Anniversary Report

For our seventh wedding anniversary (after 18 blissful years together) we decided to go to a snazzy hotel on the Sanur beach called Andaz which is part of the posh Bali Hyatt. The plan was to walk down the beachwalk to there later in the morning, about half an hour. We'd pay for a day pass, an exorbitant amount, 300,000 rupiah each, about $21 dollars US. Food and drink to be deducted from that. They have a great long pool by the beach, beautiful gardens. We planned to read, swim, relax with no laptops. When we arrived I could see only one person in the pool. Perfect for laps. But then we learned that now that Bali's opened up, they have full occupancy and have canceled the day pass program. On the way we'd passed a couple of musicians performing for the lunch crowd at the Bali Hyatt - Jimmy who's a classical guitarist and Agung with a mellow voice. We'd stood and listened to them do Stevie Wonder's Isn't She Lovely? So we decided to go back there and have lunch and listen to them. But lunch was a ridiculously expensive at 380,000 each buffet and we don't eat enough for a buffet anyway. So we walked back toward home on the beachwalk and stopped at Lila Pantai which is always good. We ordered kelapa muda which means young coconut which really means coconut water from the young ones. The young ones have slimy meat and the old ones have hard meat which is what you almost always get in the US. But before it arrived Katrinka gasped and remembered she hadn't turned the burner heating her soup stock off so she trotted a couple hundred yards back to the street to get a taxi. I sat and read an interview with Richard Baker for an in-house book on the creation of Dharma Sangha. I had Lila's special salad Katrnka had a seafood brochette and we shared, took our time, gazing out at the outriggers and gentle waves. A nice walk home followed by a nap. Our iPhone health apps said we'd walked over 7000 steps. A good anniversary day.