Friday, July 9, 2010

Monte Carlo - Day Two

We were a bit exhausted by the time Day 2 in Monte Carlo had rolled around, so we decided not to set an alarm. Whoa - that can be dangerous! We missed breakfast and lunch, but didn't regret it one bit! It was hotter that day, so when we finally managed to drag ourselves out of bed, we went to the beach again. The previously thought to be cold water was much more refreshing and a welcome temperature this day. It was really crystal clear, so we just stood in it for a while, staring at the fish we could see swimming near us. Some of them were on the large side, so I found myself jumping in shock every now and then. I'd be focusing my attention on one area to the left of me, and then glance to the right to see a fish had swam right up near me without my consent! Haha. They were harmless, but it was still alarming when I wasn't expecting it. We had such a short walk from the water to our beach chairs, but it was long enough for the rocks to feel burning hot! Kinda made you want to run right back out into the water. The privacy of our beach was really nice, though, and I enjoyed having good, quick drink service and a quiet atmosphere. There was a small hut nearby selling coverups, swimsuits, shorts, and the like, so I wandered over there to check it out. I was quite surprised to see a coverup with a price tag of 800 euro on it! Man, they sure were proud of themselves! Maybe that Ferrari owner can buy that, but not me!

When we got back from the beach, Jer attempted to watch the Tour again. This time he opted to follow it sans commentary since he wasn't getting anything useful from having the French broadcasters on! When it was over, we went down to the concierge to ask for a recommendation on a good place to watch the Holland match. She told us about a restaurant/bar called "Stars and Bars" and said, "It's an American restaurant so the food isn't good." Hmmmm, surely she noticed our American accents. Apparently that didn't stop her from telling us how she really felt! LOL. We decided to check it out anyway, since ya know, we're used to that crappy American food. We took a cab over there instead of walking since it was pretty muggy and Jer was tired of feeling like he had run through a sprinkler after being outside for a few minutes. Driving up to the port area is am experience! It's hard to believe there are yachts in existence like the ones we saw there. They are extremely fancy and every last detail is attended to. I'm pretty sure the buoys on one of the yachts probably cost more than my house! And we even saw one that had a matching speedboat. It's like, "I'm so rich, even my yacht owns a boat." They all had these elaborate walkways that extended out from them, connecting them to the marina sidewalk. They're like mini red carpets or something! I'm sure the folks that walk on them feel like celebrities (or maybe they actually are!)

We made it over to Stars and Bars and got a table with a good view of a TV for the game. One small problem - my phone had updated its time in London when I accidentally turned on cellular access for a second, so it was set on GMT. The sportscenter app on my iPhone told me the game started at 7:30. If we were still in London, that would've been correct. Now we were in Monte Carlo, where the time zone is CET, and my phone didn't know that. The game really started at 8:30 our time! Oops. We tried to drag our appetizer out for as long as we could since we knew we'd be there for a while! No worries, though. The bar actually started filling up as it got closer to game time, so my mistake just insured we had good seats! The crowd there was 99% Dutch fans, so that made it more exciting. There was lots of cheering and celebrating going on!

After the game, we headed back out to the marina to gawk at the yachts a little more. We passed by the casino area on our way back to the hotel, so we decided to stop in and kill some time. The casino had other plans! Jer was wearing shorts and flip flops, so we got denied! Burnnnn! What? Yacht owners don't wear shorts and flip flops??

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