DAY 3 - AKA Best Day of our Honeymoon

DAY 3:

After my fantastic hubby brought free breakfast to me in bed, we hoped in the car to find kayaks to get to Pinal island. Joey had done so much research ahead of time because he is amazing and handsome and found there is a small island next to us that can be reached by boat or kayak. We rented an all-day kayak for $30 and rowed about ten minutes out until we found a sand bar in the ocean.

Couple picture! We did not pack a selfie stick like amateurs

This is called: Bliss. Chilling on a sand bar in the ocean taking a quick fiver.

There is also an island next to Pinal island called Petite Clef. This island is itty bitty and uninhabited and has one little sandy shore you can walk onto. It made me the only human on an entire island, makes you feel pretty small. 

Tom Hanks, any advice? I have a kayak but no volleyball...

After our minor detour we landed on Pinal island. Joey pulled our kayak through the water and onto the shore while I sat like a Khaleesi (not really, but it was fun to be pulled by my man!).

Husband skills on fleek. 

We walked into an open souvenir shop with sand underneath you and many birds hanging out in real trees used as pillars for the shop. These little birds are called sugar birds and the lady behind the counter said the island is a nature preserve so there are very strict rules of leaving the animals be wherever they are. This excited us because any sentence with the word 'animal' is always our favorite.

It says Monkey's not Mackey's - my original thought.

We hiked up a small hill and over to the other side of the island and found ourselves on a secluded beach. Joey took advantage of this and got naked for funsies (no pic to follow sadly but maybe if you ask Joey real nice he’ll share with you). We swam a long while before heading back to our original landing spot. 

Us walking over the hill to the other side of the island, can you believe dis view?!

As we walked down the hill we saw a huge iguana hiding out near a tree and we tried to take a picture before realizing there were dozens of iguanas in the wide open below us. People were feeding them so we jumped in to pet the sweet boys. We pet wild iguanas and they loved it! Joey and I enjoyed lunch at Yellow Beach Bar, an open restaurant next to the water. We shared some tasty chicken legs and rice and got free rum shots (They do this everywhere?! Yes they do). One of the sugar birds got friendly with us at our table in hopes I would share rice with him (of course I did). 

I realize all my food pictures are the 'after' pic. You can blame my tummy and appetite for this. 

We asked our server for lettuce for the iguana zone and like an army they just started marching out from the trees when I held out a leaf. We fed maybe 20 of them before we kayaked back to our island around 3pm. 

We're gonna need a bigger kayak.

So we'd been driving and found something called Dream Beach and we knew we had to stop. Anything with 'dream' in the name is either awesome or a liar. This area had two restaurants side by side with a dock out in the water. Joey was hungry so he ate at the purple place (see below). He ordered a pizza and I had a strawberry daiquiri. After our free after dinner rum shots Joey ran and jumped off a dock. My husband is so good at everything except for diving...

Look at this handsome and happy boo.

Driving a little further we saw this mall and all of a sudden I felt complete. It was huge, six stories, tons of designer brands sticker-ed on the front windows, restaurants advertising happy hours...except it was a tiny three floor mall. The top floors were condos. And this place was not even built yet. No floor was complete. We went to the second floor (following a shady sign for the restrooms) and on the second floor was construction and no one else and doom. We eventually found 2 stores open after much walking. We went in and we left. We don't like that mall. 

Serial killer's homemade sign for restrooms.

So ya, this is the restroom and the only working stall is in the back there...

Sad Laurie does not get shops and almost dies.

Joey drove us more and we both caught a glimpse of a beach barely visible from our car that looked beautiful. He was like: eh? And I was like: eh. We stumbled upon the most epic, quiet beach. I know I keep saying the sand was white with turquoise waters blah blah but this was like on an Instagram filter that makes everyone jealous. There was a party boat docked there but other than that the place was empty. I wasn't going to go in the ocean because it was a little later in the afternoon and I was cold but hot dang you cannot resist that. So much so that Joey left his backpack on the sand while we played. I mean we were so careful on this trip. We never left ANY belongings in public. We didn't have anything of value in our back pockets at any time. We always only brought the bare minimum. But this beach was so quiet we kept a watchful eye. We were in the water until we pruned and then hiked up its crest to a jetty where we saw some crabs and grabbed amazing pictures. Mullet Bay Beach. 

Pano view of Mullet Bay Beach.

We finally headed home and did not accomplish going to Sunset Beach Bar (our original plan) but like we gave an eff. Did you not just read all of that?!

I looked up the best restaurants on Restaurant Row and selected a nice French fancy place called La Villa. It was an enclosed restaurant with open windows and wood ceiling paneling with red tables. Joey had a filet and I had French onion soup and asparagus risotto with Chianti for both of us. Guys, FOOD SO GOOD! It's true the French are the best at this stuff. The service was also great as were the rum shots. Oh and I crushed Joey at Farkle. Farkle is this simple dice game app on his phone that we play from time to time. I never win but I Guinness book of world records beat him. We walked back to our car on our cozy street and headed home. 

Oh my goodness! Finally a picture of food BEFORE it was devoured!

Joey's favorite moment: Leading Laurie to the island while she was in the kayak. 

Laurie's favorite moment: Feeding and petting the iguanas.