens just yet. :)
Cooked breakfast at Weatherspoons and we were on the Virgin plane, a nice modern plane with comfy seats and touchscreen entertainment system to keep us all amused. The 8 hour flight to Barbados went up in no time, especially when Django Unchained is 4 hours long. We landed in Barbados and about half the plane disembarked but we stayed on while they refuelled. A short 45 minute flight to Antigua and the only downside was we landed the same time as a BA flight which meant the immigration queues were quite long, which isn't great when you're tired and hot.

We shared a minibus with another family to the resort, about a 30 minute drive which gave us a good view of the island and the various cricket grounds, they obviously love their cricket here. We arrived safely to cold flannels and rum punch, which always helps. Down to the beach front room, more if which to follow...

Gatwick Bound

Due to the flight being at 9 AM on Wednesday we drove down the night before to avoid having to get up stupidly early. We left at 6 PM and stopped at Warwick services for a KFC, which always gets the holiday off to a good start according to the kids!

A nice uneventful drive down and we got to the Travelodge at about 9:45. The kids slept the last part of the journey anyway! A bargain at £17 though the beds weren't super comfy!

Farewell snow, hello sun!

Well after the roaring success of http://griffithsinhawaii.blogspot.co.uk/ we have decided to try again with a blog of our trip to Antigua. Subject to the internet costs in the resort not being too high (we think it's about $40 for 7 days which isn't too bad and will keep Sam happy).

So check back on Tuesday when we will be leaving for Gatwick.