Boatyard Beach, Barbados
I woke up this morning thinking about beaches. Some of my favorite memories from our cruises are the relaxing days we’ve spent together on fabulous Caribbean beaches. Roger is a sun lover, but I’m not, so he gets us two beach chairs and an umbrella at the beach, then he settles my chair in the shade of the umbrella, while he stretches out on his chair in the full sun. We each take a few dips in the water, just to cool off, but other than that, we don’t spend any time in the water unless we’ve also booked some snorkeling, jet skis, or parasailing. I love digging my toes into the cool wet sand. I love hearing the waves lapping against the shore, the birds calling as they fly overhead, and the laughter of people nearby enjoying their vacations. I’m happy with a lovely fruity beverage and a good book, relaxing in the shade, near my fabulous husband.
On another day, another post, I can give you some great beach recommendations, but, for today, I’m living in my fabulous memories. 
Our best beach day ever was in Barbados, where we had a taxi drop us off at Boatyard Beach. Not sure what they charged us for the chairs and umbrella, but we were quickly settled for the day. We saw folks coming and going for various excursions all day, but we were just relaxing. A few beach vendors wandered by, hawking their wares, but they were troubling. I’m a sucker for starving artists, like Roger’s a sucker for kids, so when a guy asked if I would be interested in purchasing one of his small paintings, I found one of that beach and bought it. A beach server from a nearby bar/restaurant provided us with food and beverages all day.
This was a long port day, so we were there all day. Our daughter had asked Roger to bring her back a photo of a sunset, so he decided the picture would be from this place. As Roger snapped a beautiful sunset photo, we realized we were the last guests on the beach. Everyone else had headed back to their ship or resort or were in the nearby bar partying. We asked our beach server where we could get a good meal dressed as we were, and he pointed just down the beach, saying it would be a great meal.
We wondered down the beach hand-in-hand, loving and feeling loved, just a few feet to a delightful beach restaurant, Lobster Alive. A 
water hose was available at the door to rinse the sand off our feet as we entered the restaurant. We knew we were going to love this place! We’d barely sat down, when we saw some gals from New Zealand who we’d become friends with on the ship, so they joined us for dinner. We were all in shock briefly at the prices, until the server, Cleopatra, explained that we could half the Bajan prices when paying in US dollars. That was better!
We had the best rum punch we’d ever tasted – or was it just due to the atmosphere of this fabulous beach day, and they have a vat of live lobsters for our dinner. Wonderful meal with fabulous friends! And, when we were ready to head back to ship, they had a taxi driver waiting to drive us.
We’ve had lots of great beach days in our life, but this one was our best so far. And, we’ve been back since then, had another fabulous day on the beach, but shorter, and we asked for their rum punch recipe, which they gladly gave us. Yep, it was the best rum punch ever, and now when we sip it on our deck at home, it reminds us of a fabulous beach day in Barbados. How about you … any great beach days to share?