After breakfast, we were walking back to our cottage when we saw Marco coming by in his golf cart. Marco is the General Manager of Verandah and we had spoken to him before when he was out and about, calling him by name, which I think he was surprised that we knew. (We found out his name when talking to a couple who originally came from South Africa, who now live in Boston, who have been coming to this resort for seven years, and the gentleman plays tennis with Marco.)

This time, we flagged him down to say hello and we noticed he was carrying a bouquet of basil that he was taking to the kitchen. We told him we heard that they give garden tours on Thursdays, but since we were leaving on Thursday, was there a chance we could go before then. He said he’d see what he could do. 

We told him that at the pizza place, the margarita pizza didn’t have much basil on it. He said that shouldn’t be, especially since they grow an abundance of it in the garden. I said what he was holding smelled wonderful,  so he gave me some and told me to steep the leaves in hot water to make basil tea. 

We said goodbye…he going to rectify the lack of basil on the margarita pizza pies…and me to brew some basil tea. Which I did. Delicious!!!!!

So then Allan and I went for a walk and we passed the garden. There was a man there loading up a truck with some of the vegetables. I told him that Marco said I should try brewing basil leaves, and I asked the man if he had any to spare. He said to follow him and he took me to row after row of beautiful basil, where he cut me numerous stalks to make my tea. We thanked him and went on our way. 

Sharon, Dick, Allan, and I had lunch at Sails and Tails and we waited quite a while to be served, as we had a waitress who had just started today. The poor thing was truly overwhelmed, so we did our best to put her at ease. 

After lunch Allan and I sat by the pool and talked with a very nice couple for a while, who also were going over to the grill at Pineapple Beach tonight, just as we had arranged to do. 

We took the cart over to Pineapple and started dinner with a drink. The drinks were not great…my dirty martini was not dirty at all and Dick’s drink was terrible. The meal was very nice though and afterwards we went back to our resort, went to the pool bar and had a nightcap.  Leon made me a great Bentley and then it was off to bed. 

Rasta Beach

The garden at Verandah

My basil

Allan’s steak dinner and my pork dinner