I didn’t sleep great and woke up a little grumpy. We walked over to the hotel breakfast. It was fine but I still miss Turkey’s breakfast buffets. Nothing will ever beat those.

Millie’s morning energy was off the charts, as it often is. I still felt exhausted and in need of alone time, so Nick offered to take Millie to visit the turtle sanctuary while I sat in silence. It was bliss. I sat in the hotel room for 5 hours, without anyone touching me or asking me a single question.

I spent some time working on our budget spreadsheet and getting everything up to date. No spiraling this time, just a lot of insights and takeaways. Some lessons: rental cars end up costing a lot more than Ubers, groceries instead of cafes aren’t actually cost effective, and never go to Dubai again. Overall we’re surprisingly close to my initial forecast – just $15 per day over.

Nick and Millie had a great time swimming with and feeding turtles. They came back with a big story about how a turtle accidentally bit her leg thinking it was food. It didn’t break the skin but she has a distinctly turtle beak shaped bruise on the side of her knee. Of all the Zanzibar injuries I predicted when they made us buy that insurance, turtle attack was not one of them.

They had lunch and walked along the beach for a while. They came home with a handful of beautiful shells they had collected.

Nick reported that at one point Millie said “Dad I like hanging out, just us.” Which 10% makes me feel left out, and 90% makes my heart want to explode.

After they got back, Nick left for a scuba diving refresher course ahead of a dive he’s doing tomorrow. Millie and I played in the room for a couple of hours. My tank was full after my quiet time and I was able to enjoy playing along with all her pretend games.

We took a shower and had a fun time getting ready for dinner. She asked to play music and danced while brushing her hair in the mirror. I put a tiny bit of mascara on her and she was glowing with excitement about wearing makeup.

We took a taxi to go meet Nick for dinner at a beachside seafood restaurant. We shared a big plate of grilled lobster and watched the sun go down.

Nick’s alter ego of Jimmy Buffet came out. He ordered a passion fruit cocktail and a beer at the same time and talked about how he wished we were staying here longer. The man loves the beach bum lifestyle. My drink was served in a coconut.

The restaurant had a DJ and as we were leaving Jimmy Buffet Jr. said “Let’s dance!”

She then spent 15 minutes barefoot dancing in the waves. It was so beautiful and joyful. As Gen Z says, it was a core memory. I hope when I’m older and think back to this trip, this is one of the moments that pop up.