National Lampoon's Bahamian Vacation

Let me just say that Nick and I had a WONDERFUL time on our vacation!!!  We were both so relaxed sans cell phones, internet, jobs, and [hate to say it] baby.  Even though we had an amazing time....let me tell you there were a few bumps in the road....to say the least.

Let's start with two days before we left - the two days that were jam packed with packing, cleaning, more packing, laundry, and more packing....all while entertaining and keeping a teething 10 month old happy...I got sick.  It was just a cold but man, that darn cold knocked me out.  I was hoping that it would make its way through me before we left for vacation and that Gabi wouldn't get it.  Neither of those things happened.

I was still sick and dropping our sweet baby off at Grandma and Grandpas before we left to spend the night in Detroit for our early flight the next day.  I didn't even cry this time [YAY for not be a total basket case of a mother]!  As we were getting all of Gabi's stuff unpacked at G&G's, Billie happened to ask how many bottles we brought.  Instantly I thought, "none".  In all of the junk I packed for her I didn't remember to pack ANY bottles.  Nick had to run to the store to buy more, so 45 minutes and $30 later we finally left for Detroit. 

We got to our hotel fine and they even put us in a jacuzzi room for no extra charge....not that I could enjoy it.  I strategically NyQuil-ed myself so I would pass out as soon as we got in the room.  The next morning I woke up and completely lost my voice.  So convenient to be on a cozy vacation with the hubby and not be able to speak to him.  We took our flight down to Miami and then had about an hour layover before we took a little plane down to the Bahamas - or actually it WOULD have been about an hour layover if Tropical Storm Nicole hadn't decided to hang out between Florida and the Bahamas for a few hours. 

They eventually let our teeny tiny plane take off during the storm and Nick came about thisclose to losing his $16 airport lunch all of that teeny tiny plane as it turbulenced its way through the tropical storm.  We made it.

Our shuttle finally pulls up to the resort and as Nick puts it...."giant dump".  The resort was less than impressive, definitely a few steps down from the other all-inclusives we have been to for relatively the same amount of money.  The storm was still coming through and would down pour on and off.  The place looked deserted....all of the buildings were boarded up and it looked abandoned.  There was a puddle of water on the floor in our room.

We went to bed early and got up early the next morning - thank you adulthood for depriving us of the ability to sleep past 7:30am.  The next three and a half days that we were there we had amazing weather!  I felt better our first day there and enjoyed good health for the rest of the trip.  It was in the high 80's with sunshine....just gorgeous.  The resort looked a bit better the next day.  The pool was nice and the beach was great so that's about all that mattered.  We were determined to make the absolute best out of our vacation and kept super busy!  At the resort they had a trapeze with trapeze lessons so Nick and I both did that on my actual birthday.  It was so scary!!  We did a regular swing, then swung upside down by our knees, then back down to hanging and did a back flip off.  Nick didn't do the back flip but he did everything else!

We had to get get some drinks after we were done with that.... :)
 

We went into the little city that night to go out for my birthday and had some great food. We discovered something really good served down there - skordalia.  It's an almond, potato, garlic paste you serve with pita bread and it's delish!  I'm even going to attempt to make it this weekend.  We also tried a local specialty - conch balls and fried conch - not that great.  After our dinner our waitress surprised me with homemade pineapple and coconut ice cream!  I usually really don't like coconut, but the ice cream was made from scratch and quite good. 

Conch balls

Homemade coconut pineapple ice cream

   

The rest of our trip was spent laying in the shade by the beach,, swimming in the pool, snorkeling in the ocean, reading a good book, and eating & drinking of course!  Our last full day there we went swimming with the dolphins!  That was so cool....we literally swam around and the dolphins followed us.  We pet them, hugged them, kissed them, swam with them, and got them to do tricks.  They taught us different hand gestures to get them to do different things.  They could either splash us, talk and squeak, or spin in a circle.  It was a really neat experience and we both had fun doing it.  We didn't pay for the fancy $20 pictures they took of us with the dolphins, but I got some pictures of them with the really janky underwater disposable camera we were forced to buy because I forgot both of my cameras in the hotel.  Duh!

A pirate ship what was used in making Pirates of the Caribbean!

They also had some birds and other things to look at.  The picture is absolutely horrid, but there is actually a bird on my arm if you look close : /

So, as we already mentioned, the resort was less than stellar.  One particular incident illustrated it all - we had a late "reservation" one night at the Japanese restaurant at the resort.  It took forever to be seated and for someone to even bring us water.  There were two choices on the menu, one of which they were out of.  We got our food but we were both still hungry after we were finished!  We went over to the buffet to get a late snack and it was about five or ten minutes before they closed.  We got our food and went to sit down when one of the guys who worked there ("Jerome") ran over to us and said that hey were closed.  Obviously not, if we just got food.  Then he changed his mind and rushed us over to a DIRTY table with USED silverware on it and tried to get us to sit down and use the used silverware.  He insisted it was fine and to just sit there.  Nick finally had to yell at him like "The silverware is DIRTY and we're not using it!!!"  Finally "Jerome" went and got clean silverware for us, though at that point we were both so mad and couldn't hardly believe what just happened.  Haha, I told you we had some stories!

 Not so happy as the Japanese restaurant......

Staying cool under the cabana

 

 

 Nick didn't bring any sandals so he has to get the really cool pair at the hotel gift shop......

And of course we had to get something for our princess back home, so she got an elephant coconut bank :)

Also, I had bought a big international calling card before we left so I could call my baby everyday and see how she was doing.  Too bad we had to activate our hotel phone with our credit card (not gonna happen) and then get charged out the wazoo.  Pay phones in the city did not work and we ended up just using our cell phones to quickly call home a couple of times.  I did get a little sad when I heard my girl was sick in Michigan, but she was ok....and so was I when Nick scolded me to get it together :)   

Anyway, we had such a good time with many memorable moments :)  Gabi did end up getting sick for the couple days she was with Grandma Billie but was mostly better for her days with Jason and Corinne.  We got home late Sunday night and Monday Gabi just wasn't quite herself.  Today, though, she is totally back to normal and we're having a good day!