Bahamas 2025-Day 9-January 23, 2025

 Today was the day we had scheduled an escursion! We have a sailboat with snorkeling!

We left at 8:30 for our 9:45 appointment since traffic was often not great. Traffic was fairly slow and when we arrived, there didn't seem to actually be any parking at the dock. Luckily some local guys let us park in a spot right by the ferry and we were there in plenty of time.

We enjoyed the ride out and sat inside for awhile at the back of the boat and also in the front where it was nice and breezy.

The boat stopped at a spot where there are sea turtles so we watched those for awhile.

Next stop was snorkeling. Frank and I both snorkeled and Rob joined us for awhile. There was a nice reef and we saw lots and lots of colorful fish! I enjoyed it a lot.

My main issue was that I had to pee soooo bad. I felt like my bladder would burst.

I am paddling around in the ocean so you'd think I could just...do it. But no, I couldn't.

I finally admitted to Frank that we had to go in because of this and he laughed so much at me. He said, "Just go in the ocean! Just tell me before you do it so I can swim away"

But I literally could not do it.

Anyway we went back to the boat and I rushed to the bathroom. I was scurrying down the ladder when one of the crew told me to stop and dry off before going down so I don't slip! LOL 

I was so frantic but I did it and I made it safely to the bathroom. 

TMI but there you go.

Next we had lunch on the boat which is always delicious after swimming.

Lunch was ribs, chicken, rice & peas (a Bahamian thing that was served everywhere), salad and rolls

The final stop of the day was a small island, Rose Island, where we were supposed to spend a couple of hours enjoying the beach and ocean.

At this point the wind had picked up and the waves were pretty serious.

The had to anchor fairly far from the beach and told people to be careful when going down the ladder as the boat was moving quite a lot with the waves and they didn't want the ladder to hit anyone.

I watched the girl ahead of me (she was quite tall and a bigger girl) sort of jump out from the ladder and make her way in so that seemed like a good idea.

I went down the ladder and the waves were really big! I tried to wait til it calmed down a bit but also felt like I was holding people back so I finally just jumped.

Well...the girl before me was a lot taller than me and I could not touch the bottom!

I wasn't particularly worried and just started swimming.

But I was going no where. 

Another big wave came and pushed me back under the boat.

The guy on the boat was yelling "kick! kick! kick!"

I and just yelled back "I am!"

I kind of grabbed the ladder and tried to push myself back out.

Another wave came and pushed me toward shore. I was very discombobulated but came up and could stand. One of the boat workers was there and kind of grabbed hold of me.

Frank had already gotten off and was standing in the shallow watching all of this.

He yelled "Where are your glasses?"

And I realized my prescription sunglasses had gotten ripped off.

The boat hand grabbed my glasses which were apparently on top of my head and smashed them onto my face...right then we were hit by another big wave which completely bowled me over and churned me under the water like crazy. I have no idea if it knocked over the boat dude but I assume not.

When I emerged, I was covered head to toe in sand and the glasses were, once again, lost.

I was pretty embarrassed and my little tumble convinced Diana to just stay on the boat.

Most of the other passengers waited a bit for the waves to die down before attempting it.

But in the end I was the only one to have such a dramatic exit.

Frank was concerned for my safety but had a good laugh at how completely covered in sand I was (once he realized I was fine physically). I tried to rinse off a bit but found sand in my ears and scalp for days afterwards.

We walked around on the island a bit but the captain decided the surf was too rough and blew the horn for us to return to the boat. 

I was a little nervous to return but figured my mistake had been swimming not walking. So I determined to keep my feet on the ground no matter how deep the water and I did make it back on the boat with no incident!

After we got back on the boat, the guy who had grabbed me in the water came up and said, "Did someone lose some glasses?" and he produced my sunglasses!!

I couldn't believe he found them in the water.

That was pretty awesome. 

I thanked him for saving both my life and my glasses!

We had a nice boat ride back and even went pretty close to a humongous cruise ship and watched it depart.

We were back on shore by about 5 pm

(car was safe and sound in our parking spot)

We decided to hit the favorite Meze Grill for dinner.

Diana and I each ordered different pastas and shared them and so we had leftovers for lunch the next day.

We ordered another 30 layer cake but shared it this time.

After we got home we enjoyed a lovely sunset and Frank enjoyed another coconut!

It was a fun and eventful day!

Bahamas 2025- Day 8-January 22, 2025

The day started off windy and rainy. The guys fishing trip was first postponed and then cancelled due to rough water/bad conditions.

We decided to pump up the paddle boards and give them a try. It was a fair amount of work to just get one of them pumped up. Then we realized that we only had one paddle! ha!

