Day 280: Nothing Planned for our Last Day in Flores
Today was our last day in Flores. We had zero plans other than hanging around the Sea World Club. I was shirtless and shoeless for the majority of the day.
I worked out before breakfast. I’ve been doing a quick and simple bodyweight routine on the porch here at Sea World. There are actually two different New York Times “7 minute workouts” and I do them both back to back, then a bit of stretching. It is far from strenuous, but it gets me moving and sweating and gives me about 30 minutes of personal time first thing in the morning. I haven’t had the motivation or desire to venture out for a jog here. There is only one narrow main road with no sidewalk or extra lane. And the beach is too soft and pebbly for running.
There was fresh sliced mango AND fresh squeezed mango juice at breakfast. The kids crushed them both. Good thing there were only two other guests staying at the hotel!
We continue to be in a good flow with school. Both kids know the routine, rarely complain, and are showing good progress. Yesterday James read Put Me in the Zoo, the classic by Robert Lopshire and then he asked to download the follow up to that book, I Want To Be Somebody New after it was recommended by the Kindle App.
Put Me in the Zoo was one of the very first books we struggled through together back in the first half of the year. I would read every other page and help him with many words. Now he buzzes through the whole thing with confidence.
James is also loving Yahtzee. It’s a fun strategy game and also helps with basic addition and even multiplication. He rolls four 6s… I ask, “What’s 4 times 6?”
We had lunch after school. Last night we discovered two delicious soups on the menu here. Margaret had chicken soup with noodles and I had fish with rice. Today we both had the chicken for lunch. And Bintang.
I also ordered a watermelon juice after lunch — using every last opportunity here in Indonesia to enjoy my favorite of all fruit juices.
After lunch Margaret and I grabbed a table and used the beach bar internet to bang out some of our own personal work — blogging, emails, travel planning for Australia, etc. Meanwhile the kids played Yahtzee, made sandcastles and Willa read to James.
Around 3pm Margaret said, “Can I get another Bintang? Is that bad?” Full vacation mode on our last day in Flores!
At one point an Asian family (maybe Chinese, not sure) showed up for lunch on the beach. The dad started kicking the little plastic soccer ball with James — yet another example of a dude jumping at the opportunity to play some sport with James.
At the moment our ice cold beer arrived James stubbed his toe on the edge of the paved path next to the sand. Poor guy ripped a big piece of his nail off his big toe. It was a bloody and sandy mess. We carried him back to our room to get him cleaned up. He was socked up and back out on the beach about 10 minutes later.
The temperature, breeze and sunset made for a perfect setting so we stayed around the little sandy beach bar / restaurant area the entire day. I played more Yahtzee with Willa and James.
We went for a swim and at the same time, a karate class ran down the beach and then did part of their workout in knee-high water — clearly one of those workouts where if you are into it, it’s amazing. But if you’re the kid whose mom made him do karate, then that would completely suck.
At sunset Willa took pics of Margaret and got some great shots.
Then Margaret took this one of me.
We eventually ordered dinner and made our way back for one last night in Villa Ulla. Hoping we can all get a good night’s sleep in preparation for a long, nasty travel day tomorrow: Maumere to Bali around 2:30; then checking into a hotel for a few hours before our 1:10am (!) flight to Cairns Australia.
MISC:
Margaret and I are in different states of mind when it comes to planning future travel — meaning trips after this year. Margaret is ready to plan spring break or summer 2020. But I cannot imagine focusing on booking another trip. Not sure why that is. I’m not exhausted (I don’t think?). I’m excited about the next 2.5 months. My brain just refuses to think about travel beyond this year.
