May 7, 2025
When we were in Wilderness, SA staying on the farm, the owner Jake told us Mauritius is considered a “cheesy” holiday for South Africans. He clarified he didn’t mean it wasn’t fun, but likened it to Americans constantly going to Hawaii or the same resort in Florida over and over again. We knew our time in Mauritius would be at a resort without the intent for exploration and adventure, so we were more than OK having some cheesy downtime on our schedule. That said, the days are super repetitive here which we’ve come to appreciate for the time being. The weather and Ollie’s excitement about going to the kids' club vary greatly from day to day; otherwise, the days tend to blur together.
We had the usual breakfast buffet this morning where the boys have carte blanche to pick whatever they want. The restrooms are around the corner from the restaurant and the boys take great pride in going by themselves at least 3 times during each meal. During one of these restroom adventures, a cat snuck onto Lenny’s seat and wouldn’t budge no matter how stern our shooing got. On Lenny’s return, we told him this was “Cat Lenny” and he was now part of our family. He LOVED this and soon starting looking for other stray cats to join our family as Cat Ollie, Cat Daddy and Cat Mommy. Eventually the cat gave Len his seat back only to jump back onto the chair behind Len, causing him to wail and scream which made us all chuckle.
The boys then went to the kids club for a bit after breakfast so I could go to a Tai Chi class and Kyle to gym. We picked kids up just before lunch and went to check out the marine center at the resort. There were a few local school field trips at the center so it was difficult to navigate the small center and see all of the exhibits. There were two VR goggles, though, that the boys enjoyed wearing and looking around the reefs. They also enjoyed an impromptu wrestling session that prompted us to leave.
We then went in search of lunch. Breakfast has been our favorite meal of the day and lunch the least. The menu is limited, overpriced and lacking options the kids habitually enjoy. Today we tried open air bar that had a mini lunch buffet or chicken wraps, ham sandwiches, chicken samosa, spring rolls and french fries. It was wildly overpriced and the kids only ate french fries and a few spring rolls. Kyle then ate 8 (!) chicken wraps in an effort for our family to get their money’s worth at this buffet.
Then we returned to the main pool for a bit. The weather was wild today. It would rotate though 10 minutes of sun, 10 minutes of thick clouds, and then 10 mins of light to heavy rain. Then this cycle repeated for hours. This didn’t bother kids and they were in pool for nearly two hours playing and fighting with Kyle. There were far fewer people at the beach and outside in general so I made my way to the coconut shack to get a coconut for the boys.
We head to London on Sunday and Ollie is lamenting over which show to see on the West End; Hamilton or Back to the Future. “I know I love the Hamilton songs, but I’ve already seen it. Do you think I’ll like the Back to the Future songs? Do the same actors play the Hamilton characters? Will the writer of Hamilton be there? Which one is longer? Do I get to stay up late?” Len heard about our plans to see a show and is keen to join, but we don’t think its a good idea. But, he has started to get deeply into Hamilton as well. His new favorite line to repeat constantly comes from the “Aaron Burr, Sir” song when Lafayette introduces himself, “Oui oui, mon ami, je m'appelle Lafayette.” The mon ami obsession continues. Another one of Len’s favorite lines also comes from this song. Whenever anyone asks “What time is it?”, Len will then proclaim “SHOWTIME!” Its been a few weeks of this now with no sign of slowing down.
Back at room, me and Len took a nap. Last night, I was up from 2am-5am teaching my final NYU class of the semester. Though the class only meets once per week, the middle of the night wake-ups and anxiety I would sleep through the class were starting to wear on me. Ollie continues to fight the urge for a midday nap and happily had some iPad time while we relaxed for a bit. My nap was brief, though, as I soon snuck out for a Hatha yoga class the resort was hosting. This is the style of yoga I typically practice in Hoboken and the hour long class felt like a brief trip home. On getting back to the room, not much had changed as Len was still in a deep slumber and Ollie glued to his iPad.
Kyle and I had wanted to try one of the adults-only restaurants at the resort and also get a brief reprieve from the nightly Uno games. The boys had dinner at kids club and then watched a Kung Fu Panda movie with popcorn. When we picked up the boys, the team there said they played the first half of the movie in French and the second half in English and that none of the kids were bothered or even seemed to notice. The power of animation!
When he dropped off the kids, Kyle said he saw a huge land crab scurry into a hole by some electrical boxes. On picking up the boys, we saw his legs tucked into the hole before he burrowed deeper and out of sight. We’ll continue to hunt this huge land crab during our time here I’m sure.
We seemed to have cracked the code on Ollie’s unyielding endurance tonight. He was begging to go to sleep as soon as we picked him up and fell asleep immediately after getting in bed- finally!