So Frank and I shared a paddle board and did a little paddling around. Then I went by myself for awhile. The water was pleasant. 

Our backyard:

We took a few pictures from the paddle board back to the house

Later in the day we talked Diana into going on the paddle board for a bit as well:

It got kind of windy and with only one paddle, we had trouble getting back in. Luckily the water is very shallow and Frank walked out and helped tow us back in!

For dinner that night we finally made it to the restaurant we had tried to eat lunch at (that Frank found online) Nesbit's. Lots of locals there and dinner was pretty darn yummy.

We went out for Ice Cream and had another show before bed.

Bahamas 2025-Day 7-January 21, 2025

Tuesday, January 21st we went to the Clifton National Park. We planned to spend the day with tours of the old plantation as well as snorkeling and swimming. When we arrived we found out it was cash only so we had to run off to find an ATM which took us a little while. While gone we bought some Subway sandwiches for lunch and some drinks.

We missed the official tour while we were off getting money so we opted to just do a self tour of the grounds. It was HOT. We saw the gardens and the old slave quarters. It's always hard to see old slave quarters and things like that. I don't understand how we humans can treat each other so badly.

We were plenty hot by then and super happy to head toward the beach. It was just gorgeous!

We walked to the beach where the snorkeling was. There was a sculpture garden in the water and we were excited to see it. Supposedly it's been used in various movies as well. Frank and I snorkeled out (water was a little rough, we were glad to have our fins) and saw the sculptures as well as a reef nearby. It was enjoyable but the sculptures were a little underwhelming. We thought "garden" meant lots and lots but there were only about 4 big-ish sculptures and several concrete balls to help create a reef. The reef itself had quite a lot of fish which was nice.

In order to get into the water we had to walk though at least a foot high pile of seaweed. It was gross and I wish I'd gotten a picture of it!

We spent a little time just enjoying the lounge chairs and eating our lunch and then we walked to the next beach down the road.

We relaxed there for some time before the park closed and we had to leave for the day.

The guys have a plan to go on a fishing trip tomorrow

Bahamas 2025-Day 5 and 6-January 19 and 20, 2025

 Sunday in the Bahamas

Of course as it's Sunday it was a low key day.

We found a local ward meeting and went there. I planned to join the group but when we entered the chapel it was small and quite perfumey. So I went back out to the foyer. Of course a bunch of people came in late so the foyer was pretty packed. The most perfumed lady that came in came over to welcome me...which was super nice but also cemented the headache to be. Anyway, after the sacrament, I went out and sat in the van while the meeting continued. Apparently the mission president was there and gave a good talk so I'm glad everyone else got to hear him. I opened all the doors to the van and there was a lovely breeze so I had a nice relaxing time. I took some meds that I brought with me.

We made lunch at home. I napped due to the headache and eventually felt good enough to go outside and relax in the shade by the pool.

We decided to take a Sunday drive and found a beach near Adelaide Village. The beach had tons of huge Conch shells but wasn't really the kind of beach you could relax on...lots of seaweed and other flotsam. We walked around but didn't stay long. We realized that we must be quite close to our next airbnb which made us a little nervous because the area seemed kind of dilapidated with razor wire etc on the fences. We decided not to find the airbnb but let it be a surprise.

Monday January 20th was the day to move to the second Airbnb on the other side of the island. We spent the morning packing up. This airbnb had a guy that seemed to be combination of worker and property security guard. He was always working: painting something or doing yard work! Seemed like a hard working guy. I thought he was the owner at first but when I asked he said no, he just worked there. We left him a good tip and he was appreciative.

We decided to play some pickleball before heading to the other side of the island. We were just walking around before our time came up and saw a couple playing by themselves. We asked if they wanted to play doubles and they did! We took turns playing with them (since we had 3) and had a really nice time playing for a couple of hours.

We drove over to our new place around noon and the owner met us there. She was so sweet and she showed us around. It was, indeed, very close to the beach we were at the day before. The property is all fenced in and we were told to lock the gate anytime we left. But she said that she stayed here all the time by herself and always felt perfectly safe. That was good to hear.

The little house was quite cute and sits right on the beach!  The ocean on this side was less wild and just very calm and shallow really far out. It was lovely!

She told us that we were welcome to any of the coconuts on the tree and Frank picked several to put in the fridge for later

There was a machete available but turned out to be pretty dull. Frank had to work hard to get his coconut water!

We knew about a restaurant in this little village (had good reviews) so we decided to go for lunch. But it was not open...so we found a little mom and pop place just a few blocks away and had lunch there. The place was called Da Spot and seems like lots of locals like to eat there. We told them that we would definitely be back!

