en fuego

So whatever I did to keep my face from sunburning today was a technique I should have more rigorously applied everywhere; my face is still a lovely shade of cream, but most of the other areas of exposed skin are the bitter, angry red of a lobster after meeting his doom. It's not oh so bad, but my knees are burnt enough to hurt, and the prospect of doing it again tomorrow is some cause for concern.

However, do it again tomorrow we shall; despite the sunburn, today was such a great day that I can only hope for more of the same (with perhaps less wind, and perhaps a higher SPF lotion) tomorrow. We got up at a reasonable hour, took our time getting ready (which mostly consisted just of slipping into swimsuits and talking), had breakfast on an outdoor patio overlooking the sea, and then spent the day lazing about in the sun. We started on the beach itself, but the wind was so strong that we were getting sandblasted while laying on the beach chairs, so we relocated to the poolside chairs. We took a break to have an extended lunch, then spent a bit more time in the sun before commandeering on of these 'thai beds' (which were basically big four-poster beds on stilts, with ineffectual canvas curtains waving in the breeze). The thai beds were a totally lovely concept, and would have been absolutely perfect had the gale-force winds not made the thing feel structurally unsound. But we stayed there until the sun angle reached the point that the rays infiltrated the bed, and then we found another set of chairs with an umbrella that provided marginal protection. Despite our best efforts, and copious amounts of sunscreen, the sun clearly won this battle; while we're going into tomorrow wounded already, I'm determined to see it through. Perhaps I'll spent most of tomorrow on my stomach, since I have spent the past two days almost entirely on my back and so will have quite the uneven tan if I don't take drastic measures.

If the biggest worry of my day was how much sun I was getting, that's a really good sign. After we had our fill of the sun, we came back, cleaned up for dinner, and had a drink at one of the bars before going to dinner. The restaurant we chose for dinner was called Azia (sic), and they do teppanyaki-style grill service for eight people at a time. "Celeste" and I were a bit concerned when we were seated, since we didn't realize we were getting into a group dining experience, but we ended up spending almost the entire time talking to a couple from Houston who are in the costume jewelry business (and had some complaints about the customer service offered by my company; I didn't mention how closely I have been involved in that very area of our company, but it was still kind of a crazy to have that conversation over dinner). The food was excellent -- we had some very good sushi, and then the teppanyaki grilled steak and scallops were to die for.

Overall, the food and alcohol have been topnotch; since this place is all-inclusive, they could easily get away with serving slightly more subpar stuff, but dinner tonight easily rivaled other ritzy dinners I've had in San Francisco, and I've had an endless stream of delicious mojitos to fuel my ongoing buzz. I'm actually not really buzzed at all (today was tame from an alcohol standpoint, with one mimosa at brunch, one mojito by the pool, and three mojitos with dinner), but overall Celeste and I are inordinately pleased with our decision to come here.

Now, though, I'm going to go to bed and give my skin a chance to rejuvenate before the morrow. Goodnight!