Day 252: Another Day of Doing Little in Amed — James Confuses Alice and Elvis — Dinner at Gusto

We woke to a rainy grey-orange sunrise in Bali. The kids were up early — by 6:30am or so. 

I worked out at the gym then met Margaret and the kids for breakfast at the hotel restaurant. 

This was the first rain in 5 months according to Hannu, the Finnish GM of our hotel. 

The clouds eventually cleared and the temp settled into it’s low 80s perfection as it does every day. 

We did some homeschool then Margaret and I agreed we really had no desire to leave the villa. 

We’ve been doing what we want for 250 days in a row and yet somehow we feel guilty just staying here and lounging around. Should we be out exploring Bali? Or doing a snorkeling excursion? Or hanging with the locals? Nah. We’re in Indonesia for more than 30 days and will have plenty of time for all of that. 

So we just chilled.

Margaret did some more blog reading and note taking. I got beat by James in Yahtzee (the kid is lucky on the dice). Then James, Willa and I watched a couple intro videos on the rules of baseball (I’m determined to teach them how the game works while we’re here). 

The kids were doing lots of drawing with our new art materials. We let them use the iPad for drawing instructions. Willa learned to draw 3D during school.

James and Willa were in and out of the pool all day — as soon as they would dry off they would be back in. Sometimes in bathing suits, sometimes in undies, sometimes in nothing. 

We listened to music on our little Bluetooth speaker for most of the day. Margaret and I decided we need to get these kids familiar with the sounds of certain artists and genres. We started with Frank Sinatra and found ourselves doing karaoke to New York New York. 

The funniest moment of the day came while we were having lunch and listening to Elvis….

James: Is this more of the same guy (meaning Sinatra)?

Margaret: No, this is Elvis.

James: No it’s not, Elvis is a woman.

Margaret: Uh, no James. Elvis is a guy.

James: WWHHAAAT? (Said in his now classic incredulous way)

All of us (shocked): You thought Elvis was a woman???

James (so confused): Yeah, it’s Lula’s mom, right?

All of us: Oooohhhhhh. No, buddy that’s ALICE. She’s a singer too. This is Elvis, it’s a guy. 

Poor James. He knows his Aunt Alice is a singer. He confused “Alice” and “Elvis.” So funny. 

A couple pics to complete the story…

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Back to our day of doing nothing: 

At around 4pm I was reading Barbarian Days (loving it) on one of the poolside loungers. Margaret brought me a beer. I got halfway through it and then decided to take a nap. I woke to the kids skinny dipping in the long shadows of the setting sun. Another memory I’d like to hang on to. 

We finally motivated to leave the premises and make the short-but-treacherous walk down the road to Gusto.

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I had seen this place on Google maps then read about it again today on Lonely Planet’s website.

Location / view was amazing and the food was really good too. Margaret and I had Indonesian dishes with cold local beer. The kids had homemade pizza and ravioli. We shared a chocolate volcano browny with vanilla ice cream for dessert. 

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Such a great day. Don’t expect much more action tomorrow!