The Breakers. Day 2. We're Not Broken, Just Bent.
We started the day nice and early. Hallie was up first, then Madeleine shortly after. Tzvi and I are sharing a double bed. I can’t wait to sleep again.
and so it begins…
We managed to make it out to breakfast by 8:30, but not before Hallie spent some time watching Peppa Pig on the TV inside the bathroom mirror.
Breakfast is included in our stay (yay!) and is in the Circle ballroom, which is a massive, round, gorgeous room. We ate our way through the entire buffet and all was delicious.
After breakfast we changed and went to the pool, where we stayed for most of the day. There are four pools - one adult pool and three family pools. We chose the zero entry pool so Madeleine could walk in and out. We also ended up purchasing a shovel and pail thing for the kids to play with. 24 dollars for a bucket, two shovels, and a watering can. Not awful. The kids had the best time in the pool and playing in the sand. The girls wouldn’t go in the ocean, but Tzvi and I took turns. The ocean was incredible - the water is about 86 degrees (which is where we keep our pool) and calm and clear. One of the best oceans I’ve ever swam in for sure. Also, there was a lifeguard, which was a plus. Even Tzvi loved the ocean, and he’s been afraid to go into the ocean since he “almost drowned” in Bermuda seven years ago.
Lunch was at the Ocean House, a poolside restaurant. It was a mess from the start. Madeleine was tired and didn’t eat her pasta. Hallie ordered grilled cheese “to try it,” but she never actually tried it. I think she had French Fries for lunch. Tzvi walked Madeleine around until she fell asleep. We ordered veggies with hummus, chips and guac, and shared a salad with salmon. All delicious.
Madeleine only slept for like 45 minutes, if that. Oy. We spent the afternoon by the pool and Hallie made some friends. It was a family with members coming from Florida and Rhode Island. Nice people.
I should mention that there’s so much for kids here. In the morning there were crafts by the pool, and Hallie made a message in a bottle and a bracelet with a seashell charm. In the afternoon I walked her to the Family Entertainment Center where they had a cool coloring thing where you could color a picture of a fish and then scan it, and then it would pop up on a big screen with a fish tank.
We headed back to the room around 4:15ish so I could go to the gym. We got back and Tzvi started bathing the girls. By the time I actually got to the gym it was almost time to turn around. I did a 10 minute run (fine, jog) because I saw the Woodway treadmills and had to try it. Then a little weights. They had like 5 peloton bikes, but hey, I could do that at home. The gym was gorgeous and they had nice water bottles and disposable headphones.
When I got back to the room I opened the door to complete chaos. Tzvi had a massive work emergency and Madeleine was being cranky. Thankfully, Peppa Pig was there to entertain Hallie. I just walked out with Madeleine and the stroller. She fell asleep eventually, but then we had to shower and get ready for dinner. Somehow we were only 15 minute late for our dinner reservation.
Tzvi: Things had been going great. I had about 20 minutes of work I needed to get done before shabbos, and after bathing both girls I managed to get both of them to sit watching Peppa Pig long enough for me to finish my work. Then, at 5:30, just as I was starting to play with Madeleine, I got an email. A junior associate had made a catastrophic mistake, which I then needed to spend the next 90 minutes dealing with, right up to the start of shabbos. It really put a damper on the evening.
Dinner was big Italian mess tonight. We ate at The Italian Restaurant (that’s the name of it), which was located inside the family entertainment center. The girls were nuts from the start. The food was decent -Hallie got pizza (again), Madeleine got rigatoni a’la vodka (which she wouldn’t touch, but Tzvi ate almost all of), I got pasta with marina and veggies and Tzvi got cheese torteloni with a mushroom cream sauce. They also gave us a garlic bread and some tomato bread. I think we also had Brussel Sprouts. Who can remember. The night ended with us sitting outside at movie night watching Toy Story 2. They had free movie snacks which was really cute. They had s’mores, but the marshmallows were a no go, so that was sad.
Eventually we walked back to the room and the girls went to bed. Then we sat on the bathroom floor eating the leftover chocolate cake from Thursday’s dinner and trying to remember why we had children.
Good day?