We spend the afternoon just enjoying our lovely spot. We had lounge chairs outside where we could sit and read or nap. We walked along the beach and waded in the water a bit.

Da Spot was so much cheaper than anything else we'd done that we decided to get take out for dinner. When the guys walked in I'm sure the owners were surprised to see us twice in one day. We weren't kidding when we said we'd be back.

Bahamas 2025-Day 4-January 18, 2025

 We went to the local Baja Mar resort to play pickleball today. It was super hot but we had a fun time.

I took no other pictures of this day. sad.

We tried to go to lunch at a place that Frank had seen that had good reviews. When we arrived, they said they weren't serving lunch yet. So we went across the street to the beach, which was lovely. We walked in the shallow water and enjoyed the sand. We found lots of shells there. 

There was a little food stand there on the beach and the guy was out barbecuing. It looked amazing. I thought we should just eat there but everyone wanted to try that other restaurant. So we waited until lunch was officially started and walked back over. 

As soon as we entered, the lady immediately came over and said, "lunch isn't ready yet. It will be at least 30 more minutes"

So we went back across the street to the food truck. I had jerk chicken with sides of corn on the cob and macaroni and cheese. It was sooo delicious and the right choice! Plus we ate right on the beach!

We went home and did laundry, took naps and I did more reading by the pool. Frank actually swam a bit but it was too cold for me (ridiculous since I supposedly want to do cold plunging!)

Dinner that night was a nice restaurant right on the water called "The Poop Deck"

I have no memory of what I ate there. Probably chicken. LOL

That night we introduced Diana and Rob to "Severance". I always think a show is so good til I show someone else and then all of a sudden there is so much cursing! UGH

Bahamas 2025-Day 3-January 17, 2025

We started the day just relaxing for the morning. I did more reading by the pool. 

We hit a local grocery store for TP (our airbnb had only one roll and no extras per bathroom), dish and laundry soap (none provided)

In the afternoon we decided to go to cabbage beach. It was supposed to be a happening place and we were able to rent chairs there but there was no food to be purchased and the waves were very high. Frank got himself another coconut though and we lounged for awhile. We were hungry for lunch but luckily I had a few snacks in my bag. Rob and Frank braved the water but Rob got rolled really good by a big wave. I stayed on my chair and read. We also walked along the beach for awhile. It was a nice afternoon.

We went home and showered before dinner

Dinner was back to Meze Grill

All of the meals were amazing as expected and expensive as expected. 

I got the "30 layer cake" for dessert and was shocked at how big it was! it lasted me days of desserts!

It was very yummy!

After dinner we played games again: Sequence and 5 crowns

We watched a Netflix move: Back in Action

Bahamas 2025-Day 2-January 16, 2025

We decided to do a walking tour of Nassau downtown area today.

I'm already a nervous passenger in any car, but put me on the "wrong" side of the road and I'm a mess. I decided to try reading a book anytime we were in the car and just NOT pay attention to what was going on  around me. I wasn't 100% successful but it did help quite a lot actually!

But driving in the downtown roads which are narrow and full of pedestrians was not great for me. We did eventually find a parking lot (I much prefer that to street parking)  and began our walking tour.

During the morning we saw Straw Market, Museum of Bahama, Queen's Staircase, Fort Fincastle

It seemed like endless people and booths. Most booths had the exact same sorts of things. I no longer buy souvenirs when I travel. I prefer a t-shirt or a Christmas ornament to remember. But straw market sure was interesting!

The Museum of the Bahamas was super interesting! The volunteer there was a Bahamian from many generations back. He had so many interesting stories and facts. The Bahamas was sort of started by the Loyalists during the Revolutionary War. And They have a much different perspective on the revolution!

From there we went to the Queen's staircase. This place seems to have varying information on how it was built. Some say Free men did the work and others say enslaved people did. It's a really interesting and cool place to see. The amount of work to accomplish it is staggering.

Fort Fincastle:

Frank got himself his first fresh coconut. One of his favorite things!

At this point we were hungry so we went to lunch which was very expensive as usual.

After lunch we walked some more streets of downtown and decided to see the Graycliff Chocolate tour and John Waitling Distillery Tour

The chocolate tour was fun and informative. It came with some delicious samples as well! Diana decided to be brave and try the onion one and said she did not recommend it! ha!

We went back to our lodgings for afternoon naps and I sat by the pool and read, which was lovely.

Dinner was a Mexican place nearby called Mexicaba. It was fine, nothing to write home about...very much like a chipotle here.

We hit the DQ next door where I had my usual hot fudge sundae for desert.

Frank and Diana played a game at night. I think I played one game but was mostly just tuckered out.