Barbados

On July 14th, the usual suspects and I headed south for a week on the beautiful island of Barbados.   We stayed at the Tamarind Cove resort which was absolutely wonderful.   Although I wasn't able to dive because my ears were giving me fits from a sinus infection, I still had a great time just taking in the tropics.  And the rest of the gang who did dive said I didn't miss much. 

Tamarind Cove

When we originally booked our trip, we were supposed to stay at the all-inclusive Coconut Creek resort in St. James Parish.  As fate would have it, though, the owners of the resort, Elegant Hotels, sold Coconut Creek shortly after we booked.  To honor our booking, however, they moved us to one of their other hotels in St. James, Tamarind Cove.  Tamarind Cove is normally not all-inclusive, but to accommodate the Coconut Creek people, they issued "blue cards" that gave us unlimited food and drinks.  This turned out to be quite a coup for us as Tamarind Cove is considerably nicer than Coconut Creek from a facilities standpoint, and the food was outstanding.    

Another interesting aspect of Tamarind Cove is that we were the only Americans there, and they have over 110 rooms.   Virtually all of the other guests there were British, and it was great fun chatting it up with them.    Below are some shots of the hotel and the scenery.  Click on the thumbnails to make them bigger.

A shot of the pool/bar area looking straight out from my room.	The right side of the hotel taken from my room.	The front of the hotel.
One of three pools at the resort, and the one we spent the majority of our time at.	Chilling at the bar.	Two very tolerant and accommodating bartenders.
The bar and lounging area next to the pool.	Beach shot at sunset with horsies.	The view of a sunset from my room.
Jerry walking towards us at the pool.	Bess napping in the bar area.	Bess napping before dinner.
Dave and Sue wide awake at happy hour.	Jerry's monkey. (It's there somewhere.)

Our Island Adventure

One day we ventured out to the other side of the island and to the most northern point on the island amazingly enough called "North Point."    The main tourist attraction at North Point is Animal Flower Cave which we also ventured into. 

The snack shack and bar at North Point.	Jerry and Clara standing by the sign at North Point.	A very thirsty Dave with two Banks beers.
Bess, Sue and Dave relaxing in the blazing heat.	Clara and Jerry checking out the scenery with other tourismos.	The shoreline with rain in the distance.
We stopped off at church on a hill to take in the view and see the church.	A shot northward from the church. Barbados is relatively flat.	The group standing by graves.

Animal Flower Cave Shots

Here we are just hanging out at the Waterfront bar in Bridgetown

Parasailing

On our last day, a Jerry, Bess, Sue and I decided to do the parasailing thing.   Below are miscellaneous pictures of the adventure.

I took this first batch while in the air.

These are shots of Jerry's ride.

And Bess'...

And Sue's...