The Ocean is my Only Medication...

.... wishin' my condition ain't ever gonna go away.  This weekend, we were blessed with a much needed 3 day weekend.  It was the end of the grading cycle at work, so our school was closed today to allow the teachers time to grade and more importantly, regain their sanity.  We headed out of the city for some pure relaxation on the island of Phu Quoc.  The island is only a 50 minute flight away but for all we knew, we were in another world. 

The island was just what we had been hoping for.  It was small and quiet.  (We went two whole days without hearing one horn).  We saw bright blue sky and we saw stars for the first time since arriving in Vietnam.  The water was clear, warm, and free of garbage.  The sand was soft and also, free of garbage.  What was considered a "busy" time of year at our resort meant that we were 2 of about 12 people staying there.  We knew this was going to be a good trip when upon arrival Saturday morning, our resort upgraded us to an ocean front bungalow and then promptly took us for a free breakfast with fresh, hot bread and coffee.  We quickly busied ourselves with lying in the sun, swimming in the water, reading good books, eating ridiculous amounts of fresh sea food, and yup, you guessed it ... drinking cheap beer.  Jimmy Buffett would have been proud!

The view from our beach chairs.

Tree so tall.  Adam so small.

Heidi got a fresh pineapple smoothie complete with a peacock straw.

Sunset one evening.

We got to pick our seafood, how we wanted it spiced, and then it was grilled on the beach.  We chose Red Snapper, large prawns, squid, and scallops.

Vietnamese scallops.  So pretty.  So good.

Birthday breakfast = omelet, bread, coffee, tea, fruit, cheese.

Adam demonstrating how we spent most of our day.

Jumping for joy over her golden birthday.

Our lunch spot.

Heidi's surprise cake from the resort.

The weekend also happened to align with Heidi's birthday -- her GOLDEN birthday.  One of the things Heidi does best is lay in the sun so being on Phu Quoc was right up her alley.  To celebrate her 31st, we met up with some of our friends who were also on the island for a delicious seafood grill dinner.  To cap of the wonderful weekend, as we were heading to our hotel room today to check out and head home, the staff bum-rushed Heidi to present her with a birthday cake they had purchased for her.  They told us that they saw on her passport that it was her birthday so they wanted to get me a cake.  It truly cemented how great of a time we had in this little slice of paradise and made Heidi believe that her 31st year will surly be a great one!